Music

While Junkyard Symphony was officially formed in 1992, the idea began in 1988 at Jonny Olsen’s high school, Bell High School in Nepean, Ontario, where he and fellow concert band musicians put aside their flutes and tubas and instead used recycled bins and bottle shakers to create an ‘Enviro-band’ for the school’s Earth Day ceremonies. It was a hit! A few years later, Jonny was performing solo with his junk instruments on the Sparks Street Mall when an Ottawa Citizen reporter took Jonny’s picture and put it on the front page the next day, calling what he did a ‘JUNKYARD SYMPHONY’. It was then that the name was born.
           During the 80’s and early 90’s, when Junkyard Symphony was developing, a popular style of music was Synth/Rock, a style that has stuck with Junkyard Symphony over the years in their show tune choices. It was therefore an easy choice to choose Synth/Rock as the defining style on the Robot Rock album that would commemorate Junkyard Symphony’s 25th anniversary.
           The title song Robot Rock, was created for Junkyard Symphony’s
12 foot recycled robot marionette, Rumblebot to dance to. There are three versions of the song, each more complex than the other, giving the Rumblebot operators three varying degrees of choreographic challenges. Other songs on the album cover themes such as recycling, space, friendship, composting, dinosaurs, electric cars, and water. The album is suitable for all ages.