Cavetown

Cavetown has partnered with PLUS1 so that $1 from every ticket sold will go to local organizations working to support and empower the health and wellbeing of LGBTQ+ communities. www.plus1.org

• S&S Presents
• Cavetown — Running With Scissors Tour
• Chloe Moriondo
• Thursday, October 1
• Doors 6:00PM
• All Ages
• Rockwell at The Complex

For 23-year-old singer/songwriter Cavetown, making music typically involves excavating and exposing his most deeply hidden thoughts and feelings. "It’s a weird dynamic because a lot of the time I’m taking something that it’s hard for me to admit even to myself, then putting it into a song and sharing it with the entire world," says the London-based artist otherwise known as Robin Skinner.

Since self-releasing his debut single at age 16, the Cambridge-based musician/producer has steadily amassed a devoted following and brought his close-knit live show to venues across the globe. On his new album worm food, Cavetown delivers a more elaborately realized body of work, shaping his idiosyncratic storytelling into songs that give voice to intimate emotions.

worm food follows his 2021 EP Man’s Best Friend and his major-label debut Sleepyhead (2020). Skinner produced the album at his home studio, holing up in his garage and writing with the live set in mind. He performs live with a full band.

On the lead single "1994," Cavetown offers a wistful piece of pop-punk driven by mercurial guitar work. Graced with a tender vocal performance, "1994" reveals his ability to spin unsparing introspection into catchy rhyme (from the first verse: "I’m tryna love the person I was when I was born/Hating on a kid doesn’t serve me anymore").

One of the more lighthearted moments on worm food, "Frog" is a warped declaration of affection. "'Frog' is about my girlfriend," says Skinner. He explains the nickname: "When we first started dating we were both too nervous to say the words 'boyfriend' and 'girlfriend,' so one day I said to her, 'Did you know that "BF" and "GF" stand for "boy frog" and "girl frog"?' That was my silly way of asking her out, and now it’s our nickname for each other." The track includes what he calls "the frog solo," a frog-sounding synth meant to get everyone hopping along live.

On "Juno" he captures the inertia of depression while serenading his cat: "If I’m having a hard time and struggling to find a reason to get out of bed, there’s always the need to get up and feed Juno her breakfast... she always gives me that sense of purpose." The title track "Worm Food" and "Heart Attack" explore existential angst and anxiety, respectively, with Skinner discussing how those themes arose from his experiences on tour.

Several songs on worm food grew from collaborations. "Wasabi" features his mother on Baroque flute. "Laundry Day" includes a string quartet; its chorus came from a childhood memory about his dad shrinking clothes. For "Kill U" he worked with Pierce the Veil’s Vic Fuentes.

A DIY artist, Skinner began writing and recording in his bedroom and released lo-fi songs on Bandcamp. After his 2018 album Lemon Boy he signed with Sire Records and started selling out venues and performing at festivals like Reading & Leeds and Lollapalooza. He’s produced for artists including Tessa Violet and mxmtoon, and has brought his creativity to visuals, co-directing the surreal video for "1994," which he says is inspired by The Little Prince.

"Most of the time I think up lyrics without really trying—they just fall out, and then I realize that they’re expressing something I’d been having a hard time trying to articulate," says Skinner. "Over the years I’ve had people tell me that my songs have had the same effect on them... So even though I write songs for myself, as a way to process the things I’m struggling with, it’s really nice to know that they might end up helping people in some way."