We Speak Music

Sprawling 9 minute Andrew Scheps produced epic from Fellow Robot!

Published

3 years ago

May 10, 2023

Don Reed

“Stuffed silly with energy but incredibly accessible for fans of all genres”- Gigwise

Against everyone’s better judgement, Californian Indie-rock group Fellow Robot released sprawling 9-minute song ‘Poppy Fields’ on 21^st April to further tease their upcoming cinematic album “Misanthropioid”.

On the decision to release such an epic track in length for a single, lead singer Anthony Pedroza explains, “It’s 9 minutes and 46 seconds I’ll have you know”. “We fully own that it’s a long song, but it’s got 3 cool sections, starts quiet but ends with this riff barrage our label guy keeps calling ‘wizard walk-on music’.”

“It’s totally wizard walk-on music. Literally, what are you guys doing?” asked JR Gast from Seattle’s Salish Sea Records, who is helping release the band’s album through Tonequake Records.

Undeterred, Anthony continues, “We had a blast recording this song, even though the lyrics are dark. One of my favorite days was when Alex Navarro (guitar), who was brand new to Fellow Robot at the time, brought something like 5 snare drums for a section that we all played together. And yes, the ending is, let’s say, orchestral. But it’s really fun to play!”.

For ‘Misanthropioid’, ‘Fellow Robot has teamed up with Andrew Scheps (Green Day, RHCP, Adele, Metallica, Hozier, Johnny Cash) who helped co-produce and mix the album from his home studio ‘Punkerpad’ in Titton, UK.

Scheps joined the team during the peak of the pandemic in 2020 and over the course of two years helped the band complete the album remotely. Fellow Robot’s latest album will be released through Scheps’ own ToneQuake Records.

Fellow Robot originally started out as a concept piece in 2016, pulling lyrics from the sci-fi novel “The Robot’s Guide to Music” written by singer Anthony Pedroza. While deeply rooted to its origins, “Misanthropioid” is an album that lives closer to reality than science fiction however blurred those lines are these days.

Fellow Robot named their new album ‘Misanthropioid’, due to its brutally honest lyrics and melancholy feelings surrounding what it is to be a human. “It’s our soundtrack to the last few years” says Pedroza, adding “it’s a diverse take on the perception of emotion, especially regarding how we feel about our fellow humans”. The band does well in reflecting their disappointment of humanity, especially in the opening track ‘Rabbit’ which is a clear reflection of the BLM movement in the US. However dark ‘Misanthropioid’ is, it’s ultimately hopeful within its vulnerable and carefully stitched arrangements. The album at times is theatrical and dramatic, each song seemingly being sung by different characters in a stage production, especially in songs like ‘I’m Going to Hell’ and ‘The People Next Door’. “Society has many voices, and the space in between the harshest opinions are the most truthful”, says drummer, engineer, and cofounder Luis Renteria.

The origins of Fellow Robot are not abandoned as lead singer Pedroza’s novel has been adapted to a graphic novel, its first chapter being released this March through Donut Sounds Record Co. based out of Seattle. The Comic book has been beautifully illustrated by Josh Wolf, and features lyrics from Fellow Robot’s previous musical releases. “FELLOW ROBOT” the comic book takes place in both the future, past and present and is a mind-blowing treat for all loyal fans of the band. Here’s a brief synopsis to whet your appetite:

Among the debris on the outskirts of Saturn is Station FR29. Aboard the station is Fellow Robot, once a magnificent machine, now in disarray with the sole purpose of saving humanity through music. Only Fellow can disrupt the discordant frequencies that his human brother has created. Weak and on the brink of death, Fellow Robot must transfer his melodies and memories to Jason the Musician starting from his creation in 1929. Fellow’s last ditch effort to save humanity is through love, a feeling that his brother Frank Jensen has long forgotten.

In Issue #1 of FELLOW ROBOT, we get a glimpse of a dystopian future and a glimmer of hope and optimism in the past. This 15 Issue Graphic Novel has elements of historical and speculative fiction from a robot’s perspective amidst epic space battles, societal commentary and of course, Science Fiction. Fellow Robot and his human brother, Frank Jensen are diametrically opposed and throughout the run the debate of nature vs nurture is explored. FELLOW ROBOT is the tale of how a machine became a hero, and how a man became a villain.

We recommend highly that you get stuck in.

We Speak Music

Michele Ducci teases new album with uplifting indie single ‘Woman Like You’

Published

21 hours ago

April 17, 2026

Don Reed

Michele Ducci has unveiled the second single, ‘Woman Like You’, from his forthcoming album and animated film ‘Snail in the Clouds’.

‘Woman Like You’ pairs bright distorted electric guitar with an electronic drumbeat, adding in Ducci’s soulful vocals and a catchy uplifting chorus with Letizia Mandoleisi’s sweet vocal harmonies. A vintage organ pedalboard operated by Ducci simultaneously generates chords, bass and rhythm, like a one-man band. Shane Kennedy (Girl in the Year Above) joins in on guitar. Simon Milner (Is Tropical, Ysing) recorded and produced the track at his 4am Studios in London.

The album and film tell the story of a planet called ‘Snail’, inhabited by hybrids – primarily a mixture between scorpions, snails and humans – who lead a life according to the style of Pythagoras, devoted to music. There is also a cloud man named Agostos, a writer of musical operettas, who together with a talking smoke machine called Doctor Subtilis, begins to kill all hybrids, targeting in particular the hybrid musician Diodoros and his band, in an effort to steal the ark of melodies, an ancient ship that allows the whole planet to survive with music and joy.

The video for the single, created and animated by Ducci and Mandoleisi, delves further into the realm of planet ‘Snail’:

Says Ducci, “The ark of melodies, after various attempts, finally starts to work and fly in the planet Snail, while the shady Doc. Sub. and Agostos, with their platoon of soldiers made of foggy smoke, spy the miracle, planning to steal the ark for their evil and tyrannical purposes.”

About the track, Michele says, “I wrote this song for my love Letizia. Love seen from the mind is the sound we make. Sound is the love of matter.

We used a Technics synthesizer organ from a flea market. I tried to find a mood that was right for the song and I started using the bass of the pedal board together with the synth and the drums, and it was magical to hear the song reveal itself all coming from a single instrument. Leti was singing with me and we recorded everything live in one shot. Then we made Shane do the guitar flight, as if he came out of the window. The idea was to maintain disproportions, guitar thrust and synth drum thinness a la Haroumi Hosono, so as to create an estrangement, but naturally: it’s about how I listen, with close up something that captures me in its nuance as element of a larger orchestra somewhere. I’m glad we decided in the studio with Simon to use the layers of arrangement as the close-ups in the cinema; they look like strange enlargements that perch on parts of a mutated orchestra. I’m happy to come back with this love song at a time when everything seems to opt, even my labor in managing the flows of selfishness that have poured out on me while doing this album, for the sound of war. I’m here happy to be able to say that the sound of love always wins as did for me. Snail in the clouds is one of the most important works in my life and I am glad to start from pure love for this album that is my son.”

The album and full-length film will be released on the 5^th of June on Monotreme Records.

Michele and Letizia’s previous musical short film, ‘The Great Book of Nature’, is an official selection for the 2026 Venice Shorts Film Festival.