Most people who have gone to a Wānaka wedding, party or gig in the last decade or so would have heard Robert Glen churn out an enviable back catalogue of acoustic cover songs in his distinctive Scottish accent.
He is part of the Wānaka scene; ubiquitous, in demand, working fulltime as a professional one-man band and sometimes as a guest guitarist.
But apart from an EP he released in 2016, hardly anyone has heard him sing his own songs, live or recorded.
On February 22, his fans will get the chance to hear Glen’s own work at the Blues & Jazz By The Sea festival at Riverton.
It will be the singer-songwriter’s first-ever original show with full band support.
Early next year, he also hopes to have finished his first original album, still untitled, which is being produced by Matt Wilson, of Meadow Sounds, in Lumsden.
The first original single release from the album is the song Seen the Light.
"Wow, it is amazing," Glen said this week, reflecting on his musical career.
"It has been eight years since I released music. I have had my children since then and everything has been really busy ... At the moment, I aim to become better and with this album I am just trying to level up where I am at as a musician," he said.
Glen began writing original music a few years ago, while living in Lake Hāwea and Hāwea Flat.
"I was living in an old church. I started having spiritual experiences in there. I am not kidding. As soon as I moved in and set up a space, things started happening and I thought, have I got something here?"
Until recently, he was just "sitting" on his acoustic instrumentals.
"Then I went down to Matt’s house just to hang out and I played him a couple of songs. He asked, ‘did you write those songs?’ and I said ‘yes’. He said, ‘I think we should produce them here’."
Wilson, a multi-instrumentalist and former Auckland producer, will be playing drums on the record.
"It’s funny. He has an amazing analogue desk he bought off Trade Me from an old church as well. So all the church vibes are going on," Glen said.
When it comes to writing music, melody takes hold of Glen first and lyrics come next.
He is thrilled at how well he has risen to the challenge of finding words.
"Lyrics is something I have to work on. It takes a little bit more of a process to find out what I am going to write about, what kind of vibe the track has given me for me to write the lyrics. It has to fit in with the sounds I am creating.
"Honestly, through this process I have become a better lyricist. It has become a lot easier. The more I was writing, the more the lyrics were coming to me when I wasn’t even in the studio. I would just be out walking and I would be hearing the words and stuff like that, and I would always be writing stuff down and taking notes."
After locking himself in the studio for a month, he has now finished the lyrics for all his songs.
"I have really enjoyed writing. There has been a lot of growth in it."
There is just a handful of words he needs to find before March 2025 - the titles for three songs and the album.
Glen says his genre sounds like him, but like "everything [he has] ever listened to" coming out through him.
"It is a non-specific genre. It has got a bit of everything in there. My producer, he would label it a contemporary blues record, but there is a lot of indie things going on, ’90s vibe, Pink Floyd-y stuff, bluesy stuff, even some Scottish, Celtic stuff going on. It’s a melting pot, actually."
He wrote a lot of his music on a lower-tuned baritone guitar, which he does not use when he is out gigging. Then he just uses a standard-tuned guitar.
Glen is from a musical family, his mother and aunt (his mother’s sister) working in theatre and arts performance. His grandfather on his mother’s side was a good singer and won Dundee singing competitions.
On his father’s side, there are also many musicians, with some of his cousins becoming DJs.
However, the family does not play together. Glen explains it is too complicated. They are spread out across the world.
"I don’t come from a family of Waltons or something like that."
Glen picked up the guitar more than 20 years ago, but only took one guitar lesson and has never had vocal training (although getting a voice coach is something he is now considering after going through a hospital procedure recently to check his vocal cords — "they are OK").
He and his mates started hanging out and strumming on acoustic guitars, but he got the bug more than anyone else and his priorities changed.
He would spend time alone in his bedroom, making time to learn Jimi Hendrix, Pink Floyd and Led Zeppelin songs, and becoming obsessed with the electric guitar.
When he and his girlfriend arrived in Wānaka more than a decade ago, they had no money, needed to set up for winter and find jobs.
Glen also plunged into Wānaka’s small music scene, growing his gigs organically, firstly through a duo before becoming a one-man band.
He and his girlfriend went on to have two children.
This year, Glen became a New Zealand citizen and is excited to have a New Zealand passport.
This summer his calendar is packed with lots of private gigs: weddings, functions, parties and Christmas stuff.
He recently played at the Wānaka Lavender Farm function, and was delighted to pick up a gig this coming weekend with a Dunedin lavender farm.
"The random gigs, you wouldn’t believe it. Like, I got one with the Christie Brothers - that’s a joinery company, by the way."
"It’s been wild, an absolute journey. Music is for me. I have had a couple of jobs, but that is not what I am here for. I have done lots of weddings and I enjoy that, but now I am tapping into myself, expressing authentically and writing things that need to be expressed."
