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About Robot Holiday

Robot Holiday is collective of musicians who have been getting together for over a decade to write and record original, non-traditional holiday music. If you haven’t heard any of our music before, you might be surprised, bewildered, or confused by these songs. They're about things like winter, and heartbreak, as well as Santa’s poor work ethic, and a novel solution to our dependency on foreign oil. As in years past, we feature singing robots, sometimes singing on their own, and sometimes performing duets with real, blood-filled humans. In addition, these songs feature a potent combination of whistling, glockenspiel, boot stomping, and ample amounts of Moog Synthesizer. And while it might not be obvious upon first listen, all these songs were written for, and in the spirit of, the holiday season. Go ahead and download all you want — these songs are all FREE!

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Most Recent Articles

Robot Model CCP-209 Takes the Kids Skating

Posted by on Dec 6, 2013 in 2013, Songs | 0 comments

by David Mussen

CCP stands for Child Care Provider. I love Ray Kurzweil books. I just wanted to say that.

David Mussen: Keyboards
Jonathan Hughes: Keyboards

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Cold Morning Christmas

Posted by on Dec 6, 2013 in 2013, Songs | 0 comments

by Lisa Forrest and Jim Whitford

My friend and fellow Robot Holiday musician, Rob Lynch, owns an original t-shirt with “Jimmy Whitford” silkscreened on it. Now that I’ve had the privilege of writing and performing songs with Jim, I think everyone should own a Jimmy Whitford t-shirt.

Writing songs with Jim goes about like this….first, I send him a page of lyrics (in the case of Cold Morning Christmas, these lyrics took me about a year to get right) and a rough iphone recording.  When we finally get together in person, we sit around Jim’s dining room table.  I tell Jim, “I hear it but I’m not sure about the chords– you know, because I only know like 3 of them”…he says “I can help with that.”  I sing what I think I hear, he plays some fantastically gorgeous guitar part back to me.  We hum, we sing, we stammer, we are self-deprecating, we tell funny stories, we swear, we wonder,  we say “you know what might be nice…”, we say “yeah, that really works,” and then we run through it a few times, apologize for being flat, make a few notes, a few more self-deprecating comments, and record a solid working draft on our phones.

When working with Jim, this whole process usually takes about 45 minutes.

Once we have the bones of the song in place, Jim gets together with Jonathan to record the guitar.  Then Jonathan e-mails me an instrumental track so I can practice the vocals before recording.  A short while later, we meet in person to record the vocals–followed by Jim working his magic on the pedal steel or dobro or electric guitar.  I usually say something really cheesy, like, “I’m so lucky I get to make music with you guys,” multiple times throughout the recording session. The endorphins run high.

But the song is not done yet!  After the bones of the song are recorded, Jonathan works tirelessly behind the scenes– adding his “secret sauce” ingredients until each song finally feels “right.”  When Jonathan sends along the finished recording, I have to say that it’s a bit like opening up the best Christmas present ever.

A note about the lyrics on this one…I like taking little glimpses of rural life and creating “flash fiction” songs. This idea of decorating the Christmas tree alone is totally heartbreaking (and perfect Americana song-writing material). Loneliness is so universal…if you can bottle that feeling up in a song, I think you’re on to something good. And if you can convince Jim Whitford to play pedal steel on it…well, that’s just pure poetry.


Jonathan Hughes:
 bass, electric guitar, organ
Lisa Forrest: vocals
Jim Whitford: acoustic guitar and pedal steel

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Cold, Cold Night

Posted by on Dec 6, 2013 in 2013, Songs | 0 comments

by David Mussen

A celebration of Seasonal Affective Disorder.

Dee Adams: Vocals
Jonathan Hughes: Bass, Keyboards, Guitars
Jim Whitford: Lap Steel

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Dance in the New Year

Posted by on Dec 6, 2013 in 2013, Songs | 0 comments

by Katy Miner and Jonathan Hughes

Jonathan Hughes: Instruments
Katy Miner: Vocals

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Giant Robot Eraser

Posted by on Dec 6, 2013 in 2013, Songs | 0 comments

by Rob Lynch and Jonathan Hughes

the idea was for some kind of better than perfect, plastic, as-seen-on-tv type savior to come and offer solutions for the stresses of the winter season. FINALLY! Or it could simply be about a plow. A really solid plow. John Deer level performance. 

Dee Adams: Background Vocals
Jonathan Hughes: Instruments
Rob Lynch: Vocals and Instruments
Katy Miner: Background Vocals

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Long Way Home

Posted by on Dec 6, 2013 in 2013, Songs | 0 comments

by David Mussen

I don’t know why, but it took me a long time to write this song, even though it’s fairly simple. The whole band sounds so warm and smooth and effortless.

Dee Adams: Vocals
Jonathan Hughes: Bass, Guitars
Rob Lynch: Drums
Joe Rozler: Organ and Electric Piano

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All songs ©2013