Robin Daniel Skinner (born 15 December 1998), known professionally as Cavetown (sometimes stylized in

all lowercase Letter case is the distinction between the letters that are in larger uppercase or capitals (or more formally ''majuscule'') and smaller lowercase (or more formally ''minuscule'') in the written representation of certain languages. The writing ...

), is an English singer-songwriter, record producer, and

YouTuber A YouTuber is an online personality and/or influencer who produces videos on the video-sharing platform YouTube, typically posting to their personal YouTube channel. The term was first used in the English language in 2006. Influence Influent ...

. His style blends elements of

indie rock Indie rock is a Music subgenre, subgenre of rock music that originated in the United States, United Kingdom and New Zealand from the 1970s to the 1980s. Originally used to describe independent record labels, the term became associated with the mu ...

indie pop Indie pop (also typeset as indie-pop or indiepop) is a music genre and subculture that combines guitar pop with DIY ethic in opposition to the style and tone of mainstream pop music. It originated from British post-punk in the late 1970s and sub ...

and

bedroom pop Lo-fi (also typeset as lofi or low-fi; short for low fidelity) is a music or production quality in which elements usually regarded as imperfections in the context of a recording or performance are present, sometimes as a deliberate choice. The ...

with mellow, gentle

ukulele The ukulele ( ; from haw, ukulele , approximately ), also called Uke, is a member of the lute family of instruments of Portuguese origin and popularized in Hawaii. It generally employs four nylon strings. The tone and volume of the instrumen ...

ballads. As of June 2022, he had amassed over 8.1 million monthly streamers on

Spotify Spotify (; ) is a proprietary Swedish audio streaming and media services provider founded on 23 April 2006 by Daniel Ek and Martin Lorentzon. It is one of the largest music streaming service providers, with over 456 million monthly active us ...

. His YouTube channel, which he began in November 2012, sits at 2.09 million subscribers and 398 million video views as of June 2022. Skinner released his fourth studio album, ''Sleepyhead'', in March 2020 and his fifth, ''Worm Food'', in November 2022.

Early life

Skinner was born in

Oxford Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...

, England, on 15 December 1998. His interest in music was inspired by his father, David Skinner, a

musicologist Musicology (from Greek μουσική ''mousikē'' 'music' and -λογια ''-logia'', 'domain of study') is the scholarly analysis and research-based study of music. Musicology departments traditionally belong to the humanities, although some mu ...

and

choir A choir ( ; also known as a chorale or chorus) is a musical ensemble of singers. Choral music, in turn, is the music written specifically for such an ensemble to perform. Choirs may perform music from the classical music repertoire, which ...

director, who taught him how to play the

acoustic guitar An acoustic guitar is a musical instrument in the string family. When a string is plucked its vibration is transmitted from the bridge, resonating throughout the top of the guitar. It is also transmitted to the side and back of the instrument, ...

at the age of eight. His mother is a professional

Baroque The Baroque (, ; ) is a style of architecture, music, dance, painting, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished in Europe from the early 17th century until the 1750s. In the territories of the Spanish and Portuguese empires including t ...

flautist The flute is a family of classical music instrument in the woodwind group. Like all woodwinds, flutes are aerophones, meaning they make sound by vibrating a column of air. However, unlike woodwind instruments with reeds, a flute is a reedless ...

and music teacher. He was raised in

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cambridge bec ...

and attended

Parkside Community College Parkside Community College is a secondary academy school with 600 places for children aged 11–16, situated in Cambridge, Cambridgeshire. It is part of the United Learning Cambridge Cluster, along with Parkside Sixth, Coleridge Community Colleg ...

from 2010 to 2015 and

Hills Road Sixth Form College Hills Road Sixth Form College (commonly referred to as HRSFC, Hills Road or just Hills) is a public sector co-educational sixth form college in Cambridge, England, providing full-time A-level courses for approximately 2000 sixth form students fro ...

until 2017.

