In the 1990s, singer/rapper
Alex Ebert and guitarist Tim "Timmy the Terror" Anderson worked together under various names including 13's Lucky, The Window Club, and Eiffel Tower Window Masters before deciding on the band name Ima Robot. The phrase "Ima Robot" came from an inside joke between members of the band, which Ebert has stated "was something that we thought was really, really, really, really funny, and I can't, for the life of me, remember why." In 1997, the duo recruited keyboardist/bassist Oliver "Oligee" Goldstein. The trio would perform with various frequently changing members until they recruited drummer Rich Lambert in December 2000 and bassist
Justin Meldal-Johnsen in November 2001. The band recorded numerous untitled demo CDs through the late 90s and early 2000s.
Signing with Virgin Records In mid- to late-2002, Ima Robot was signed to
Virgin Records. As Ebert described, the first thing
Virgin Records Chairman/CEO said about the band: "The first thing
Matt Serletic said was that seeing us was like seeing
the Ramones for the first time, and that he felt this kind of energy that we needed to capture and not try to gloss and glean over." Lambert was let go the day after the band was signed and was replaced by studio drummer
Joey Waronker.
Ima Robot On September 16, 2003, Ima Robot released their first full-length
album, the self-titled
Ima Robot. The album featured the singles "Dynomite" and "Song #1" (released in the
UK only). In 2004, Waronker and "Oligee" left the band. Meldal-Johnsen followed in 2005, with former
Oleander drummer
Scott Devours. Tim Anderson's cousin, whom he had never met before Devours, auditioned and took over the drums. Filip Nikolić took over the bass and Andy Marlow started playing the keyboards.
Search and Destroy In the process of writing their second album, the band put together the EP "Search and Destroy", which they released and distributed independently at shows starting on April 5, 2006. The songs it contained were covertly written by Alex, Tim, Filip and Justin behind closed doors while the second album was in production. The song "Sing Boy" is an example of Ebert's self-reflective mantras throughout his songwriting in the band, and dives into the theme that their time being signed was undesired and restrictive of their creative freedom.
Monument to the Masses On September 12, 2006, they released their second album
Monument to the Masses, which featured the singles "Creeps Me Out" and "Lovers in Captivity". The record contains 12 songs which further dive into self-reflection, with tracks such as "Pouring Pain" and "Happy Annie". To further lean into this, the song "Chip Off the Block" was a reprise of a song the band had written more than 5 years prior, and acted as a reflective piece to their more prolific earlier days writing music. Alex Ebert is not credited by name in the album's included booklet main credits page. Instead of this, he uses the moniker "
Edward Sharpe."
Departure from Virgin Records and post-departure In April 2007, the band finally won their independence from Virgin Records and continued to work unsigned under the management of Alexis Rivera of Echo Park Records. The song "Gangster" premiered on the band's
MySpace on April 15, 2008, with its lyrics posted in a blog entry by the band. In 2010 the band announced the upcoming release of their new album, ''Another Man's Treasure'', and released the song "Ruthless" on the Internet. Ebert remained frustrated with Virgin, saying in a 2016 interview with Transverso Media that, "pretty unironically I ended up feeling like a robot by the end of the process because of the major label thing." During that period, they were being represented by the Werewolf Heart label. In June 2008, Lars Vognstrup joined the group, having previously played with Nikolić in the band
Junior Senior. In 2009,
Orpheo McCord (of
Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros and of
Fool's Gold), Jason "ComputerJay" Taylor, and Jonas Petri Megyessi joined the band. On January 6, 2011, the band played six songs live on
KCRW's
Morning Becomes Eclectic. This was the first time since
Monument to the Masses tours that the new band lineup had played live. Ima Robot's B-side "Greenback Boogie" from the album ''
Another Man's Treasure was featured as the theme song of the USA Network legal drama, Suits'', for its full duration from 2011 to 2019. The band has been inactive since 2011 as its members have been busy with side projects. Alex Ebert has stated that he is "still in Ima Robot." On March 28, 2025, Ima Robot released a deluxe edition of ''Another Man's Treasure'', featuring the previously unreleased songs "I Don't Know in French", "Gangster", and "Peru". Later that year, on October 22, the band announced that their 2006 EP
Search and Destroy would be receiving an official re-release on digital platforms and vinyl on November 14. == Band members ==