Pigeon Spins Featuring an Interview with Robert O'Connor

Robert O'Connor - Clubwav Continuum

Following his acclaimed 2025 album Swimming Against The Tide, Irish singer, songwriter, and producer Robert O’Connor returns with Clubwav Continuum — a seamless, 1-hour continuous DJ-style mix reimagining all ten tracks from the original record.

The album blends 80s sophistipop, 90s dance, and modern electronic influences into an immersive experience of movement and emotion — designed for late-night drives, club spaces, and focused listening alike.

Interview with Robert O'Connor

(•)> What inspired you to transform Swimming Against The Tide into the continuous mix Clubwav Continuum?

I have always been a big fan of the Continuous Mix format, and I think it’s really underrated and under-utilised. I have a vivid memory of Madonna’s ‘Confessions on a Dance Floor’ album from 2005, which was produced by Stuart Price and released as both individual tracks and a continuous mix edition — this is what I have offered listeners with ‘Clubwav Continuum’. The continuous mix has required a lot of effort and attention to detail from my producer on the project, Jordan Arteaga, who has been remarkable in taking direction that reflects my influences of the past and present. The track order has changed from ‘Swimming Against The Tide’, so it isn’t a case of the songs purely being stitched together and re-released. Every track has also been extended and embellished — I took inspiration from extended mixes of the 80s from bands like Johnny Hates Jazz. The whole record is designed as an immersive experience — and while it works on the dance floor or at the gym, it’s equally enjoyable to recline and listen on headphones. Ultimately it feels really fulfilling to have realised this personal goal, and I think it reflects exactly who I am as an artist right now. I’m often reluctant to send my new releases to friends and family, but I felt a sense of pride and a desire for people to experience what I had created with ‘Clubwav Continuum’.

(•)> How did you approach blending 80s sophistipop, 90s dance, and modern electronic elements?

It came very naturally during the writing process for ‘Swimming Against The Tide’. Myself and my producer Gareth Shortland had just come off the back of my previous EP ‘Severance’, and I knew I wanted to make a full album next. On the previous record, there were elements of the ‘80s, ‘90s and ‘00s, and that’s a big part of the DNA of my songwriting and Gareth’s production in general, but I personally went on a bit of a journey when I was writing the album. I started out with songs like “Love Remains”, which is pretty much a straightforward late ‘90s europop track that would have fit on my previous EP, but then I wrote “Summer Is Waiting” and “Everything You Wanted” in quick succession, which each brought completely different sounds to the table – Ibiza chillout vibes and the ‘80s sophistipop sound – neither of which I had explored in the past. I didn’t feel compelled to go in one direction or another, but rather I felt that the album should be a palette of sounds that represent me as an artist right now, and that songs should have siblings as such on the record, so “Summer Is Waiting” has a companion in “Something Strange” and there are other songs with ‘80s-inspired production like “What A Time To Be Alive”. I think the modern sounds came into play more so on ‘Clubwab Continuum’ – while we reference ‘80s 12” mixes and ‘90s club mixes, it feels distinctly modern in its mixing and a big part of that is having three voices in the room – Gareth’s original production, Jordan Arteaga’s more contemporary approach, and my overall vision for the project.

(•)> Which track took on a new life in the DJ-style continuous mix?

I think the two tracks that were a surprise to me were the two that weren’t singles from ‘Swimming Against The Tide’ – “Love Remains” and “Once In A While”. With some tracks we added extra length and additional elements to elevate the sound, but with both of those tracks, I knew I wanted them to be the promotional singles for ‘Clubwav Continuum’, and in their original incarnations they didn’t sound like singles to me – I wanted for them to be more experimental, so I really pushed Jordan when we were producing. My test for if the tracks were finished was if I “felt something” when I listened to them, I needed to feel that euphoria that I had felt when listening to my favourite extended mixes and transitions in the past. We removed the key change from “Love Remains”, and replaced it with a more club-driven section, so it goes from a false ballad intro into a europop track and then it takes a sharp turn into a club space. With “Once In A While”, the Sakgra-produced version was the first time listeners heard it when it appeared as a bonus track on the “Everything You Wanted” single, and his style is very specific, quite pastiche and italo disco inspired. The version on the album by Gareth Shortland simplified the structure and to me had a sort of mid ‘90s Ace of Base sound. I wanted for the single version to feel a little more alternative, so we added some Johnny Marr style guitar work, which gives it a dreamy quality.

