Interview with musicians ‘My Favorite Robot’

Canadian duo My Favorite Robot are celebrating ten years on the circuit by branching out with a brand-new sister imprint. Entitled MFR Red, it will deal in single track, club focussed releases with dance floor impact. In addition, they are taking to the road on an extensive tour during 2018. MFR Red’s much anticipated debut track, ‘Femur Loveseat’ will be available on January 26th.

Jared Simms and Voytek Korab make up My Favorite Robot, and began the original My Favorite Robot imprint in 2008. They have since released music for artists such as Tim Paris, Jori Hulkkonen, Chloe, Michael J Collins, Kenny Glasgow, Fairmont, Phonogenic, Andrew Grant, and Tiger Stripes, as well as a string of their own releases.

We caught up with them for insight into The Robot process…

To those not familiar with you, how would you describe your sound?

Indy electronic melody driven music for the right kind of pretentious folks 😉

What are the 5 albums that have influenced you the most?

Joy Division’s Unknown Pleasures, The Cure’s Disintegration, Massive Attack’s Mezzanine, Underworld’s Beaucoup Fish, Radiohead’s Kid A.

What techniques do you experiment with to form your sound?

We just try to write meaningful music that we hope can stand the test of time and stay away from the disposable, the boring and the familiar.

Are there any key pieces of equipment that you can’t live without?

We always try to mess with new equipment for new songs but we’re definitely partial to Roland synths like the Juno, Jupiter and our 808

What are some of your key influences in your music? Whether it be the sound created by others, imagery, films or any kind of art form.

The post punk era plays a big role in our music as does the shoegaze era and we think it definitely can be heard in most of our productions. It always seems to be present in our approach to writing.

Jean Michel Jarre said “Music is the human treatment of sounds.” How do you interpret this?

Well that would mean that in a sense we are the filter of how all sounds get interpreted and presented to others of our kind. It’s neat that humans have for so long found a way to arrange sounds in patterns and rhythms and be so entertained by it all.

What has been a memorable highlight in your career so far?

Our album “Atomic Age” from 2013 stands out as it allowed us to be a live act for a while and perform actual songs, something that we hope to bring back again as soon as time allows.

If you could work with, or perform alongside any artist of your choice, who would it be?

Jonny Greenwood or Anthony Rother

If you weren’t a musician what would you be?

Let’s hope we’ll never have to find out.