Friday, 25 April 2025

The Sycamore Falls

After Neet had released one of her solo singles, Bus Pass, I felt inspired to look closer at those pre-Beatles era slowies myself:

https://youtu.be/1RW1qe8TfZM?si=QAIR55VVv3pteOyU

I've also wanted to do something along the lines of what Angelo Badalamenti and Julee Cruise did for the Twin Peaks soundtrack.  It was tried in both a swung rhythm and straight one and the straight one won.

I had one tiny idea for the lyric but Neet had a better one; The Sycamore Gap in Northumberland.  In Neet's words:

"This heartfelt song mourns the loss of the iconic Sycamore Gap tree — once a silent witness to countless memories. Its absence now echoes through the landscape it once graced. Yet its spirit lives on: in film, in the hearts of those who stood beneath it, and in song."

Neet premiered the song with her guitar at an open mike at Charlie's Loft in December 2024 and I joined her there on keyboards and bass to play it again in January and February 2025.  This was a keeper.

It has also taken us in a new direction, both musically and visually.  It's the first time that hardware instruments appear on a Nation Stole My Robots release: bass guitar and a Roland Juno 6 synth.  It's also our first video with dedicated location shooting, as Neet took her cameras to Northumberland.

https://youtu.be/IUXmr4MnE5o?si=7PPoyPnn4n5Of_LK

The song can be bought on BandCamp -

The Sycamore Falls | Nation Stole My Robots featuring Neet Neilson | Nation Stole My Robots

The song can also be played on your preferred streaming service - 

The Sycamore Falls (feat. Neet Neilson) by Nation Stole My Robots - DistroKid

Sunday, 9 March 2025

New single and starting out on live appearances

The new single from Neet Neilson and I came out at the end of February - here's the video for Rain of Diamonds:
Rain of Diamonds - YouTube

It can be bought at BandCamp:

I've also finally come around to doing stuff live.  Neet had already performed Sycamore - which we have yet to release - at Charlie's Loft in Milngavie in December 2024 but we've used the open mike events at Charlie's Loft in January and February 2025 to perform:
  • Rain of Diamonds
  • Sycamore

Plus two of my solo songs which are also yet to be released:
  • Papermoney
  • Happy Customers

I'm on the lookout for other open mike events in and around Glasgow which would be a good fit.


Saturday, 25 January 2025

Nation Stole My Robots singles

I'd made my mind up that 2024 was just going to be singles so that's how I've carried on.  I had a number of collaborations coming up but there were solo ones as well

I brought out Sub-Space as a solo instrumental out in August 2024.  All software synths come with a Blade Runner button and I found this one very quickly:

Sub Space | Nation Stole My Robots

An earlier instrumental, Make It Look Like an Accident, had gone viral on Spotify over spring and summer and people got in touch afterwards.  An artist in Guatemala, BLOOOOO, wanted to collaborate so I dusted off my schoolkid Spanish and said "sí".

Just around then, I lost patience with TuneCore, who were publishing my work for the streaming services.  Much is made of bot services that artificially inflate the number of plays you get on Spotify - 21st century payola, basically - and publishers take measures against it.  Unfortunately, the crooks running the bots will often add artists without their consent as a blackmail move and rival artists sometimes do this to each other also.  One of my tunes was added against my will to a botted playlist and I reported this to Spotify within 48 hours.  Unfortunately TuneCore put the suspicion on me and prevented me from further collaborations, while at the same time not actually revealing the details of their suspicions - which makes it very difficult for customers to defend themselves.  My year's subscription was coming up so I decided I didn't need these comedians any more.  I switched to using DistroKid in November 2024.

Now with Distrokid, I have done two singles collaborating online with BLOOOOO.  Taking turns at English and Spanish language titles, Advanced Passenger was first:
https://open.spotify.com/track/4qU8r8yI39rZitU7eHridw?si=a6ba7a1389184ed9

This was going to be called "The APT" but the Bruno Mars/ROSÉ single was announced just as we were mixing.  So much for evoking the technological future you were promised that never arrived!

Policristalino followed in January 2025:
https://open.spotify.com/track/7aLvTzwRPTJdb1w0z37AVK?si=16d5e19176614fca

All the while back here in Glasgow, there was another song written with Neet Neilson, Stealing Voices, which does recall the sounds both Neet and I grew up with:
https://open.spotify.com/track/0a4SYncbVez811pJNu28MH?si=ee0bddc1734042e5