(•)> How did working with producers Gareth Shortland and Jordan Arteaga shape the final sound?

Gareth had produced the entirety of the ‘Swimming Against The Tide’ album, and my ‘Severance’ EP before that – so we were very familiar with each other’s process, and going into it we had quite a specific approach that worked well for us. Jordan Arteaga, who I asked to create some of the Extended Mixes originally as bonus tracks on the singles, had worked on my ‘Transcendence’ EP in 2020 and on countless remixes since, so it wasn’t our first encounter together either. When I decided to make a full Extended Mixes album, I thought about how we could elevate it to feel as exciting as hearing the album for the first time, rather than a rethread, and to me that meant offering a continuous mix as well as separate extended mixes. I really wanted listeners to feel like they were stepping into a club with a DJ taking them on a sonic journey. Fusing together Gareth’s nostalgic, pop-centric sound with Jordan’s modern mixing and my desire to push us in a more experimental direction has given us a sound that I believe is superior and more unique to if all three of us weren’t involved in the production.

(•)> What was the most challenging part of reimagining your own songs in this format?

I think getting the track order right was quite crucial, and originally we figured it would just be the same as the original album, and that the title would be simply ‘Swimming Against The Tide: The Extended Mixes’, but then it really became a different beast entirely with its own identity, and I really love how naturally that occurred. The track order was more important in this instance because for the continuous mix to work. I think for us the challenge was for no mix to sound reductive or to feel like we were going through the motions or box-ticking just to say that we had extended all ten tracks. We will never force something to work, hence not including “Once In A While” on ‘Night Tides: The Chillout Collection’, we just didn’t believe it worked in the chillout context, so we didn’t force it. I had many, many references that I believed we could use as guidelines, but I don’t think I ever believed we would achieve the level of some of those mixes – and dare I say it in many cases I feel like we have surpassed them – I think this is the first time I have felt genuinely elated about a record of my own, where there is nothing I feel compelled to change. So many of these songs feel bigger, bolder and more dynamic as Extended Mixes – take “Head Turner” for instance, with a 5-minute run-time it just feels so luxurious and sprawling, the way disco is meant to be. Similarly, “Mysterious Times” is over 7 minutes long and makes me feel like I’m at a rave in the ‘90s – like my soul leaves my body and I’m floating above it. The longest mix on the record is “Summer Is Waiting” and at over 8 minutes, for me at least, there isn’t a second that’s boring, and that’s because we take the listener to so many places along the way. When I would listen to demos I would say “that’s a great idea there, but let’s have it last 10 seconds instead of 20, and then let’s go somewhere else”. It felt like writing a plot to a film and not wanting the viewer to guess what was going to happen. The whole process excited me so much because there was a freedom in not having a time limit or feeling like you had to grab people’s attention in the first 10 seconds.

(•)> How do you balance cinematic emotion with club-ready energy in your mixes?

Jordan brings a lot of cinematic energy with his production, and that’s something we’ve tapped into before on interludes and remixes in the past, and we implemented a lot of cinematic sounds on ‘Night Tides’ of course. I said it earlier but a lot of this music was produced based on a feeling – I would often hear something in the mix and think, when I hear that piano line it makes me feel really emotional and reflective, and so we would double-down on that at times. I think the mistake some artists make when creating pop and dance tracks is to focus on only production and melodic hooks, and the lyrics are an afterthought, or perhaps they are vapid – but the dance floor can be a very emotional place, it can be a place where you abandon your troubles and feel a sense of freedom, even if it’s only for 3 minutes during your favourite song. When I am writing songs like “Something Strange”, I know that they are going to be produced in a pop-dance style, but I also know that the listener has to truly feel the meaning behind the catchy refrain – that can be achieved vocally, but a lot of it happens in the most specific production details.

