The Rockification of Cavetown

“I’ve always loved taking pieces of whatever I’m inspired by in any given moment,” Robin Skinner, aka Cavetown, admits. “I think that’s why a lot of my music is so genre-mish-mashed. I’ll hear a sound that tickles my brain in a nice way in whatever music I’m listening to, and I’ll want to try that,” he says. This is how the sounds Robin makes as Cavetown have made their way from the soft and twee start to this new, hungry-for-more approach that he’s returning with.

Since emerging on YouTube in 2012 at the tender age of 14, Robin has made a name for himself with confessional, bedroom-recorded, ukulele-driven indie-pop. His self-titled debut came in 2015, followed by ’14/06/16′ in, well, 2016, and ‘Lemon Boy’ in 2018; it’s this trio that firmly established Robin’s way of working and seeing the world.

As the numbers watching and listening drove higher and higher – with 2.25 million now subscribed to him – he’s been keen to find the next sound. “It feels like doodling, and taking inspiration from my surroundings and the things that I see and hear and making them my own,” he muses.

‘Running With Scissors’, Robin’s first album since 2022’s ‘Wormfood’, took so long because Robin needed a bit of time to work out where he wanted Cavetown to go. While he was often uncertain, he knew that he needed to step out of his comfort zone. “I’ve been feeling stuck for a little while in my music,” he explains, “and a lot of my older stuff is what I’m known for. While I love those songs and I’m appreciative of where they’ve gotten me, I feel like, in many ways, a lot of my old stuff doesn’t represent where I’m at now, both in my life as a person and also in terms of my songwriting and my production skills,” he continues.

Being able to evolve his craft has been a crucial part of this new chapter in his life. Referring to it as needing to “push the boat out for myself to see how far I can push myself, sonically and lyrically,” Robin’s preternatural ability to absorb and hone in on what it is he needs and wants from music is what puts him a cut above the rest. Raised with classical musician parents, he wasn’t short of the chance to explore the more stringent, boundaried elements of music, but at a young age, he decided very much against this. “I’ve been very fortunate in my exposure to music as something creative and something to be explored, [my parents] encouraged me to follow my gut, and I’ve been able to carry that forward in my music since the beginning,” he says.

“I feel like I’m in an emo renaissance”

The musical complex that makes up ‘Running With Scissors’ inhabits numerous elements of Robin’s DNA. “I wanted the album to sonically sound different and more ambitious. I was feeling very inspired by hyperpop production styles and by the alternative bands that I used to listen to a lot as a teenager. I feel like I’m in an emo renaissance with my music taste,” he chuckles. Having been out on tour supporting Pierce The Veil this year, as well as having featured on the group’s last album, suffice it to say, Robin can lean into this as far as he needs to.

“When I first started thinking of doing music as a career, I was like, I want to be like these cool, emo bands that I look up to so much, but that music is really hard to make production-wise. I still struggle with the guitar tone so much!” he admits.

Twinning both hyperpop and emo together with his already potent mix of bedroom indie, his emo tendencies are worn with pride. “I love a raw song that talks about dark feelings,” Robin explains. “I think that’s something I’ve always touched on in my music. But I also love the sound of harsh guitars, which is interesting since I’ve tried to avoid them a lot, especially in my earlier music,” he smiles. 

Having had the aforementioned Pierce The Veil tour to crank his amp to 11, so to speak, Robin actually has a musical director who has helped him “rockify” his live set. “It’s been really fun to play the songs a little heavier in the live set, and I think it’s interesting for people to come and watch a slightly different rendition than what they would hear in the track,” he says.

Part of this also plays into the solo nature of Cavetown. While he has certainly collaborated with and featured for other artists, bringing it full pelt into this twee world of his has been a challenge in its own right. That gut instinct of his allowed him to be in good standing with various producers, letting them into the fold to expand his musical landscape. “I’ve been very stubborn about wanting every idea to be my own and not necessarily trusting other people to make it work in the right way,” he admits. “Or being worried that if someone else comes up with an idea, I can’t fully claim it, or feel proud of the result.” This line of thinking, as you could imagine, doesn’t beget a healthy mindset nor one that feels totally fulfilling. “I started to realise that it was lonely as well, and now I’m at a time where I feel differently, and I wanted to challenge that.”

Cavetown has always been Robin’s outlet, which is why he has to keep it true to himself. However, there have been times when he’s meddled outside of this moniker. “I have an alternative Bandcamp that I’ve had for a while,” he reveals, “that a bunch of people have found organically. I used to put up songs that I was proud of, but production-wise, I was like, I don’t know if this is good enough to be an official song… I’ve thought about expanding that a little bit,” he says.

Becoming Cavetown meant that Robin never really got to explore the usual routes of cutting your teeth in a touring circuit to build a fanbase. It’s the anonymous element that he missed out on, and he thinks this could be a good idea for the future in some format. “That might be fun to learn from if I were to put myself in a room anonymously and play some different music,” he says. The hardcore side of emo and punk tempts him. He doesn’t know if his production is quite there yet, but it’s still something that has a piece of his heart. “I do love a song that it is loud and short, and you can run in a circle too,” he laughs, “but I’m a very anxious person. I’ve been to one single hardcore show, and I stood in the corner watching from the sidelines, too scared to get in there, but it is a fantasy of mine to be someone who can get in the pit and go crazy.”

It’s something he sees in his audience, too, which makes sense since Cavetown is the kind of act people migrate to to find themselves, be it in the earnest lyrics or its creator’s personality. “There are a lot of kids that remind me of myself when I was in my little emo phase, and it’d be cool to try and encourage more of that energy with the new music, and encourage people to get moving and get excited and let themselves let off steam.

“But with that, I don’t want to freak people out, I don’t want to make anyone uncomfortable. That’s the last thing I want!” he exclaims. “So I’m trying to figure out a way to bring some of this hardcore energy that allows people to have fun, but also respect that a lot of people in the room could easily get overwhelmed by that.”

It’s about, as things always have been for Robin and Cavetown, ensuring there’s a community that people can feel safe and secure in. It’s why people flocked to Robin’s output and why Robin has put so much thought, time, and energy into ensuring what he offers back is as true to himself as it is to his fans. “The music is for me at the start, but the show is for everyone who has made my life what it is,” he says. “I just want to entertain, and I want everyone to have a great time, in whatever way that they expect to have a good time.”

Taken from the February 2026 issue of Dork. Cavetown’s album ‘Running With Scissors’ is out 16th January.