Chris Alfaro is Free the Robots; the beat maker/ dj known for his unique sound, hinting at jazz, blues, psych, electronic, and hip hop, while remaining un-genre-fiable. Using everything from dusty, obscure samples, mind-warping analog and digital synths, and live instruments, his dirty drums and progressive melodies blend everything together into sonically rich compositions. His ever-evolving, imaginative sound breaks free from any boundaries and flows away from robotic monotony: freeing the robots.

Based out of Santa Ana, CA, Free The Robots started as a side project by Alfaro in 2003, while also playing with different bands, producing MC’s, and DJing full time. Having worked with so many different styles of music, Free the Robots brought everything together under one roof, allowing for further exploration in sound.

As one of the pioneering artists to come out of LA’s beat movement, Alfaro continues to expand minds around the world with his lineup of original recordings and energetic live performances, sharing stages with the likes of DJ Shadow, Prefuse 73, Flying Lotus, and Afrika Bambaataa.


05 - Adore

DATU Vinyl is now available for pre-order here: https://www.diggersfactory.com/fr/vinyl/227088/free-the-robots-datu

This is a crowd funded production and it will only exist if the goal is met. Secure your copy now! Limited Edition of 300!

Hi, my name is James. I started producing all genre bedroom beats on FL studio for fun when I was 14 and got obsessed with it, releasing under the name ETAOI.

Over the next 3/4 years I refined my craft and started adding more guitar to my tracks, still releasing lots of stuff on soundcloud regularly. At some point around my 18th birthday I made the decision to go to university for music tech and pursue music/audio as a career.

The tracks on this page are really only the tip of the iceberg and my most fleshed out tunes from this period (thanks to soundcloud's 3hr upload limit!). I still have literally about 200 other tracks that aren't online sitting on my hard drive, if any one particularly cares for me to make them accessible message me on instagram, but these really are about as good as it gets from this period in my journey.

During my time at uni I expanded my horizons a lot more, taking my craft out of the bedroom and into the studio where I started collaborating, producing and engineering, also learnt to play the drums and bass guitar. During this time I retired the ETAOI account and moved on to releasing as @refractortunes temporarily, however soon after I decided to abandon the project and focus on more collaborative projects and securing work coming out of university. 

I'm 23 now and sometimes release music (mostly for fun) on Spotify as James Stickland, so look there or on my Instagram @ jamessticklandmusic for more recent updates. I frequently play gigs in London and Brighton with several bands (mostly as a bassist) and work as a sound engineer at some local venues in London as well as producing and engineering a lot of my friends and collaborators (mostly live instrument based) tunes, so I've really changed direction since first installing FL studio back in 2015. 

Although, if you like this stuff, I've released and am still working on some new solo electronic stuff which will go on the James Stickland spotify page, so definitely keep an eye out. I also frequently post WIPs, outtakes and all types of random crap on the @mylesmadeofmoneyjohnson and @mylesmadeofmoneyjohnson-2 accounts!