Amber came out of a desire to capture my live sound in the most honest way possible, free of edits, overdubs, and retakes. I’ve spent the best part of the last two years performing in venues and living rooms from Amsterdam to Beijing, and much like ancient resin capturing insects for us to find preserved millions of years later, I wanted to capture those sounds as is so that concertgoers could take that sound with them after the experience. Just like any contemporary recording artist I have strived to put out the cleanest, most perfect renditions of my songs, from Astronaut to The Summer EP but there’s something to be said about the purity of music in its rawest form when performed live - the exploration, the unheard songs, and the mistakes. With Amber I am giving you me as I am and as I would be if I were on your couch at home performing these songs.”

From performing at winter markets in small-town Scotland to opening for artists like A Great Big World and Andy Grammer in the rush of California, Robert Gillies has come a long way. After moving to the US in 2008 to study at Berklee College of Music, alongside classmates Betty Who and Karmin, Gillies made the move out to California to be closer to the scene he'd admired from afar for so many years.

With 2011's critically acclaimed Astronaut and his equally well-received follow-up The Distance in 2014, he firmly planted himself in the acoustic singer-songwriter realm, performing countless house concerts and mini tours across the US, but it was in that time that he realized that he wanted to do something different. 

"I always loved writing relaxed songs and I made that my thing for a while - I feel like it reflected where I was in my own life, the way I saw myself, especially when it came to how introverted I can be. When I started supporting more with pop acts I realized that there was a part of me that wanted out, that I'd been holding back, and I wanted to feel free to explore that and see where it took me."