It’s always a pleasure to welcome familiar faces back to the podcast, and I’m thrilled to be joined by Dr. Robert and Matt Deighton to discuss their new collaborative album, The Instant Garden. I can honestly say it’s something special. This isn’t just a side project or a musical detour, or even just two musicians throwing ideas at a wall; it’s a genuine meeting of minds, two kindred spirits coming together, using their influences and experiences into something that feels both familiar and utterly fresh.
The premise alone had me intrigued: Fred Neil and Marc Bolan bonding over Nick Drake’s Five Leaves Left. It sounds like a wild combination – but spend time with this album and it makes perfect sense. It’s all about raw, intimate beauty, mood, nuance, and emotional openness.
A Shared Love of Bolan
Bolan’s early work influenced both Robert and Matt and connects their individual musical journeys. Robert explained how learning those early T. Rex songs on guitar was almost like an initiation. “It just entered my DNA, that kind of the groove, the feel, the chords, it was easy stuff, but it was also magical and otherworldly.” Matt echoed the sentiment, reflecting on how Bolan’s music gave him a way in – how it shaped his approach to melody and feeling. This collaboration isn’t about surface-level imitation; it’s about tapping into the core of what made that music so special and translating it into something new.
Leaving Ego at the Door
Collaboration can be a minefield, especially when you’re dealing with artists who have such distinct and established careers. So, how did Robert and Matt manage to create something so seamless and harmonious? According to them, it all came down to leaving their egos at the door. Robert put it perfectly: “I personally found it easy because there was no ego clash. I might not have been able to do that 20 years ago.” Matt added that their bond was forged slowly, over years of shared sessions and projects. “We’d done the Monks Road albums together, and it just grew from there. I knew Robert wasn’t going to step on what I brought, and I wasn’t going to do that to him either.”
This willingness to collaborate, to truly listen to each other and build on each other’s ideas, seems to be the key to their success. Shared musical sensibilities and a working relationship built on mutual respect and a genuine love of making music.
Crafting Something New
The result is an album that’s deeply rooted in tradition – folk, glam, blues, bossa nova – but never derivative. Matt’s gorgeous fingerpicking and melancholic tones meet Robert’s lyrical playfulness and melodic instinct. “We didn’t want to do a bow and pastiche,” Robert said. “We wanted to channel the spirit, not copy the surface.”
You hear that in the detail. The album rewards repeated listens: acoustic guitars meet ghostly percussion, unexpected harmonies rise out of nowhere, and song titles seem to come from some half-remembered dream – or in Robert’s case, gardening magazines!
This combination of shared and individual influences is what gives The Instant Garden its distinctive flavour and something that’s uniquely Robert and Matt. I think you’ll appreciate the craftsmanship, the attention to detail, and the sheer musicality of this album. It’s the kind of music that rewards repeated listens with a beautiful blend of acoustic instrumentation and subtle electronic textures.
The Instant Garden
At its heart, The Instant Garden is an album about connection – between artists, between eras, between sounds. It’s an invitation to slow down, to listen closely, and to appreciate the artistry that emerges when two musicians genuinely trust each other.
Whether you come for the Fred Neil echoes, the Bolan grooves, or the quiet beauty of a phrase plucked from a gardening magazine, I think you’ll find something here that stays with you.
And who knows… maybe I did hear that ghost after all.
The new album is available to order here.
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