Alien Nosejob: "It's a Little Bit of Everything and a Whole Lot of Nothing, Something for Everybody, Nothing for Most"

Over the last decade, Jake Robertson has quietly built one of the most varied and compelling catalogs in underground music. Best known from his earlier days fronting the synth-punk blitz of Ausmuteants and the garage jingle-jangle of The Frowning Clouds, Robertson's solo outlet Alien Nosejob has become a wild, unpredictable extension of his musical curiosity — zigzagging from witty synth-pop and KBD-inspired punk to straight ahead rock 'n' roll, often within the span of a single record. Forced Communal Existence, a new compilation on Anti Fade Records (AU) and Agitated Records (UK), gathers 23 tracks from out-of-print EPs and singles, offering a raw and relentless glimpse into Alien Nosejob's many lives. It's a celebration of the project's cut-and-paste spirit, recorded mostly solo in sheds and bedrooms, but always wired with urgency. With a six-piece live band now bringing the chaos to life and a European tour looming, we caught up with Robertson to talk about the raw thrills of Forced Communal Existence, the never-ending itch to try on new musical identities, and why Alien Nosejob thrives in the blur between concept and compulsion.

Hot Sounds: How have you been lately? How has it been playing shows with the new Alien Nosejob out live as a six-piece? Will that same lineup be playing the upcoming EU/UK shows?

Jake Robertson: I’ve been good thanks mate. Been reading comics, watching movies, playing with my cat, going to gigs, learning Spanish on Duolingo, cookin' up a storm and sitting on my butt. Smelling all the fine aromas that the world has to offer. I've been loving playing with the six-piece. Everybody gets along swimmingly and is into a lot of different things, so there’s never a dull moment or an ounce of monotony. I’m excited to travel with the other five when we head overseas in June!

HS: What was it like supporting the current incarnation of The Saints last year? Did you get to meet both original members Ed Kuepper and Ivor Hay?

JR: It was awesome! I've heard a few mixed reviews about their current line up, but I loved it. I think people wanted it to be punk, fast, young, loud and snotty — it was still snotty, but it wasn’t trying to replicate the nihilistic sound of 70s Saints or mimic teenage angst and most importantly Mark Arm wasn’t trying to imitate Chris Bailey. He knew that he, nor nobody else could or should. It wasn’t like watching a nostalgia cash grab, it was like watching some friends get together and play their interpretation of some great songs that two of them created and three of them were witnessing of at the time. I met them both briefly, I didn’t want to bug them, they had enough people doing that.

HS: How did you first connect with The Vacant Lot? And what was it like working on their new record?

JR: George from The Vacant Lot came to an Ausmuteants show, I recognized and approached him. A year or so later, we set up The Vacant Lot to play a show with Ausmuteants at The Tote... this was probably 2017 or so? It was just before they recorded The Ark. I saw them a bunch during that formation and I loved it. George had shown me some old live recordings that they had from before the incredible Living Underground EP, but never recorded. He told me the others weren’t interested in doing The Vacant Lot anymore and were happy for him to do what he wanted with the songs. I was stoked when he asked me to help him put it together. I asked Ash (from Red Red Krovvy / Ubik et al) and Al (Geld / The Neuros) who I knew loved The Vacant Lot to help us put it together. George wanted Billy to record it and we of course had no complaints about that. I was kind of bummed when George called the new record The Vacant Lot, because to me it sounds nothing like the Living Underground 7" or The Ark LP. It is virtually impossible to replicate the original band, especially Fergus’s guitar style, but nonetheless I was stoked to be apart of it!

HS: Where did you grow up and what was your childhood like? What kind of records and fanzines would we find if we would travel back in time in your teenage room?

JR: I grew up in the Central Coast of NSW, Australia. My childhood was mixed with my family blasting tunes when they were home, but my parents worked long hours and quite often would bring me to work with them, give me a guitar, a football and some drawing books and leave me be, so I guess it opened up the imagination a bit? If we time travelled back to my teenage bedroom, it would really depend on what year we were talking. A lot of Rancid, Frenzal Rhomb, Operation Ivy and NOFX one year, a lot of Dead Kennedys, Subhumans and Misfits the next, maybe Kinks, Miracle Workers, FEAR, Jerry’s Kids and KBD / BFTG comps, a lot of Blind Blake, Memphis Minnie and Skip James the next. I was, and still am, a little all over the shop.

