Music Biography – Robert Loveless
In 1982 while an art student majoring in painting and drawing at UCLA Robert joined the post-punk industrial band Savage Republic as the band was nearing completion of their first vinyl LP Tragic Figures. He recorded on two tracks for this 1983 release and soon began touring and playing keyboards and bass with them. Also in 1983 Robert was a founding member of the spin-off band 17 Pygmies, who released their first EP Hatikva that year. In 1984 during the recordings of the next Savage Republic LP the band split up and 6 of their songs were released on the first 17 Pygmies LP Jedda By The Sea. On this release he played monotone guitar, mandolin, piano, bass, harmonica and keyboards. In the early and mid 1980’s Rob toured with 2 different incarnations of Savage Republic and helped create their 1986 Ceremonial LP. He also recorded, designed and co-produced other LPs with 17 Pygmies and recorded with the band Paniolo.
The group 17 Pygmies released a number of LPs in the 1980's. In 1987 as the group were working on the LP Welcome (Island Records/Great Jones) Robert began composing music for dance and theater performances (Theater Carnival), which was reflected in the album’s partially spoken word aspects and Grand Guignol flavor. Also in 1988 he began professionally engineering sound full time for live music (at the night club's Largo and Luna Park) as well as theatrical shows around Los Angeles. In the early 1990s he collaborated with a few interesting groups ie. The poet pop group Sandbox with Jack Brewer (of Saccharine Trust) and Louise Bialik (17 Pygmies) and later the group Rex Voto which included Pascel Humbert of 16 Horsepower and the singer/actress Esther Balant from Jim Jarmusch’s movie “Stranger Than Paradise”. Unfortunately no recordings have been released from these last 2 bands.
Robert studied music composition and arranging at LACC from 1992 to 1994 at which time he started collaborating with the instrumental group Scenic (with Bruce Licher of Savage Republic). Loveless toured and made a number of CD/LP recordings with Scenic in the mid to late 1990’s up to 2002.
In November 2002 Loveless performed with Savage Republic on a reunion tour to promote Mobilization Record’s 5 CD re-release of all of Savage Republic’s 1980s recordings.
Janet Klein and Robert first met in the fall of 1980 as new UCLA art students. They quickly became good friends sharing many interests along with a mutual attraction for certain older performers and styles of music. In 1995-6 Ms. Klein began singing pre 1940’s jazz tunes with her ukulele during poetry performances. Robert and Janet started recording in 1997 on a 4-track cassette recorder but soon graduated to more serious recording as her vivacious talent and repertoire quickly blossomed. 1998 Janet released her first heart felt CD, Come Into My Parlor (produced by Robert). Its 26 songs were performed mostly solo with ukulele and include some accompaniment by Robert and the great early jazz style guitarist John Reynolds. Soon after making this CD Janet attracted other wonderful 1920’s and 30’s jazz musicians to form her band Janet Klein And Her Parlor Boys, which included members of the group Robert Crumb’s Cheap Suit Serenaders as well as composer, writer and historian Ian Whitcomb (from 1960’s pop fame).
All of Janet’s subsequent CDs (10 in all as of 2020) have been produced by Robert who also helps with band management, LLC label management, design and photography of the CDs. Besides music, Robert is involved in painting and drawing and his work can be viewed at http://robertloveless.net and on the Gallery Page at Janet Klein’s web site at http://janetklein.com.
Most of Robert's recorded projects are listed on his Discography page.
-Updated December 2020