Replaced By Robots Find Beauty in Uncertainty on “Whiskey, Bourbon, Gin or Rye"

Replaced By Robots are leaning into their most human instincts yet. The genre-blurring trio returns with new single “Whiskey, Bourbon, Gin or Rye,” a wandering alternative rock ballad that trades easy answers for the uncomfortable uncertainty of falling in and out of love. The release arrives ahead of the band's forthcoming second mini-record, The Experiment #2, following their debut project, The Experiment #1.

Made up of Goolkasian of The Elevator Drops, multidisciplinary artist Heather Joy Morgan, and Adam Wade of Funeral Party, Replaced By Robots have built their identity around refusing to sit comfortably inside one genre. Atmospheric guitars, new-wave electronics, post-punk edges, and cinematic textures collide throughout their work, creating something that feels caught somewhere between a half-remembered past and an imagined future.

“Whiskey, Bourbon, Gin or Rye” pulls that experimentation into a surprisingly intimate space. Rather than overwhelming the track with production, the trio allows it to breathe, giving its organic rock foundation room to meander as the song wrestles with love, doubt, and the nagging question of whether walking away or staying was ever the right decision. Producer Terry Palmer makes a guest appearance on lap steel, doubling Adam Wade's winding slide-guitar lines and adding another layer of warmth to the track's hazy atmosphere.

There is something compelling about how little “Whiskey, Bourbon, Gin or Rye” tries to resolve. Its nostalgia never becomes imitation, and its simplicity leaves space for the emotional mess underneath to linger. For a band that describes itself as “obsolete bohemians” creating music for “the end of the world & the day after,” their latest release suggests that even at the apocalypse, somebody will still be sitting around wondering whether they screwed up a relationship.

With The Experiment #2 on the horizon, “Whiskey” adds another unpredictable piece to Replaced By Robots' ongoing musical and visual universe, proving that sometimes their strangest experiment is simply letting themselves sound human.

“Whiskey (…Bourbon, Gin or Rye…it’s alright to cry)” is described as your most human creation yet. What happened during the writing process that made you realize you were revealing a different side of Replaced By Robots?

GOOLKASIAN: Have you ever been driving and accidentally gone the wrong way but stubbornly tried to see if you could serendipitously carry on and find a better route only to eventually give up and stupidly backtrack? I left a perfectly great long-distance relationship on Christmas to be with a girl that seemed pretty ok who lived a lot closer to home. Instantly I felt like I had gone the wrong way, but I kept trying to make it work out. 

I recall spending my vacation in a horrible snow squall on a frozen lake while Heather was in Sunny Clearwater Beach crying under palm trees. I mean, the lyrics are almost verbatim. It is a song from the heart. "I left you in a moonlit destination with a broken heart and your expectations crushed”

The song explores repeatedly falling in and out of love while never feeling completely certain you made the right decision. Why was that emotional uncertainty something you wanted to leave unresolved rather than give the song a clear conclusion?

Yes, It’s not a Hollywood movie; it’s a relatable real-world experience. Was just thinking it’s like if J. Alfred Prufrock fell in love. He too would always still be wandering and wondering, on the beaches...with peaches.

There’s an interesting contrast between the song’s deeply human subject matter and the larger futuristic, technology-driven world surrounding Replaced By Robots. How important is that tension between humanity and technology to the identity of the project?

So there is a ghost-in-the-machine thing that happened in the recording of this. The song started out as a stripped-down acoustic song, and we started adding more and more music to it. Towards the end, the song really builds into a crescendo with swirling guitars and keys. Adam Wade really was like full of a flurry of colors to add to the ending. So in trying to capture all of this, the computer started to fragment and sputter, and we captured some of that at the end of the recording. It almost sort of digitally falls apart and decays.

It’s almost as if the digital world didn’t know how to handle the overload of actual emotions. 

What actually gave me chills was, later, when making the video, I decided I wanted to use a bit of AI video to create a very FAKE beauty pageant instead of being too literal. I used a lot of real footage as well, but really artistically wanted some FAKENESS for contrast.

In the crescendo again, the digital portions added a weird scene where basically the machine people (the Cast) started waving back at me and literally looked sad that the video was ending. Like they were having fun in this beautiful land we’d created and did not want to go back into the machine.

I thought at first I was just crazy from editing too long, but when I showed the video to the band and friends. They all remarked on that part as well. It gives me chills.

Terry Palmer’s lap steel doubles Adam Wade’s slide guitar lines on the track. What did that combination bring to the song, and how did it help you create the warm, slightly surreal atmosphere you were looking for?

Adam wrote all these great guitar parts and the drums and added keys. It’s tough keeping up with him. The slide was a last-minute addition, and so he played it with a nine-volt battery. It was cool, but some parts really skipped out in my rushed recording of it.

Terry doubled it on lap-steel guitar in the studio as he was mixing so it would really come through. All of this adds to the unique mixture of organic and digital decay (not delay) that gives the song an edge.

“Whiskey, Bourbon, Gin or Rye” is part of your upcoming The Experiment #2. How has the idea behind “The Experiment” evolved since the first mini-record, and what new territory are you exploring this time around?

All the records are presented as singles from our cool Mini-EPs, short Albums for modern humans with limited attention spans. The experiment #1 was an introduction from the Laboratory with a varied collection of songs.

The experiment #2 will feature Whiskey and some other songs which also lean a bit more organic and from the heart. Lots of human emotions. The experiment #3 (Spring 2027) is sounding definitively more machine-centric. I LOOOOVE it. 

We are not trying to create GOTH, or FOLK, or PUNK. We are just experimenting and having fun being ourselves. We are obsolete bohemians; we look around and play with the wreckage, creating songs and visuals that make us feel alive.