Fellow Robot – ‘Don’t Deny Me’

Southern California based indie group Fellow Robot started out as an idea brewing in the mind of frontman Anthony Pedroza, who a few years ago began writing the sci-fi novel, ‘The Robot’s Guide To Music’ while dealing with personal troubles. The concept albums for this project, The Robot’s Guide to Music Vol. 1 (2018) and Vol. 2 (set to release April 24 through Donut Sounds Record Co), are co-literary companions to the book. The band itself plays the role of the 140-year-old robot and main character of the book. Each official release is meant to build on and complement the story of the previous one.

Prior to the formation of Fellow Robot, Pedroza played with Mr Moonshine, in Long Beach, California, where he connected with current band members, Luiz Renteria, Jon Zell, Michael Adams, and Roberto Escobar. The group is all about dystopian possibilities, and peculiar manifestos, and the video for their new release, ‘Don’t Deny Me’, is intensely deep and cosmic.

The clip mixes the concepts of environment, space, and human reliance on technology, all of which Fellow Robot would like to make topics of conversation in everyday life. The lyrics include lines such as “Our connection has died”, and portray the fact that human attachment is becoming weaker, and less meaningful, as technology takes over.

Near to the three minute mark in the clip, it takes an interesting turn, with Pedroza appearing to be “defective”, with different, uncontrolled emotions flash across his face. He has a literal breakdown, with his skin melting off, revealing a shiny, robotic layer underneath, symbolising automated human emotions, and the lack of real empathy. Pedroza says,

Humans are more connected than ever these days through social media, but does it make us more human? We wrote ‘Don’t Deny Me’ to show the discord between our devices and real human interaction. If the satellites are destroyed, what on Earth are you going to do and who will be standing beside you?

It’s darkly fascinating, and compelling, and Fellow Robot opens the minds and viewpoints of their listeners.

Check out Fellow Robot on their Instagram and Twitter accounts, as well as Donut Sounds.

About the author

Lisa has been writing for over 20 years, starting as the entertainment editor on her university newspaper. Since then she's written for Popwrapped, Maximum Pop, Celebmix, and ListenOnRepeat.

Lisa loves all good music, with particular fondness for Jedward and David Bowie. She's interviewed Edward Grimes (Jedward), Kevin Godley, Trevor Horn, Paul Young, Peter Cox (Go West), Brendan B Brown (Wheatus), Bruce Foxton (The Jam), among many many more. Lisa is also available for freelance writing - please email lisa@essentiallypop.com