Hey Rose, welcome to Only Techno. Where are we catching you today?
Sitting at my favourite coffee place called TOKI just around the corner from where I live.
Congrats on your new release ‘In Search for Truth’! We spied you playing some of these at some cool shows on your Instagram with some amazing reactions from the crowd.. How do you know when a track is truly finished, what reaction are you looking for, both in yourself when you listen to it in the studio, and from the crowd when you play it live?
Somehow I always tend to make tracks that are already so dance floor-ready that I rarely do edits after playing them. To me the best indicator if the track works are when people are whistling during the drops, or when you literally hear them say OOOOMPH when the beat drops.
Your live sets are pretty spectacular – what are your top 3 pieces of gear that you can’t live without when you’re playing a show?
Thank you, I currently only play live in my studio to record new tracks. I’m working on a live show for my album and I know already I wouldn’t be able to live without my Analog Rytm MK2, my Sequential Pro 3 and my new Nord Wave 2. Those will all definitely be part of it.
There are religious/faith elements in the meanings in your music, which is something we see in quite a lot with your releases. Do you feel like there is a big link between music and religion, and what do you think that link is?
Religion and faith are so fascinating to me. I’m not religious myself but on my mother’s side, there were a lot of pastors and some organ players in the family.
To me, it’s fascinating to think about the huge power people possessed higher up in the church. If you go to a church and look at how it is designed, with the pastor standing on a god-like altar, with lights coming from all the stained glass around him, choirs singing religious phrases in the back, it’s all so well designed to get people to follow and believe in a higher power.
Music was one of the strongest instruments to get people into a feeling of that “holy” power; huge organs, big choirs, singing together… People felt like they were part of something bigger. And to me as a musician I still feel this when I listen to choir music or play a chord on an organ, it’s just so powerful. Somehow the belief system created and all the symbols and rituals around them inspire me so much in making music.
Following on from that note, regarding the importance of music – what role did music play for you in your life when you were younger?
My mom’s diary states that when I was 3 years old, I was always humming along to songs on the radio and always repeated these melodies when there was no music playing. My mom was a jazz dancer and ballerina, and always played jazzy dance/pop music at home. I will always remember Al Jarreau ‘Roof Garden’ playing in the living room and my mom loving it so much.
My dad on the other hand was a big fan of Queen and gave me a CD with their greatest hits on when I had my first Discman. I think I’ve listened to ‘Bohemian Rhapsod’y over a thousand times, the song was so mesmerizing to me with all these weird sounds in the background, like that gong you hear at the end!
In my teenage years, my dad bought trance/dance CDs from the cd vendors on Ibiza and that’s where my first encounter with dance music started. I’ve been in love with these since then, the big energy in the drums and the big emotive melodies and harmonies were so fascinating to me.
And how do you feel your sound has evolved since you started out?
My sound tends to fluctuate between jazzy synth lines and big trance-like beats and harmonies. When it comes to vocals I like them high energy and in your face like Freddie Mercury did so well. So I guess all the inspirations from my youth are still present in my sound today in which I try to evoke high energy euphoria, hope and most importantly a high danceability in them.
You’ve just played an epic set at Pleinvrees festival – where else can we catch you?
I’ve just played at Kom Schon, a boat party at Hunkering On Water, and played a special set at the closing party of my beloved Marktkantine. Also, one gig I’m looking forward to a lot is ‘In Retraite Festival’ on the 29th of July. I have an amazing timeslot so it will be really cool to play there.
Rose Ringed ‘In Search For Truth’ is out now on Closed Eyes Recordings. Get it HERE.
