n-Somnia is a solo project formed by New Zealand musician, Jared Rowbotham. Formerly a member of a rock band called Supertrip, Jared went solo (after a few years absence) in 2002 under the name n-Somnia, experimenting with electronic sounds.
This solo project reached its peak around November/December 2002, when a song called Robot Lover From Mars reached #1 on one of BeSonic.com's various charts. The follow-up release, however, was a flop. After this, the project became an off-and-on affair. Briefly in 2004, n-Somnia made a comeback with a song called Toy Store, before being put in hiatus, as Jared started to focus on a new project - Kingrow.
With Kingrow becoming more promising, n-Somnia came back in 2006 with a couple remixes of his 2002 song, Eliminator, before the project was retired. The final n-Somnia release was an online self-titled compilation album in 2007.
However, the hiatus would be only temporary. Only 5 years later, in 2011, n-Somnia announced a comeback, and a full-length album to accompany it. n-Somnia's first real album, The Awakening, was released the following April. A second album, Urban Decay was released in 2013.
Since then, n-Somnia has made a few smaller releases in the form of EP's and singles, concluding in 2015 with a compilation album, Singularity covering his career spanning from 1999 to 2015. Upon its release, he vowed not to re-release older material in the future unless it was for a special occasion. Since then, he has released one such special in the form of Red Alert 20, a single marking the 20th anniversary of the creation of the original version of Red Alert in 1999. The single's A-side is a new remix of the song made with the help of Red Alert co-creator, Darren Roverts, completing the circle.
Since Singularity and Red Alert 20 were released, he started work on what would become a 3-part series called The Empires Trilogy. This would commence in late 2020 with the release of Part 1, an EP called Before the Empire, which spawned 2 singles. Part 2 came in the form of an album (n-Somnia's third overall) called Empires of the Night, which brought us 3 singles (1 of which was a double A-side). To conclude the trilogy, Part 3 came in the form of a second EP called The Empire Has Fallen, which gave us 2 singles. The trilogy was released during the crossover period of 2020 and 2021 with the final release arriving during Easter weekend.
After the ambitious trilogy release, n-Somnia released an EP called Stop Fighting, Start Writing, which would soon be followed by a stand-alone promo track, Raise the Curtain. But as 2022 came along, the 20th anniversary of n-Somnia as a project would be celebrated in the form of an updated version of the 2011 release, The Early Years - now featuring 21 tracks instead of just the initial 7. Along side of this, an EP called Eliminator was released with every version of the title track, including 3 new remixes - 1 of which was made by n-Somnia's friend, Tim Wood.
In recent news, it was announced that the next n-Somnia release will see him going back to his roots. With a planned release for an album in 2025, it is meant to mark 30 years since he wrote his first songs. A selection of these songs are to be used in a series of 5 albums (released separately). All recordings with the original ideas and sound in mind.
Stay tuned!
Band Members:
Jared Rowbotham
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