(•)> Which collaborators, like Gordon Pogoda or Sakgra, added unexpected dimensions to the project?

This was the first time that I was open to accepting songs from other songwriters – and the reason for that was that I was creating an album and it felt like there was more room for variety and to showcase different flavours. Gordon and Sakgra write together, and Sakgra had remixed a few of my singles in the past, so I think they thought it would be cool to level-up and have an original track on the album. “Once In A While” landed on my desk during the ‘Severance’ era and it was one of the first tracks we recorded for the album, before the sound had been truly defined, but it fits in so well with my self-written songs sonically. Tee Webb also co-wrote a track with Gareth Shortland called “Hard Rain” and as soon as I heard it, I knew it belonged on the album. Tee had sent me numerous tracks before and I liked them all, but this one just clicked with me, even though it was sung an octave higher in the demo and as a result sounded quite different to how it eventually ended up sounding on the finished track! I was like “I’m not reaching those notes!”

(•)> How do you want listeners to experience the one-hour seamless flow — as a journey, a story, or a mood?

I think there are many ways to experience ‘Clubwav Continuum’, and many appropriate settings to enjoy it in – the gym, the club, reclined with your headphones in your bedroom – and it works equally well in each of those environments. The Individually Wrapped edition is great for those who want to add their favourite extended mixes to their playlists, and it really allows you to enjoy each mix as its own entity, but for me the Continuous Mix is the ultimate way to experience this record. I spent so much time listening to it while we were mixing it, which is normal procedure – but this time, I’ve continued listening in the weeks post-release, which I guess is less normal, because I’m not listening for errors or for changes we might want to make, I’m listening because I’m genuinely enjoying it as a listener, which sounds funny, but I guess we really did make the record we wanted to listen to ourselves!

(•)> How does Clubwav Continuum reflect your growth since Swimming Against The Tide?

It’s part of the same universe rather than a follow-up – I view ‘Swimming Against The Tide’, ‘Night Tides: The Chillout Collection’ and ‘Clubwav Continuum’ as a trilogy of sorts. In a way the latter two are spin-offs, but they feel so equal-billing to me, and each represents a goal I have had for such a long time as an artist and songwriter. The growth is in the ability to execute these goals I’ve had, these dreams that I’ve made a reality now after so many years of thinking about how these records would sound. I was very keen, when I returned to releasing music after a five year break in 2018 to take it one step at a time, and to build my catalogue in a discerning way, rather than rushing into an album like I might have done in the past. I spent two years releasing only singles, then came the two EPs and to now be in a place where I’ve essentially released three albums in one year, that each show different facets of me as an artist, feels quite unbelievable to me when I stop to think about it, which I rarely do!

(•)> What’s next for you as an independent electronic-pop artist after this ambitious release?

I have had a long-term goal to play some live shows that truly represent me as an artist and feel like an extension of the world I have built on these albums. The last time I played live was in 2019, at which point I was playing more traditional singer/songwriter fare with a small unplugged band. I enjoyed that experience, but that would make no sense for me now considering my musical output over the past few years. I think I’ve become very confident in the execution of my releases, and my catalogue is in a very healthy place, but it’s time to ask questions about how this can work in a live context, and find the right collaborators to make it happen – and who knows, maybe some of those people are right in front of me already – I know that I would want a musical director to work with me in creating a “show”, and I also know that lighting and video will play a part in that. I have lots of ideas, they just need to be distilled, and of course, as a self-funded independent artist, I need to discover how much does all of this cost! I’ve no shortage of songs to choose from when creating the setlist, I know that much!

(•)> That's all, Folks! Check out Robert O'Connor on the Pigeon Spins Playlist