LONELY ROBOT SHARE SOME GOOD FEELINGS
But John Mitchell warns to expect ranting.
Lonely Robot’s fourth album Feelings Are Good arrives on July 17 via InsideOut. But fans of the preceding Astronaut Trilogy are warned they shouldn’t expect more of the same musically.
Mastermind John Mitchell (Kino, Frost*, Arena, It Bites) stresses that the album represents an entirely new chapter after he was persuaded to revisit to the Lonely Robot brand following completion of the first three records.
“This is a very personal album, and whereas the other ones were quite esoteric and rather otherworldly, this one is about particular people in my life,” he explains.
“It’s been quite a cathartic album for me as it has unleashed a lot of demons. I’m quite pleased I did it.
Feelings – especially the peaks and troughs and the juxtaposition of them – are the very things which define you as a human being. I admit there’s a lot of venting on the album, but I’m very proud of it.”
To achieve the new direction, Mitchell went to great lengths to recalibrate the sound. “It’s markedly different both sonically and in the way I approached it from a production point of view,” he reports. “I reinstalled everything on the computer with completely different virtual instruments so I wouldn’t use any of the same sounds again.”
Mitchell enjoyed making the first three Lonely Robot albums, starting in 2015, but he felt the concept had come to a natural conclusion. “It is, however, nice to cut free from all that and do something new,” he reflects. “And there are no references to space on this album!
“There’s a thing in progressive rock where people tend to be misty-eyed and nostalgic about everything – but, in my opinion, there’s no point in making the same album twice.”
Feelings Are Good features his regular Lonely Robot collaborators – Liam Holmes on keyboards, Craig Blundell on drums and Steve Vantsis on bass. Mitchell is planning some live shows in the UK (Islington Assembly Hall in London), Germany and the Netherlands in December, Covid-19 restrictions permitting, but he accepts there’s no certainty as to whether it’ll pan out the way he’d like.
“If these shows happen, it will be a minor miracle,” he opines. “The word on the street is nothing is happening until next year, so if they go ahead,
I shall be most surprised.” AR
“I admit there’s a lot of venting on the album, but I am very proud of it.”