Alt-electro shapeshifter Robert DeLong flips the script with “Fool Me Once (Folk Edition),” a banjo-led reimagining of a track originally featured on his deluxe album ‘PLAYLIST OF DOOM: After DARK’, released via Roundhill Records. Inspired by a live banjo performance, the new version trades synths for strings, blending stomp-and-clap energy with pedal steel from collaborator JD Carrera. What emerges is a warm, intimate take that reconnects the song with its earliest form.
“‘Fool Me Once’ was written on a banjo in my kitchen, recorded on a voice note, and then promptly forgotten,” DeLong explains. “I wanted to do a version of it live, and without thinking one day I picked up my banjo, and then I remembered that’s where it all started.” Lyrically drawn from autobiographical moments, the song reflects on fleeting connection and the quiet optimism that follows. Originally from Seattle and now based in Los Angeles, DeLong continues to blur boundaries between electronic precision and raw, human storytelling, letting the song’s origin guide its evolution this time around.