Career

2012–2015: YouTube and Bandcamp

Skinner began his YouTube channel in November 2012 and uploaded his first video, an original song named "Haunted Lullaby", in October 2013. The first song Skinner wrote and recorded was "Rain" in 2013. Soon after, Skinner began releasing music to

Bandcamp Bandcamp is an American online audio distribution platform founded in 2007 by Oddpost co-founder Ethan Diamond and programmers Shawn Grunberger, Joe Holt and Neal Tucker, with headquarters in Oakland, California, US. On March 2, 2022, Bandcamp ...

with his first album, ''Everything Is Made of Clouds'', at the age of 14. He released ''Gd Vibes'', ''Nervous Friends // Pt. 1'', ''Balance'' (as ''brother'') and ''Everything is Made of Stars'' on Bandcamp over the following two years. Critics expressed that he felt "the acceptance of ignorance" on ''Gd Vibes''. Skinner released his debut single "This is Home" in August 2015, before releasing his debut self-titled album in November 2015. Critics described the album ''Cavetown'' as "an eclectic mix of acoustic and electronic". Skinner continued to publish covers of songs onto his YouTube channel from artists such as Pinegrove,

Twenty One Pilots Twenty One Pilots (stylized in Letter case, all lowercase or as twenty øne piløts) are an American musical duo from Columbus, Ohio. Initially a band, the group was formed in 2009 by lead vocalist Tyler Joseph along with Nick Thomas and Chris ...

and Joji.

2016–2018: ''16/04/16'' and ''Lemon Boy''

In 2016, Skinner released his second studio album, ''16/04/16.'' The album includes a mix of "warm, melodic

" and "lo-fi

". The album was dedicated to his childhood friend, Jack Graham, who died of

leukaemia Leukemia ( also spelled leukaemia and pronounced ) is a group of blood cancers that usually begin in the bone marrow and result in high numbers of abnormal blood cells. These blood cells are not fully developed and are called ''blasts'' or ' ...

on the album's titular date. 60% of the album's proceeds were donated to

Cancer Research UK Cancer Research UK (CRUK) is the world's largest independent cancer research organization. It is registered as a charity in the United Kingdom and Isle of Man, and was formed on 4 February 2002 by the merger of The Cancer Research Campaign and t ...

. In April 2017, whilst still at Sixth Form College, Skinner reached the final of the Cambridge Band Competition, winning both Best Acoustic Act and the

Kimberley Rew Kimberley Charles Rew (born 3 December 1951) is an English rock singer-songwriter and guitarist. He is best known as a member of Katrina and the Waves from 1981 to 1999 and of Robyn Hitchcock's Soft Boys from 1978 to 1981. Two of his better-kn ...

Award for Songwriting, and went on to play at Strawberry Fair in June 2017. In 2018, he released his third album, ''Lemon Boy''. , the album's title track has amassed 54 million streams on Spotify and 28 million views on YouTube.

2019–2021: ''Animal Kingdom'', ''Sleepyhead'' and ''Man's Best Friend''

In 2019, Skinner released five split singles which were later compiled into ''Animal Kingdom'', a mixtape of ten tracks including covers and original singles with guest appearances from

Sidney Gish Sidney may refer to: People * Sidney (surname), English surname * Sidney (given name), including a list of people with the given name * Sidney (footballer, born 1972), full name Sidney da Silva Souza, Brazilian football defensive midfielder * ...

, Simi,

Chloe Moriondo Chloe Moriondo (stylized in all lowercase as chloe moriondo) (born September 29, 2002) is an American singer-songwriter and YouTuber. Her style blends elements of indie pop and bedroom pop, with the occasional hyperpop. Her YouTube channel, which ...

and Spookyghostboy. He produced the single "Prom Dress" by

Mxmtoon Maia (born July 9, 2000), known professionally as mxmtoon, is an American singer-songwriter and YouTuber. Her music is characterized by emotionally transparent, confessional lyrics, and often employs the ukulele. She released her first EP, ' ...

, which has gained over 152 million streams on Spotify and has been used in over 100,000 videos on the video-sharing platform

TikTok TikTok, known in China as Douyin (), is a short-form video hosting service owned by the Chinese company ByteDance. It hosts user-submitted videos, which can range in duration from 15 seconds to 10 minutes. TikTok is an international version ...

