The Doubleclicks, a Billboard-charting folk-pop music duo consisting of siblings Laser Malena-Webber and Aubrey Turner, have a new album out. The recording—Teaching a Robot to Love—differs from their previous work in that it’s a full-fledged musical that they describe as a “modern queer Frankenstein story” about “change, friendship, queer love, and what it means to be a person.”
The album, which came into being through a Kickstarter campaign, was written and workshopped online in 2020 and 2021. It’s now available for pre-order, and there’s even a nifty 8-bit online game to go with it.
“This story is fun and full of sci-fi and robots, but it also tells a story from the inside of my heart as a trans non-binary person,” Malena-Webber, who wrote the book and lyrics for the musical, said in a statement. “I am so excited for people to hear this emotional and joyful story about a great queer group of friends dealing with anxiety and the challenges of being a person.”
The recording features the vocal talents of Aliza Pearl, Amy Dallen, Bonnie Gordon, Xander Jeanneret, Zach Reino, and Morgan Peters. The soundtrack includes titles such as “Normal Human Party,” “Cheddar,” and “Nanotropolis.”
The Doubleclicks are also currently releasing music videos to illustrate each of the songs. While there are no solid plans yet for staging or filming the musical in real life, they would like to when it’s safe and practical to do so. “We’re incredibly thankful to the fans who made it possible for us to write the musical and record this album, and I’m really looking forward to telling this story visually,” Malena-Webber shared.
Interested? You can pre-order physical copies or buy digital copies of Teaching a Robot to Love here. The 8-bit game set in the universe of the musical is available here.