HS: How exactly did Alien Nosejob begin as a project? Was it always intended as a solo outlet and vehicle for your musical ideas?

JR: Initially it was an anonymous, self-released project influenced by the DIY bands of Australia in the late 70s / early 80s. Make it for as cheap as I could, sell it for as cheap as I could. Leave copies in random places for people to find. Sonically it wasn’t that dissimilar to bands that I was already in, it was just a fun little thing to do on the side. The whole "no genre" thing was just because I couldn’t be bothered thinking of a new band name. Originally each new sound was going to be a new band name.

HS: What initially drew you to recording solo and self-releasing records?

JR: I liked the idea of doing something with no strings attached. I didn’t have to worry if other members or the label liked an idea or not. Of course there are huge benefits that come with peers telling you your idea sucks, which I continually remember upon listening back to each and every one of my records.

HS: Much of your work has been recorded solo, in bedrooms and sheds, often on 4-tracks and tape machines. What’s the appeal of that environment over a studio?

JR: The main appeal is I can do it on the cheap. I kind of like a dodgy sounding room too, it helps the recording sound a little more aligned with a lot of the scrappy bands I’m influenced by. It’s also a bit more low key and low stress… a bunch of good reasons off the top of my dome.

HS: You've dipped your toes into synth-pop, disco, hardcore, garage rock, punk, and more. Do you see Alien Nosejob as genre-agnostic, or is there a core sonic identity beneath it all?

JR: I guess you kind of answered the question, the core sonic identity is an aural toe dip. I never really submerge. It’s just whatever I’m interested in on the day of writing. Whatever record it is, isn’t a complete by-the-book version — the disco record had a bunch of rock / punk nods and the AC/DC worship record had little nods to The Jabbers and The Adolescents sprinkled throughout it.

HS: Alien Nosejob has given you full control to explore whatever sound or style you want. Do you find that liberating or limiting compared to the push-and-pull of being in a band such as your years in Ausmuteants or The Frowning Clouds?

JR: The process for Alien Nosejob is kind of the same as Ausmuteants — even though all four of us wrote songs for that band, the songs that I wrote, bar a few exceptions were usually pretty identical to the demos that I made prior to teaching the others. I had push and pull with The Frowning Clouds, because I joined the band after they had already released two EPs and an LP. I had songs and ideas for the band that were usually welcomed, but everybody in that band wrote a lot of songs, and they were songs I liked, so I never tried to push my opinions too hard.

HS: Your lyrics have always covered a wide emotional and political range: biting absurdity, anarchic wit, everyday annoyances, resentment, and even state violence. What kind of stuff tends to push you into writing mode and what keeps it flowing?

JR: Ummm geez, I guess there’s no real answer to this. Sometimes I’ll watch a movie and write a song from one of the character's perspective, sometimes it’ll be a funny thing that a friend says, something that shits me off or something I dreamt. Sometimes something I read in a book or a newspaper will spark an idea. The only certain thing is that I write the lyrics last because it’s a chore and I hate doing it.

HS: Before we dive too deep into Forced Communal Existence, I wanted to quickly look back at last year's Turns the Colour of Bad Shit. How do you see it fitting into the Alien Nosejob trajectory now, especially in contrast to the rawness of the EPs collected on Forced Communal Existence?

JR: I think that record was the first Alien Nosejob record where I didn’t try to "Do a sound." I mean — I guess I kind of did, but it’s a pretty standard been-trying-since-high school-late 70’s sound. The songwriting and recording setup are both pretty similar to the EPs compiled on Forced Communal Existence. In my eyes it’s all cut from the same cloth, but not sure if it’s different from the outside looking in.

HS: Turns the Colour of Bad Shit seemed like it had a lot of songs that would thrive in a live setting. Did that record change how you approached Alien Nosejob as a live band?

JR: Kind of the opposite. The '77 punk styled songs were always fun to play live, so I decided to make a new album of songs in that vein so there’d be more of them in the live set. I wrote the songs originally with a MIDI brass section so I could keep it all as DIY as possible, but decided to just record a real sax instead. I asked my friend Alannah [Sawyer] to ‘blow some sax’ on the record, it sounded good so I then asked (convinced?...pleaded?…kidnapped?...hijacked?) her to play sax in the live band too.

