What does resilience sound like when life keeps rewriting the script? This episode traces a creative friendship shaped by wildfires, health scares, PTSD moments, totalled cars, lost parents, and the kinds of detours that arrive without warning — the ones that force you to decide who you are when nothing around you stays still.
Before Frustrated Ape, Pete Robertson was a Scottish kid who loved the bass and the bands that first pulled him toward music. A sudden cranial event in early adulthood erased everything his fingers once knew and left him rebuilding his playing from scratch. He “always had a job” because that’s what you did, and necessity eventually steered him into a 20-year job on a bus route in Edinburgh, a job he silently hated but outwardly depended on. The real turning point came years later when he discovered a small independent progressive-rock album that reawakened something he thought he’d lost; the music hit him with such unexpected force that he picked up his bass again after letting it sit untouched for years. With no computer skills to speak of, he re-taught himself how to record music on an iPad — a strange and wonderful jump from the old Fostex multitrack he once knew — and those early tracks were surprisingly good. The momentum grew, especially after he enlisted the help of Los Angeles producer Steven Leavitt, and for the first time in decades the musical path felt like it was opening again, which made it all the more jarring when the NHS “retired” him for fear he might collapse behind the wheel. How frustrating.
That momentum carried him all the way to California for what became the recording experience of his life: tracking drums with Jimmy Keegan and Rich Mouser at The Mouse House, standing in the same room as musicians he venerated and had previously only seen in liner-notes. Then life shifted again. On the drive home from one of those sessions, Steven was in a serious accident, and everything paused while he recovered. Two months later, the studio they had just recorded in burned to the ground in the Eaton Fire, taking nearly all of Rich Mouser’s life’s work with it. Even as everyone’s first concern was that Rich and his wife were safe, there was a quiet question none of them wanted to voice aloud: whether the mixes of the EP they were working on had also gone up in smoke. Through it all, Pete kept writing — becoming even more prolific — shaping a body of autobiographical therapy sessions that would become Equilibrium, Persevere, The Sisyphus Parallel, and eventually Resilience.
Pete would sometimes downplay the whole thing, half-joking that everyone he worked with was “far more talented” than he was, yet here he was, keeping pace with them. He’d call the project a “vain attempt at leaving something behind,” but then he’d keep booking sessions, writing checks, boarding planes, and sending tracks from his spare room in Scotland to players in Los Angeles — a man quietly backing his own creative life, even when it scared him. By the time he realized how far in he already was, the choice had already been made.
Les jeux sont faits.
Pete Robertson (Frustrated Ape) Artist / Songwriter / Multi-Instrumentalist. Frustrated Ape is the progressive rock project of Scottish musician Pete Robertson, blending autobiographical storytelling with modern prog influences and a fiercely DIY spirit.
Website: https://frustratedape.com/
Bandcamp: https://frustratedape.bandcamp.com/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@frustratedape
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/frustratedapemusic
Opening Music (after stock intro): “This Quixotic Life” (session tape) – Frustrated Ape
Featured Track: “Dementia” (demo) – Frustrated Ape
Ending Music: “Equilibrium” (instrumental)
Adam Sears / Lobate Scarp – https://lobatescarp.bandcamp.com/
Edinburgh, Scotland – https://edinburgh.org/
The Venetian Well (Corfu) – https://venetianwell.gr/
Corfu / Ionian Islands (Visit Greece) – https://www.visitgreece.gr/ionian-islands/ Lobate Scarp – Time and Space (Bandcamp)
Pyramid Theorem – https://pyramidtheorem.ca/
Deafening Opera (Bandcamp) – https://deafening-opera.bandcamp.com/
Rush – https://www.rush.com/
Geddy Lee – https://www.rush.com/member/geddy-lee
Gary Numan – https://garynuman.com/
“Cars” – Gary Numan (YouTube)
The Mouse House Studio (Rich Mouser) – https://www.themousehousestudio.com/
Spock’s Beard – https://www.spocksbeard.com/
Jimmy Keegan – https://www.jimmykeegan.com/
Over the Top (IMDb) – https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0093692
“Les jeux sont faits” (phrase meaning & context) – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Les_jeux_sont_faits
Visit Marrakech – https://www.visitmarrakech.com/
NHS Bureaucracy (Opinion) – The Guardian: “After 28 years, I’m leaving the NHS…” – https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/dec/07/28-years-leaving-nhs-patients-cost-cutting-bureaucracy
Alzheimer’s Disease – https://www.alz.org/
Sisyphus (Myth) – https://www.britannica.com/topic/Sisyphus Palisades Fire – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palisades_Fire
Eaton Fire – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eaton_Fire
Alvas Showroom – https://www.alvasshowroom.com/
Steven Leavitt is a music producer, mix engineer, and creative coach based in Los Angeles. He is the owner of I Create Sound, a studio and creative development space where he helps artists, entrepreneurs, and storytellers bring their ideas to life. Steven’s work spans music production, podcast development, consulting for creatives, and supporting artists through every stage of the creative process.
Website: https://icreatesound.com/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@languageofcreativity
Host / Producer: Steven Leavitt
Editor: Sam Levine
Subscribe & Support Listen and follow The Language of Creativity on your favorite platform: https://pod.link/1402964967
Support the show and join the creative community on Substack:
Help other creatives find their tribe by sharing this episode.
#ProgressiveRock #ProgRock #BassGuitar #Songwriting #CreativeResilience #Resilience #Perseverance #Presence #EverymanArtist #ScotlandMusic #EdinburghMusic #LogicPro #GarageBand #HomeRecording #iPadRecording #MusicProduction #TheMouseHouseStudio #RichMouser #JimmyKeegan #SpocksBeard #AdamSears #LobateScarp #AndyCatt #PyramidTheorem #DeafeningOpera #SamErmellini #GeraldMarie #TimeAndSpaceAlbum #GaryNuman #RushBand #GeddyLee #Queen #Meatloaf #SisyphusParallel #Dementia #Alzheimers #Caregiving #Grief #CreativeHealing #ArtAsTherapy #NHS #Hypertension #Angina #BusDriverLife #LifeAfterCareerChange #WildfiresLA #PalisadesFire #EatonFire #AltaDena #MusicCommunity #CreativeFriendship #ProducerLife #IndependentArtist #EPRelease #EquilibriumEP #PersevereAlbum #MarrakshiSession #CreativityUnderPressure #ImposterSyndrome #VanityProject #MakingArtNotDrivingAmbulances #LosAngeles #ProgRockRevival #IndieProg #DIYMusicCulture #LateBloomingArtists #StudioLife #RemoteCollaboration #CreativeComeback #BassPlayersOfInstagram #MusiciansWithADayJob #PTSDRecovery #ReinventYourLife #HealingThroughMusic #MentalHealthJourney #OvercomingSetbacks #SecondActStories #MidlifeCareerShift #UnexpectedJourneys #LifeAfterBurnout #ScotlandMusicScene #EdinburghLife #UKCreatives #NHSStories #DisasterRecovery #SessionPlayers #MusicPartnerships #SisyphusEnergy #BetOnYourself #CreativePerseverance
