Cavetown: "Music right now is a big way for me to feel connected to my community at a time where we’re all being pulled apart"

Bedroom pop pioneer Cavetown has spent the past decade quietly building one of the most devoted fanbases in alternative music.

What began as lo-fi recordings uploaded from a bedroom studio has grown into a global community, with millions connecting to the emotional honesty of his songs. Now, with his new album Running With Scissors, the artist is entering a new creative era, one that pushes his sound in heavier and more expansive directions, while holding onto the intimacy that defined his early work.

I sat down with Robin Skinner, the artist behind Cavetown, to talk about the new record, the evolution of his music and his upcoming return to Dublin.

A lot has changed since Cavetown's last preformance at the 3Olympia in 2022. The person fans will see this time around is an artist who has spent the last few years pushing his creative boundaries.

“A lot has really changed,” Skinner explains. “Especially my music. This whole album cycle I’ve been trying to evolve every aspect of my creative process, from the writing to the live part of it. I’ve been conscious that I want my sound to be different and speak more to my abilities now as a producer and as a songwriter, and also just as a person. I’m growing and learning new things about myself and I think that’s seeping through into the music.”

While Cavetown’s earliest performances often saw Skinner alone onstage with an acoustic guitar or ukulele, the current tour features a fully realised band setup.

“I’ve definitely been writing a lot more with the band in mind,” he says. “Giving them their moments to shine. Having a moment with me and my guitarist together, or having the drums do something fun. With this new music they’ve really locked in with their skills and they’re performing better than ever, so I’m really excited for everyone to see that.”

The record itself, Running With Scissors, has been years in the making.

“I started really putting it all together maybe three years ago, maybe four,” Skinner says. “So it’s been a long time. I really wanted to take my time with the music and wait for it to feel completed. I’ve had some albums that I released feeling rushed and unfinished and those experiences taught me that it’s really important for me to feel complete in a project.”

“I did a lot of travelling," he continues. "I did a lot of writing and producing with people in LA and a couple of people in London too. I was able to learn a lot about myself and my creative process through that. It gave me a lot of confidence to trust my intuition. This whole project has been a huge learning experience and I’m really proud of it."

“I write what feels good, what sounds good, the words that feel correct, and think about it later. I wanted each song to feel like a creature that twists and turns however it wants. Sometimes the structure is weird or there’s a section that only happens once.”

Running With Scissors marks a directional change for Cavetown, moving away from acoustic lo-fi beats toward a sound that leans more into the emo or pop-punk genres

“A lot of my early music was very solo,” he says. “It was very acoustic guitar. I started with a lot of ukulele stuff and gentle lullaby type songs. It’s always served the same purpose though. It’s been very therapeutic for me to process things that I feel alone in or find it hard to get off my chest.”

“With this new album I’ve been feeling a lot more anger,” he says. “I’ve probably been feeling anger for a long time but I’ve been allowing myself to feel the anger this time, and that allows me to write music about it.

“Anger isn’t an inherently negative feeling because it doesn’t exist without love and care. I’m angry for the world and for my community and for people like me because deep down I love the world and I love my community. I love queer people. That anger comes from wanting things to be different for us."

“I grew up writing a lot of my music as a lonely queer kid who didn’t have queer friends,” he continues. “Being able to play these songs for people and see that my community is here and they see me and they understand me has been really powerful.

“Music right now is a big way for me to feel connected to my community at a time where we’re all being pulled apart. It feels empowering. It feels like we’re saying we’re here.”

Cavetown approached the production process with a new confidence, allowing his diverse inspirations to coalesce and push him beyond his usual comfort zone.

“That music really tapped into the same feeling for me,” Cavetown says. “Harsh electronic sounds that give you goosebumps. With this album I worked alongside producers who supported me in taking bigger risks with my sound and pushing it in a more emo and hyperpop direction.

“I’m really proud of 'Straight Through My Head'. I made that one completely by myself. I wrote it later in the process and followed my intuition. I wanted to make a song that was almost Linkin Park inspired and use my voice in ways that seemed like they shouldn’t go together but somehow work.”

Another song, 'Reaper', proved crucial to the direction of the album.

“I wrote that with a producer in LA pretty early on,” he says. “I was in a rut about songwriting and didn’t think I had any ideas. But that session went so well and we made this wacky song that sounded nothing like anything I’d made before. If I hadn’t made that song I might not have been excited about the rest of the album.”

“I think 'Sailboat' was the hardest,” he admits. “There’s so much going on in that song. There are about fourteen different guitar lines and they all take turns being the main character. It was stressful to balance it all out, but that’s the point of the song. It’s loud and fun and crazy.”

There may also be more Cavetown material arriving sooner than fans expect.

“I’m hoping to make some new Cavetown songs for a deluxe edition of Running With Scissors,” he says. “I have a couple waiting in the wings that I’m excited to get mixed.”

Before that, Irish fans will have the chance to experience the new songs live when Cavetown returns to Dublin for two shows at The Academy this Saturday and Sunday.

Listen to the new album below :