A bedroom recording with a lonely heart
Ryland Bouchard has been releasing quirky music since launching Swim Slowly Records in 2001. He started The Robot Ate Me as an outlet for his own experimental tendencies. True to the moniker, his debut album, They Ate Themselves, has an electronic base with additional sounds provided by the trio of bandmates. For his second release, On Vacation, he created a theatrical-styled record, with more musicians and more instruments. Whether On Vacation is a personal statement or a wonderful farce, the oddness carried on. Still, it caught the ears of Kill Rock Stars, who gave the album and his next two releases larger distribution.
Carousel Waltz, released in 2005, is more straightforward and heartwarming. An album of chummy love songs, recorded in a bedroom, with added ambiance from brass, woodwinds and cello. The song titles give away the narrative on most tunes and the performances are so intimate you feel as if you’re in the room, listening in a comfy chair. All that’s missing is the hot cocoa. At just a few ticks over thirty minutes, Carousel Waltz ends way too soon.
A year or so later, Bouchard retired The Robot Ate Me, resurrecting it for a few new recordings in 2013. These days, Ryland Bouchard sticks with releasing music digitally and promoting his photography on his website. Many of his records are made using vintage recording equipment, validating the conviction in his work. For those craving more Carousel Waltz, there’s an album with outtakes on Bandcamp and Sleep Tight, a release of Waltz’s stripped-down demos. The 2019 album We Were Humans includes some of those leftovers along with an off-kilter cover of Elliott Smith’s “Angel in the Snow,” which would have fit well on the original record.