Robin Perkins aka El Búho was born in a small town in the north-west of England to a Geography lecturer dad and a naturalist mum.
He grew up on the edge of the Peak District National Park, surrounded by nature and the outdoors and would spend many family holidays walking, birdwatching and camping across the UK. He went on to study Latin American studies at Glasgow University, writing his thesis on migrations of meaning in music from the Brazilian sertão. During this time he spent a year studying in Buenos Aires, traveling extensively, from the tip of Tierra del Fuego all the way up to the equator and being introduced to the city’s flourishing ‘nu-cumbia’ or ‘folktronica’ scene led by ZZK Records and artists like Chancha Via Circuito. Igniting his imagination, it was here that he first started to produce, mixing the influence of UK electronica he was exposed to through Glasgow’s thriving club scene with Latin American folk and natural sounds.
However, it was during his two years spent living in Mexico following the release of his Cenotes EP in 2015 on Nickodemus’ New York label Wonderwheel Recording that El Búho’s music career began to take off. The EP’s stand out track Mañana Tepotzlan would go on to reach over 17 million streams on Spotify and his 2016 Tulum Boiler Room set alongside Nicola Cruz has almost 3 million views on YouTube to date. His acclaimed debut album Balance was released to critical acclaim in 2017, followed by Camino de Flores in 2018, Ramas in 2020 and Natura Sonora in 2021. El Buho has played venues all over the world including Lolapolooza Chile, Bahidora in Mexico, Public Works in San Francisco, Berghain Kanteen in Berlin and even on the Eiffel Tower.
Owl by night, environmentalist by day, Perkins has spent almost ten years working for Greenpeace all over the world on everything from pushing brands like H&M to phase out toxic chemicals from their clothes to convincing electronics giant Samsung to commit to 100% renewable energy. As well as working for Greenpeace International and Greenpeace East Asia, he spent two years with Greenpeace Mexico where he led the Toxics and Water Pollution campaign. He currently works for Mindworks, Greenpeace’s first cognitive and social science lab.
Perkins has spent the last few years bridging these two worlds, be it as one of the organisers of DJs For Climate Action or through his ‘A Guide to the Birdsong’ project which marries electronic music producers with endangered birds and their songs to raise awareness and funds for their survival. The project was covered by NPR’s Morning Edition, Billboard, The Guardian, Audubon Society and many more and has raised over $70,000 USD for bird conservation in Latin America to date.
Perkins is currently based in Toulouse where he lives with his wife, two children Georges and Oscar and their Mexican Jack Russel dog Frida.
