Robert Oakes - ProfilesArchive

About Me

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Long Long Time

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I've been writing songs and playing music for pretty much as long I can remember. Maybe it all started when, as a kid, I would help my father, a singer and drummer, carry his equipment into bars and clubs and wedding halls and set up for his gigs. Or maybe it was when I'd watch my grandmother, who was totally unschooled, sit down at the piano in the family room and belt out old-time songs with her raspy voice and stiff fingers.
During my high school and college years, while also engrossed in poetry and literature, I studied composition informally with Greenwich Symphony Orchestra resident conductor and Manhattan School of Music professor David Gilbert, and later with Edward Green, composer and professor at Manhattan School. I also studied voice, bass, piano and guitar privately. I often sat in with my Dad's band in those days, which gave me many opportunities to learn 'on the fly' from some fabulous jazz and blues players. In 2007/2008, I studied voice and performance with singer, songwriter, musician and producer Joy Askew.
From the time I was a kid, I played bass guitar and sang in a bunch of funk/rock/pop bands with my brother John, who played the drums and sang. Sometimes Dad would sit in with us brothers, too, making it a true family affair. As time went on, my love for singing and songwriting really started to take hold, and eventually, singer/songwriter became my main role in any musical project that I became involved in.
In 1994, I offered my homage to early prog rock acts like Genesis and King Crimson as songwriter, keyboardist and vocalist for the ambitious art rock trio Magrathean Snow. Following the break-up of MagSnow later that year, I ventured off on my own, playing numerous gigs in the New York metro area, appearing at bookstores, cafes, festivals and clubs. In 1995, I recorded my first studio album, Dweller-at-the-Oak-Trees, a collection of songs that contained the drama of the MagSnow days and included a few tunes that I can only describe as musical-theater-esque.
Between 1996 and 1998, I shifted toward a much folkier style, writing and playing primarily on acoustic guitar. In 1997, I recorded an album called Roots Down Underground to capture this vibe.
In 1999, I formed and fronted the folk-rock/world-fusion band Seedensol, playing guitar, flute, percussion and dulcimer. With a style that reflected my growing interest in chant, tribal drumming and various kinds of traditional music, Seedensol appeared at a number of NYC-area venues, including The Outpost in the Burbs in Montclair, NJ. We recorded a collection of songs, played a few great gigs and then disbanded.
In the months and then years that followed, I became something of a musical hermit, playing live only occasionally, including some very inspiring performances with world-renowned Turkish folk musician Latif Bolat. But I wrote pretty steadily during that time, setting down ideas and making demos for what would become the album that I am about to release, 'heart broken open.'
In 2003, feeling a growing pull to go it alone for a while, I left the light and noise of the New York City area and moved to the quiet and dark of the Berkshires in Western Massachusetts. Once settled in to my new life here, I began working on the 'heart broken open' project. Now that it's finished, I've begun setting my sights on performing live again, as well as working on producing and releasing as many of my catalog of unfinished songs as I can. I expect this will be a work in progress for some time to come.

My Interests

Music:

Member Since: 11/7/2005
Band Website: www.robertoakes.net
Band Members:
The songs from 'Heart Broken Open' are available for licensing through Pump Audio and AudioSocket .