HS: Can you tell us about the two tracks on last year's 7" for Total Punk's Order of the Dirty Plates singles club? How did that come together?

JR: That came together when I was absolutely out of my head at Gonerfest 2023. Rich from TP asked me to do a singles club 7". He gave me all the details and the date I needed to submit the tracks by. Four or so months went by and I completely forgot that we even had the conversation. He then sends an email saying "Any chance you could get me the songs by the end of the week?," I replied "No problem," locked myself in my shed and wrote and recorded the songs the next night. Considering they were so rushed, I think they turned out alright!

HS: Diving into Forced Communal Existence now, what made you want to compile these EPs and singles into one LP and what is it like hearing all 23 tracks next to one another?

JR: I had absolutely no plan to do this. Simon from Agitated just asked if he could do it for our upcoming Europe / UK tour. Seeing as none of the 7"s were available anymore, I thought it was a pretty good idea. A lot of people (realistically like four people) have asked me to repress the first two EPs and the HC45 EPs, so this kind of knocks it out in one. Six and Out.

HS: How would you say this new compilation encapsulates your musical identity? Would you say it's a good introduction to Alien Nosejob?

JR: It’s a little bit of everything and a whole lot of nothing, something for everybody, nothing for most — which is the unintentional ethos of Alien Nosejob

HS: Do you have any favorites from the compilation?

JR: I hadn't listened to a lot of it since recording the songs (2017–2022), so I was kind of surprised that I liked it all. It was funny to hear the differences to how we’ve been playing some of the songs live too.

HS: What was it like working on the cover art and layout inspired by the various Teenage Shutdown compilations?

JR: It is all a bit tongue in cheek. Perhaps a bit too literal, but funny enough. The front cover is Teenage Shutdown-inspired, the back cover is Killed by Death-inspired. Both essential compilations!

HS: How did touring with Ausmuteants in Japan back in 2016 inspire that first EP, Panel Beat?

JR: The tour didn’t inspire Panel Beat, I already had the demos. But there was just a lot of time in the van driving where I could listen to my headphones and arrange the songs / potter around with the concept of Panel Beat and the Various Fads LP which were both recorded on the same day in Billy's childhood bedroom.

HS: What's it like looking back at the archival work you and Will [Harley] did with Xerox Music? Did that label influence Alien Nosejob in any way?

JR: I don’t really look back at that stuff, because I never stopped listening to it. I’ve only met a small handful of people that have the same adoration for "punk" music as Will. I could study for years (and I have), and not have anywhere near his knowledge. He holds quite a large responsibility for how I know a lot of the obscure stuff that I’m across. The releases we did on Xerox and the bands that are parallel to them are everyday influences.

HS: You've put out a bunch of full-length Alien Nosejob albums over the years, each with its own sound. When you look back on those records now, how do you feel about them? Do any stand out as favorites or ones that still really represent what you’re about? I think the first record I heard of yours, Suddenly Everything Is Twice As Loud, really nails it.

JR: They’re all pretty different, so none really stand out as favorites to me. They were all equally fun and annoying as hell to make.

HS: Stained Glass might still be my favorite Alien Nosejob record. What do you remember about making that one, and how do you see it now in the year 2025?

JR: It was only a couple of years ago, right? I see it the same way now that I saw it when I made it, which is a fair crack at trying to do a boogie rock and roll record. AC/DC rules and trying to make something sonically adjacent to it is harder than it sounds! I used to be Malcolm in an AC/DC cover band, so I learnt a few essential tricks of the trade.

HS: What's next after Forced Communal Existence? Aside from Alien Nosejob, I heard there's new records coming from Modal Melodies and Swab.

JR: Both of those records are pretty finished in my eyes, but for varying reasons, they aren’t done yet. I have another ANJ album basically good to go and I’m always pottering around with demos and such which could pop their heads up at any given moment into an actual release.

HS: Any final words or thoughts you'd like to share with readers and fans of Alien Nosejob?

JR: Give Ramones — It’s Alive another spin. It’s probably been a few days, maybe a couple of weeks or months… but, it’s better than what you are currently listening to, so it’s worth stopping what you’re doing and put it on again now. AHORA!

Forced Communal Existence is out June 6th on Anti Fade Records and Agitated Records.