Uncle Bobby is extremely talented 17 year old Robert Downie who mixes glitchy electronica with indie pop and psychedelic jams. In an article earlier this year a writer called him “one of the most promising understudies of this ultimate league.” And his debut LP titled Flick My Switch definitely lives up to our expectations.
A little Unknown Mortal Orchestra, a little Passion Pit and a little Tame Impala-esque, Flick My Switch was all recorded in Downie’s bedroom who experimented with a number of instruments from guitars and synths to trombones and bass, to create the wavering skies of lush psychedelica you’re hearing now.
To celebrate the release of this incredibly promising LP, Downie has given us a track by track run down on meanings behind, and making of Flick My Switch. For more info you can check out Uncle Bobby on Facebook.
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In The Sun
“This song was written about someone very close to me, and talks about how you can spend so much time with someone and never get sick of it. The swirling guitars, sub bass tones and old skool break beat loops mesh together to create this chilled out spacey jam.”
Flies Against My Wall
“This track was written as a musical reflection. It’s about listening, and showing people appreciation when it’s needed, which is all the time. It also talks about the joy that we all should receive from doing something to benefit someone else.”
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Nothing At All
“A bit of a hard punch in the face after the last song, with glitchy electronic beats and a harsh fuzzy bass, inspired by Arabic and Indian music. This song is quite a journey, and I imagine crawling through a desert, with transformers and crazy magical stuff happening. To me this song is about believing that everything is real, and being told the truth, but never being able to prove it fully. Maybe your brain is hiding the truth from you. I actually have no idea what the lyrics mean, but they sound cool.”
The Captain’s Forest Bed
“This smooth floating synthesised track is about colonisation, and a crew of seamen destroying and burning an newly discovered land for their own benefit. I find fire mesmerising, and I love the winter time, so this song partially reflects my love for that, as well as the danger of flames too.”
Extrasolar Sunflower Constellations
“Space and time fascinate me. The universe is so huge, but is created with such beautiful precise detail. This single from the album attempts to encapsulate that. Around the corner is another world, and every direction you turn and every choice you make ultimately will give you a different outcome. Life is like a giant fractal zoom.”
In The North Of Kuwait
“This was written a long time before all the others. It was the first song that I’d written of this folky kind of style that I liked, and is a little out of place here, but I think it still works. It features a box of paper clips as a shaker, and a door slam with a bunch of effects on it for a nice tribal drum sound, and that ukulele that my sister still has…”
Get Up
“Although the lyrics sort of allude to staying in bed, or relaxing all day, I think the song is about more than just being awake. It’s about being aware of your surroundings, and trying to be a part of the world. “Reality” isn’t just coming out of a dream, it’s coming out of your own head. This song is pretty heavily influenced by swing music, using a classic swing chord progression, as an homage to my love of jazz.”
Rest Your Head
“After all the hard work that one does, one should find time to rest and reflect, and store your thoughts on paper rather than let them clog up all of your brains. This song features some gritty guitars tuned to DADADD, fuzzy bass and a phat soli thing at the end on the beautiful Arabic double harmonic scale like that one in Misirlou.”
Blue Lips
“This was written for a friend’s film project. It’s about personalities changing over time, and how someone is never the same as when you first met them, but you stick with them, even through that (…most of the time). This song is a bit of a journey, going through different movements and segments, without any real structure.”
Something’s Bound to Happen
“I wrote a poem a couple of years ago, and then wrote a little ukulele tune to go with it, but never did anything with it, because I thought it sounded too much like the first song on this album. Then one day I was mucking around on my toy piano, and came up with this song, and the poem seemed to fit really nicely with it. There is a lot going on here with multiple synths, guitars, vocal parts and crazy drum beats… It’s pretty insane.”
Flick My Swich is out now, for more tunes from Uncle Bobby, music visit his Soundcloud.
