created for the main performers; e.g., Robert Brown became known as Captain Robert. Since steampunk is largely derived from science fiction and fantasy literature, a fictional backstory was created to set a stage for their new music. According to that story (as told in The Wrath of Fate: Book 1 of The Airship Pirate Chronicles, by Robert Brown), the band's plane collided with a time-travelling dirigible called the HMS Ophelia, said to have been created by a Dr. Leguminous Calgori in a freak storm. The band commandeered the vessel, deciding to become airship pirates, and formed a new band from the surviving members of the crash. Much of their music since that time has been based around this fictional backstory. "The new, eclectic sound is attributed to the strange instruments and exotic musical influences lifted from the numerous locations and eras they have visited in the airship Ophelia, featuring "clockwork guitars, belly dancers, flintlock bassists, Middle-Eastern percussion, violent violin, and Tesla powered keyboards blazing in a post-apocalyptic, swashbuckling, Steampunk musical mayhem.’ In the spring of 2008, they released Lost Horizons, their first wholly steampunk-themed album, and in 2009, the band released Æther Shanties, their tenth album. A recording of a live performance of their next album, The End of Days, can be found here. Their seventh studio album was released on October 15, 2010. Popularity Now sometimes called the quintessential steampunk band, Abney Park have been featured in major news media and interviewed by several genre magazines and websites, and have been highlighted on MTV and G4TV as primary examples of the steampunk musical scene. Abney Park have performed at numerous festivals. They were the featured band at the first Steamcon in 2009 and have appeared there numerous times since. They have appeared three times at World Steam Expo, five times at Dragon*Con; also WGW, Utah Dark Arts, Bats Day, Convergence, Ravenwood Festival, Masque and Veil, Queen Mary Pyrate Daze, the Bay Area Maker Faire, and Wild Wild West Steampunk Convention. Internationally, they have made four appearances at Whitby Gothic Weekend in the UK, two appearances at Wave Gotik TReffen in Leipzig, Germany, and four at the Grand Canadian Steampunk Exposition in Ontario Canada. They have been in demand for shows in St Petersberg and Moscow, Russia, Spain, Australia, and the UK. Their music has featured in many compilation CDs, including Gilded Age Records' An Age Remembered: A Steampunk and