FeedRobot Bomb Shelter Electronic Dance Beat
Written by NetBear on April 14, 2010 – 7:10 pmRobot Bomb Shelter is my electronic music hero. It’s not often that I hear a new artist whose music is full of blistering beats, like nothing like I’ve ever heard before. It’s even less often that this synthesized dance music is composed and performed by a down-to-earth bearish guy right here in San Francisco.
He’s not a DJ. He’s a musician who crafts his music from a complex mixture of synthetic rhythms and textures. These songs get your body moving while taking your mind into a space that’s new, cool and a little sci-fi.
Bearotic got the chance to sit down for a comfy chat with Jake B, also known as Robot Bomb Shelter, to find out where this electronic musician’s roots, influences and inspirations come from.
Where shall we start? How about at the beginning. Where are you from?
I was born and raised in San Diego. My father is a 12-string guitarist. So music has always been part of my life. My parents would play music from artists like Rod Stewart and Fleetwood Mac around the house. And in the 4th grade I began studying the clarinet, oboe, bassoon, bass clarinet and later the piano.
What got you interested in electronic music?
One band stands out. Front 242, the fathers of Body Music from Belgium. When I heard their music it changed my life. It was then that I realized I like everything synthesized.
What was your first synthesizer?
In 1987 I moved to Kansas City. That’s when I got my first Casio monophonic synthesizer. It had one of those mini keyboards that are now making a comeback. I had been studying music all my life. But now finally I got to play electronic music. One of the first things I did was to recreate I Ran from A Flock Of Seagulls.
What was it that you liked about that kind of music? What was next in your electronic odyssey?
I like hearing a sound that I’ve never heard before. While in college from 1988 to 1989 studying Spanish, Russian and Computer Science, I started exploring MIDI and sequencing. Later I moved out west to Reno where I met my first partner. But it was in Seattle for the next 11 years that I started studying music from a technical perspective. I saw a lot of “Press & Play” shows. But I studied everything.
During this time I started using Cubase on a PC. I bought my first computer. But I wanted to study as much as I could before presenting myself publicly. As Digibox I put a few singles into the DJ network around Seattle and started getting feedback saying that, “you just have to do it for yourself.” I took that to heart.
How did you end up in San Francisco?
On February 14th, 2002 I came to San Francisco to visit a friend. During that time my music didn’t have a lot of syncopation and not a lot of effects. I’ll call it Progressive Trance. My friend and I went to Club Universe for one of their Pleasuredome events. I was overpowered. It was just sensory overload. But I met someone on the dance floor. It was love at first sight. On March 1st of that year I love to San Francisco. By this time I was a lot more proficient at setting-up my studio. During the next five or six years I set my sights on performing onstage. But how to break into the music scene?
Where was your music at during this stage?
I was listening to a lot of French Electro like Daft Punk. They took music back down to the wave sound with no effects. I knew that this was what I wanted to do. So for the last five years I’ve been studying how electro is made and how to bring that experience to the stage. In 2006 I started putting music out for people to hear and got more feedback.
So what inspired you to get out there and perform?
In 2007 I met my partner Joe. He pushed me to get out there and market myself. He’s also a graphic artist. So it was a perfect union of music and graphics. I started putting together a concept for an album, track by track.
How did you guys come up with the Robot Bomb Shelter name?
We were house sitting and on the coffee table I saw some scribbled notes on a piece of paper. I saw the words and they simply glowed for me. All at once I knew that I had found my name. Robot Bomb Shelter defined what and how I wanted to be marketed.
What was your first album? How do you come up with your tracks?
Robot Picnic
represented my life and the struggle up to this point. For the album I came up with a concept of how each song would fit into the theme. I don’t decide on a name for a track until it’s done. Each song usually starts with a bass line. That represents the heart of the track to me. Then I move on to kick drums, high hat and other pieces of the rhythm.
Robot Picnic was completed in April 2009 and released to iTunes and Amazon.com
So how did you get your big break performing onstage?
In December of 2008 I wanted to contact local bands that could mentor me. I found this fun band named ejector on MySpace. They said that if I got together a show, they would give me the opportunity to present it onstage. It felt good to be recognized like that. I also did a Robot Bomb Shelter remix of ejector’s Get Out single.
On February 26th ejector came through on their promise. I did my first live performance at the release party for their new album On The Pages
Now I’m seeing your shows popping up all over the place.
Yeah, since the ejector party I’ve played a couple different venues around the bay area including Paradise Loft, the Elbo Room and at a benefit in Oakland at the Bench & Bar. And coming up this summer I’m performing some shows in Spain and at SF Pride. Then later this year in Japan at the Kansai Music Conference.
Wow! That’s amazing. We will certainly be watching for your next release and wish you the best of luck with all your upcoming shows.
What’s left? Oh, yeah. The music! We’ve got some excellent Robot Bomb Shelter tracks for you to listen to and download.
Aesthesticalistic (Download)
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Neurolous (Download)
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Alphabet Soup (Download)
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Particle Playground (Download)
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Get in touch with Robot Bomb Shelter at the links below to learn more about this new electronic music artist. And get on his mailing list to keep in touch with him.
Robot Bomb Shelter
On MySpace
On Twitter
On Facebook
On Reverbnation
On Last.fm
On Sonicbids
And you can buy his music from iTunes and Amazon.com
