Through his work as RobinPlaysChords, as a member of the transatlantic duo The Companions, and as the founder of Tiergarten Records, Robin Jax has spent years attempting to come to terms with the person he was, the person he could have been, and the person he desired to become. During live performances, he donned a mask โ a filter through which he could convey music that had previously been anchored in a very internalized mental state. Six years after the magical Teardrop Girl-Star LP, a post-apocalyptic fantasy of an album, Unmasking is RobinPlaysChordsโ first significant shift in musical direction. It is an album of geography, humanity, flesh, blood, and bone that has been tempered by world events that demonstrate that truth is stranger than fiction.
โUnmaskingโ is an album about autistic self-awareness, rooted in geography, humanity, flesh, blood, and bone, and tempered by world events that indicate truth is stranger than fiction. It comprises drums recorded in a church crypt by Max Doohan (Another Sky/Night Tapes), was mixed by Daniel Knowler (The Shining Tongues/The Infinite Three), and was mastered by Peter Junge in a studio in a castle. Check out the album and the exclusive interview with RobinPlaysChords below:
1. Can you tell us a bit about where you come from and how it all got started?
ROBINPLAYSCHORDS: Conception? Birth?
I can pinpoint singing a TV theme tune in a French lesson as the beginning, as that led to being in a band with classmates. We did some rehearsals, then broke up for school holidays. When we got back together as a band seven weeks later, the guitarist admitted to not having played since the last rehearsal, so I felt that I needed to have an instrument under my belt, and all of the music that made me want to write my own material was built around guitars.
I got a Telecaster in 2004 and began writing songs myself. Taking charge of my own writing, not leaving anything to wayward band members or prescriptive ideas of genre, was a hugely important change to make.
2. Did you have any formal training or are you self-taught?
ROBINPLAYSCHORDS: Nearly all self-taught in that I mostly learnt on my own without much formal tuition, but I learnt from playing along with the records I loved, and those were teachers in their own way. Props as well to those who kept MX Tabs open as long as they did.
3. Who were your first and strongest musical influences and why the name โROBINPLAYSCHORDSโ?
ROBINPLAYSCHORDS: My first influences came out of my parentโs record collections. My dad kept a fair few vinyl records and my mum had tapes; between them, they picked up a few new CDs here and there that grew my listening tastes โ EELS, Bjรถrk, the first Mermaid Avenue record by Billy Bragg & Wilco.
As of late, the basic FFO that I give to people who havenโt heard RobinPlaysChords before is Placebo, Cocteau Twins, Sigur Rรณs, Low, Zelienople, Swans, Planning for Burial, most of The Flenserโs catalogue. Covers most of the ground.
Regarding the name RobinPlaysChords, my brother had been playing guitar for a year or two before I started, and there was a bit of sibling rivalry in terms of our learning and progress. I learnt more rhythm parts and alternate tunings whilst my brother wanted to be a lead player and play more single note patterns. I now do all of those things as well, but the playing of chords is still very important!
4. What do you feel are the key elements in your music that should resonate with listeners, and how would you personally describe your sound?
ROBINPLAYSCHORDS: The Mฤori word for autism is takiwฤtanga, which is a derivation of a phrase meaning โin their own time and spaceโ. I think thatโs the perfect description for RobinPlaysChords.
5. For most artists, originality is first preceded by a phase of learning and, often, emulating others. What was this like for you? How would you describe your own development as an artist and music maker, and the transition towards your own style?
ROBINPLAYSCHORDS:
My wife noted that I didnโt often write for my own voice in the past, and sometimes still have the idea that Iโm a cherubic choir-type, when thatโs really not the case. I canโt sing like Jรณnsi and I shouldnโt try to do that all the time.
Finding my own style as a guitarist was a very wobbly path. For the first eight years or so, I didnโt own any pedals of my own, but I knew I needed them if I was to go back on stage and be representive of the songs Iโd written. The launch of the original Ditto (TC Electronicโs most basic looping pedal) made playing live a possibility. With that came a growing pedal board full of sounds that arenโt chained together in a textbook way. Taking that and performing solo meant having to play in an entirely different way to the standard singer-songwriter approach, or being a piece of a band.
6. Whatโs your view on the role and function of music as political, cultural, spiritual, and/or social vehicles โ and do you try and affront any of these themes in your work, or are you purely interested in music as an expression of technical artistry, personal narrative, and entertainment?
ROBINPLAYSCHORDS:
I know, as a musician who โ through diagnosis and personal reckoning โ identifies as autistic, that itโs important to confront this and that this confrontation might be something that is meaningful to a listener who hears something in the music that takes them another step along the path to diagnosis and/or self-realisation. Representation matters. We donโt live in a vacuum; music really can reflect or refract the lights from the society we live in.
7. Do you feel that your music is giving you back just as much fulfillment as the amount of work you are putting into it or are you expecting something more, or different in the future?
ROBINPLAYSCHORDS:
Fiscally, music has taken more from me than itโs given back. Beyond that, with years of listening, playing, applying lessons from music to other disciplines and areas of life, itโs been pretty giving.
8. Could you describe your creative processes? How do usually start, and go about shaping ideas into a completed song? Do you usually start with a tune, a beat, or a narrative in your head? And do you collaborate with others in this process?
ROBINPLAYSCHORDS:
Most of the songs do come to me in a fairly full form. I loop a part, play one or two things over it and the structure comes together very quickly. The hardest part is then the musical equivalent of dotting the iโs and crossing the tโs. I can be a paralysing self-editor.
โUnmaskingโ was mostly recorded in 2020, I sent pre-drum versions to a friend for advice, and then nothing happened for a year. I knew that the end drum parts needed skilled hands, but I didnโt know how to communicate what I wanted to do with it. I went into a rehearsal space in December 2021 after the multiple lockdowns, hit a practice kit and recorded that, and that was the way that I got it across. Max [Doohan, Another Sky/Night Tapes] did a brilliant job of working with that on the final drum tracks.
9. What has been the most difficult thing youโve had to endure in your life or music career so far?
ROBINPLAYSCHORDS:
The invasion of Ukraine directly affected my family and friends. There was nothing easy about it then and it hasnโt gotten easier since.
10. On the contrary, what would you consider a successful, proud or significant point in your life or music career so far?
ROBINPLAYSCHORDS: Anything that gets finished is a success. โUnmaskingโ feels like a high point musically. I sang with Wolfgang Buttressโ BE Plays project at Coventry Cathedral in 2017 and because of that, I get to say that I sang with 50,000 bees. Not many other people can say that!
I also owe a lot to Spectra Arts Company, who I joined in 2019. Working with them has made me better in many ways.
11. With social media having a heavy impact on our lives and the music business in general, how do you handle criticism, haters, and/or naysayers in general? Is it something you pay attention to, or simply ignore?
ROBINPLAYSCHORDS: Never indulge the indulgent. Thereโs a reason itโs called toxicity. Constructive criticism may have merits, but considerate delivery of it seems few and far between.
12. Creative work in a studio or home environment, or interaction with a live audience? Which of these two options excites you most, and why?
ROBINPLAYSCHORDS: Different beasts. Studio work is way more comfortable for me, just to have as many things to play with as possible and to finely tune my ideas (and my expressions of those ideas).
13. Do you think is it important for fans of your music to understand the real story and message driving each of your songs, or do you think everyone should be free to interpret your songs in their own personal way?
ROBINPLAYSCHORDS: For RobinPlaysChords, it helps to have the original themes and context, but from there, some of it is open to intepretation. I canโt tell you everything, and imaginations are strange things.
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