Gathered Leaves Anthology

An anthology of my songs from several previous recording projects, spanning the years 1995 to 2006, is now available for purchase through CD Baby, iTunes and other online music stores. Clicking the album cover above will take you to the CD Baby store.
When I play live, I usually play piano or acoustic guitar and sing. I also play bass, drums, bamboo flute, dulcimer, other things... For the new record, currently in production, I'm pleased to be working with some really great musicians, including Jason Loughlin, Thom Soriano, David Nagler, Eric Martin, Anne Legene, Kate Smith, Josh Smith, Justin Hillman, Jason Schultheis, Jelal Wade Hines, John de Kadt, Luthea Salom, Clayton Colwell, Vinnie Zummo and Joy Askew.
Influences: Bob Oakes, Sr., Peter Gabriel, Genesis, Yes, Jethro Tull, U2, ELP, XTC, William Shakespeare, Queen, King Crimson, Prince, Rush, Marillion/Fish, Pink Floyd, Daniel Lanois, Walt Whitman, Led Zep/Robert Plant, The Doors, The Who, The Beatles/John Lennon, Rolling Stones, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Ralph Vaughan Williams, Crosby Stills & Nash, David Byrne, JRR Tolkien, The Sundays, The Cranberries, Shelleyan Orphan, Percy Bysshe Shelley, Nick Drake, Iron and Wine, John Donne, John Coltrane, Mazzy Star, The Cure, The Smiths/Morrissey, Henry David Thoreau, Cocteau Twins, Frou Frou/Imogen Heap, Rene Magritte, Claude Debussy, Alain de Botton, Dave Matthews, Ben Folds, Bob Marley, Coldplay, Rufus Wainwright, Sloan Wainwright, Tori Amos, Sarah McLachlan, Ralph McTell, Rainer Maria, Rainier Maria Rilke, Indigo Girls, Barenaked Ladies, Midnight Oil, The Levellers, Fairport Convention, The Cheiftains, Christy Moore, Donovan, Rusted Root, Shaman, The Alarm, Squeeze, Mary Oliver, Simon & Garfunkel, Paul Simon, Paula Cole, Jeff Buckley, Peter Murphy, Edgar Allen Poe, Li Po, Lao Tzu, Buddha, Yungchen Lhamo, Dead Can Dance, Grateful Dead, Death Cab for Cutie, The Postal Service, Duran Duran, Talk Talk, Tears for Fears, Depeche Mode, Radiohead/Thom Yorke, Plato, Jesus, The Jesus and Mary Chain, Cowboy Junkies, Bob Dylan, Dylan Thomas, Billy Joel, Billy Bragg, Utopia, Todd Rundgren, Hermann Hesse, Herman Mellville, Van Morrison, Mark Knopfler, Ernest Hemmingway, Ernest Becker, David Gray, David Bowie, Tin Machine, Joe Jackson, Emmylou Harris, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Tom Waits, Tom Petty, Traveling Wilburys, Elvis Costello, Joy Askew, William Wordsworth, Leonard Cohen, Leonard Bernstein, Lenny Kravitz, Cat Stevens, Kate Bush, Clannad/Enya, Moody Blues, James Joyce, James Brown, Marvin Gaye, Tradtional Folk especially from the UK and Ireland, Rumi, JS Bach, Alan Watts, Alan Parsons, Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, Hazrat Inayat Khan, Shahram Nazeri, Latif Bolat, Hamza El Din, Hafiz, Youssou n'Dour, AfroCelt Sound System, Pablo Neruda, Pablo Picasso, Italo Calvino, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Jimi Hendrix, Joseph Campbell, Living Colour, Public Enemy, Blues Traveller, The Blues Brothers, Pearl Jam, The Kinks, The Police/Sting, William Butler Yeats, Buddy Rich, Frank Sinatra, Nat King Cole, Bing Crosby, Tony Bennett, Burl Ives, John Keats, REM, 10,000 Maniacs, Edie Brickell, Vincent Van Gogh, Adrian Belew, Robert Fripp, Robert Frost, Neil Finn, Bruce Hornsby, Bruce Springstein, Phil Collins, Belle & Sebastian, The Frames, Counting Crows, Badly Drawn Boy, Toad the Wet Sprocket, Monty Python, Scott Joplin, Janis Joplin, TS Eliot, Elliot Smith, Richard Linklater, Bruno Bettelheim, Colin Hay, Azure Ray, Josh Ritter, Snow Patrol, The Flaming Lips, Bright Eyes, Aqualung, Carl Jung ...
Sounds Like: Me with shades of much of the above.
Record Label: Big Sleep
Type of Label: Indie

My Blog

Heart Broken Open Is Now On Sale!

I'm thrilled to announce that Heart Broken Open is now on sale at iTunes, Amazon, LaLa, LimeWire, Rhapsody and other online music stores. Please stop by one of these sites to pick up a copy!For a comp...
Posted by on Fri, 15 May 2009 00:55:00 GMT

heart broken open previews - lost and profound

i've begun posting songs from the new record to the player here on myspace, as well as to the song samples page on my website at robertoakes.net. i'll post more songs each week, leading up to the offi...
Posted by on Wed, 15 Apr 2009 07:22:00 GMT

heart broken open previews - secrets

done

it was a pretty big moment for me when i found the fedex package containing the final master of 'heart broken open' lying on my doorstep last week. there it was, the culmination of all this time and c...
Posted by on Sat, 21 Mar 2009 09:59:00 GMT

last dash for home

we gave the 'heart broken open' mixes their final approval this weekend and sent them off to be mastered, the last phase of post-production on the music end of things. meanwhile, kate and i have been...
Posted by on Mon, 19 Jan 2009 13:24:00 GMT

last song has been mixed

on sunday, we mixed 'world weary love,' the last song for the new record. it was a marathon day weekend, really as thom and i started friday night performing last-minute emergency surgery on the t...
Posted by on Tue, 25 Nov 2008 05:09:00 GMT

Long overdue album update

It's been quite a long time since I said anything about the progress of the new record, Heart Broken Open. It isn't that nothing's been happening during the past year since I last gave an update. But ...
Posted by on Tue, 21 Oct 2008 07:13:00 GMT

Gathered Leaves now available to buy online

Songs that I recorded between the years 1995 and 2006 are now available to buy through a number of online music outlets, including CD Baby and iTunes. If you'd like to, you can go to one of these site...
Posted by on Mon, 18 Aug 2008 07:24:00 GMT

Berkshire Eagle Review

This was taken from articles about the Songwriters in Mixed Company concert series, written by Dave Madeloni for the Berkshire Eagle newspaper.A couple years ago, New York City singer-songwriter Rober...
Posted by on Wed, 20 Feb 2008 12:10:00 GMT

Album Progress

It's been a while since I last gave an update on the progress of the new record, and much has happened in that time. While we have gotten a lot done, as the holiday season approaches, it's looking unl...
Posted by on Tue, 20 Nov 2007 11:23:00 GMT