This album came after the relative lull of Safe. I was inspired again! Woo! Unlike Safe, which only had one new track and was otherwise simply a compilation album from previous works, Roba Roba found me back into trying new things. This was helped greatly by finding a spate of acapellas and other people to work with. This was during the furor of DJ Danger Mouse's Grey Album and the early widespread interest in mash-ups. People had been doing this for years already, including myself, but for some reason 2005 was when there was mainstream notice for little homestudio button pushers.
Anyway, previously only struggling new artists put out acapellas and held remix contests as a way of generating buzz for upcoming albums and to boost sagging sales. But now big name musicians were doing this too, so it was a goldmine for folks like me :D It was just easier and easier to find vocals to play with. I didn't win any of the contests, but the effort was fun and the feedback was good. I think this album even sounds like I was having a good time making it.
Much of this was made with my friend Tyler in mind. Additionally there is personal inference you can make to the songs, but really it wasn't all that deep this time around. Just having fun; distraction and puzzle solving, yanno? There are some precursors to the turmoil in the later albums just after this. Around the edges.
And "roba" is "donkey" in Japanese. Kawaii!