. The single was featured on Mxmtoon's debut album '' The Masquerade,'' which was also fully produced by Skinner. Skinner performed on the Acoustic Stage at

Victorious Festival Victorious Festival is a three-day music festival held in Portsmouth, United Kingdom. It was founded in 2011. In its first year, the festival was named the Victorious Vintage Festival. For the first two years, the festival was held in Portsmou ...

in August 2019. He signed under

Sire Records Sire Records (formerly Sire Records Company) is an American record label owned by Warner Music Group and distributed by Warner Records. History Beginnings The label was founded in 1966 as Sire Productions by Seymour Stein and Richard Gottehrer ...

in 2019 where he released the single "Telescope" ahead of his upcoming album, later announced as ''Sleepyhead''. Skinner embarked on a series of sold-out worldwide headlining tours in October 2019. He played on tour at 31 venues in the US and 15 venues in the UK over the space of four months. He was joined by Hunny and Mxmtoon for a few shows in the UK tour, as well as

Field Medic Field Medic is the stage name of American lo-fi music, lo-fi musician Kevin Patrick Sullivan. History He began releasing music with his older brother Sean in 2009, initially as Westwood & Willow and then with drummer Andrew Skewes-Cox as Rin Tin ...

and

for a few shows in the US tour. In October 2019, Skinner announced his headlining tour along Australia's east coast, which took place in January 2020, where he was accompanied by Spookyghostboy. In 2020, Skinner released his major label debut album ''Sleepyhead'', and appeared on

the Recording Academy The Recording Academy (formally the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences; abbreviated NARAS) is an American learned academy of musicians, producers, recording engineers, and other musical professionals. It is famous for its Grammy Aw ...

's Sessions series in support of MusiCares. He cancelled the tour in support of ''Sleepyhead'' due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

in June 2020. In July 2020, Skinner collaborated with

Tessa Violet Tessa Violet Williams, previously known as Meekakitty, is a singer-songwriter, video blogger, actress, music video director, and former model. Originally a vlogger, over the years Tessa Violet's online content became devoted to her musical care ...

on the single "Smoke Signals" and announced the launch of his unisex clothing line Cave Collective. In June 2021, he released his extended play ''Man's Best Friend''.

2022–present: ''Worm Food''

In 2022, Skinner released several singles, three of which were part of the album ''Worm Food'', released 4 November.

Personal life

Skinner has stated that he is on both the

aromantic A person's romantic orientation, also called affectional orientation, is the classification of the sex or gender with which a person experiences romantic attraction towards or is likely to have a Interpersonal relationship#Romance, romantic rela ...

and asexual spectrums. He came out as

transgender A transgender (often abbreviated as trans) person is someone whose gender identity or gender expression does not correspond with their sex assigned at birth. Many transgender people experience dysphoria, which they seek to alleviate through tr ...

in September 2020. His

pronouns In linguistics and grammar, a pronoun (list of glossing abbreviations, abbreviated ) is a word or a group of words that one may substitute for a noun or noun phrase. Pronouns have traditionally been regarded as one of the part of speech, parts o ...

are he/they. Skinner lives in

as of 2019. He has

attention deficit hyperactivity disorder Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder characterised by excessive amounts of inattention, hyperactivity, and impulsivity that are pervasive, impairing in multiple contexts, and otherwise age-inap ...

Discography

Studio albums

Extended plays

Mixtapes

Singles

As lead artist As featured artist

Bandcamp releases

as Cavetown *''Everything Is Made of Clouds'' (2013) *''Gd Vibes'' (2014) *''Covers'' (2015) *''Youtube covers'' (2015) *''Nervous Friends // Pt. 1'' (2015) *''Everything Is Made of Stars'' (2015) as brother *''balance'' (2015) *''not anywhere (alex g cover)'' (2018) *''bny rabit'' (2018) *''i want to meet your dog'' (2018) *''Hate'' (2019)

Notes

References

External links

* *
Official website

Cavetown
on Twitter {{DEFAULTSORT:Cavetown Living people 1998 births 21st-century British singers Aromantic men Asexual men Bedroom pop musicians British indie pop musicians British indie rock musicians British Internet celebrities British male singer-songwriters English YouTubers Music YouTubers People from Oxford People with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder Sire Records artists Transgender male musicians Warner Records artists YouTube vloggers English LGBT singers English LGBT songwriters 21st-century British male singers 21st-century LGBT people Transgender singers Transgender songwriters Ballad musicians