Born in Brighton, England, during the dark days of the Thatcher administration, Bobby started his first band at the age of 15. Ice-Nine were named after a substance in a novel by Kurt Vonnegut which ultimately destroys the world.
The group, alas, were not so successful.
After one self-released ep, entitled ‘The Cold Stays Inside You’, and a few local compilation appearances, Ice-Nine disbanded. But not before helping to create - alongside other groups such as Tenderfoot, the Electric Soft Parade, British Sea Power, and No Bardot - a non-profit cooperative organisation, initially going by the name of Totally Bored, later abbreviated to TB.
Totally Bored would be responsible for many concerts, club nights, spoken word evenings in Brighton and London, and ultimately a college radio show and an A6 sized ‘zine of the same name.
Graduating from university in 2003 and returning to Brighton, Bobby was a founder member of pop group, The Pipettes, who have to date released two albums and many singles on labels including Unpopular Records, Transgressive, Memphis Industries, Total Gaylord Records, Interscope, and Fortuna Pop! Several Pipettes songs have appeared in major motion pictures and television shows, and the band have toured extensively all over the world.
Sometime around the beginning of the 21st century, Bobby had started playing shows on his own with an acoustic guitar and an assortment of small electronic devices. His friend Lydia suggested he take the name 'Monster Bobby’ from a song by Add (n) to X because she thought it was funny. Bobby thought it was pretty funny too, so he stuck with it.
The first solo release by Monster Bobby came out on Unpopular Records in 2005, followed by 7" singles on Remake/Remodel and Hugpatch Records in the following years. His debut album, Gaps, was released by the Hypnote Recording Concern in 2007 and described by Spin magazine as “sneakily brilliant”.
In 2010, Bobby started a small chamber orchestra in London called A Little Orchestra inspired by the Scratch Orchestra, the Portsmouth Sinfonia and the Boston Pops. A Little Orchestra play a mixture of film scores, pop music, contemporary classical music and various forms of structured improvisation and intuitive musics. In 2011 , the group played at the Indie Tracks festival in Derby, and they have collaborated with such acts as Darren Hayman, M.J. Hibbett, Shirley Lee (of Spearmint), Haiku Salut, Pocketbooks and The Pipettes.
In recent years, Monster Bobby has been remixing a diverse range of artists - from Swedish pop singer Marit Bergman to grime MC Envy to contemporary composer Gabriel Prokofiev - and writing scores for a number of short films. He sang a duet with Allo Darlin’ on their song, Dreaming, from their self-titled debut album, and contributed some drones and noises to one of Darren Hayman’s January Songs. He is also a prolific DJ and writer, with numerous articles published in Frieze, The Wire, The Quietus, and Vertigo, on film, music, and contemporary art.