Rozarc ist das elektronische Musik-Projekt von Sinan Özgür Koç. Nach seiner Debüt-EP Odds are tough aus dem Jahr 2019 hat der in Berlin lebende Künstler kürzlich sein neues Album Flamacue veröffentlicht, das 12 experimentelle Tracks enthält und verschiedene Einflüsse und Stile miteinander verbindet. Sinan beschreibt seinen Sound „auf den ersten Blick etwas fern, in einem Kreislauf der Oszillation zwischen Abriss und Schöpfung.“ Klingt höchst spannend, wie wir finden und freuen uns, dass wir euch den kreativen Künstler in unserem Interview vorstellen können.
Who is behind Rozarc? What made you decide to start the project?
„Rozarc“ is a pseudonym that I took up when I released my first electronic EP back in 2019 at age 26. Though things started off somewhat less experimental for me as a rock drummer when I was 14. I was jamming with my bandmates from high school and playing gigs, sometimes at bars where we were not allowed to enter as a customer due to being underage. Having been widely influenced by lots of sounds and various styles during my upbringing, it took a while to pick up a small keyboard and progress towards electronic productions. Later on moving to Berlin in 2017 to study sound engineering ignited „4-on-the-floor“ ideas and I didn’t hesitate to execute them. This was the birth of Rozarc.
If you had to describe your music in terms of not music … what would you say?
A little distant at the first glance, in a cycle of oscillation between demolition and creation.
What are you looking for in music?
When I listen to somebody’s piece, I often abandon my own previous opinions about that genre/artist (along with the self thought of how I would have done things differently in that track) and rather focus on staying naked to the information. That being said, in every piece of music, no matter if it has been composed by somebody else or me, I seek for sufficient strength for the track to convey the aesthetic justification presented.
What is sound to you?
It’s an Omen.
What are your first musical memories? When did you first fall in love with sound?
Before drums, it was mostly rock, rap, and hip hop. I was 10 in 2003 when I first sat at a drum set at a theatre. At age 12, I got my first mp3 player which was a 256 MB Philips KEY013. After I finally started taking drum lessons, my father took me to a Björk concert in 2008. It was astonishing and exceptionally beautiful. Over the course of the following years, I was lucky to witness the live performances of names like Prodigy (when Keith Flint was still screaming upon the stage), Red Hot Chili Peppers, Placebo, Sting, Scorpions, Guns N‘ Roses, Apocalyptica… They were all amazing. As amazing as they could get, none of those concerts had the same impact on me as Björk’s live performance had when I was 15.
Which person, artist or incident inspired you when you first started making music?
It was mostly some local rock/rap/hip hop bands and artists in whose songs I was captured by the groove. This made me start learning playing drums. Honestly, it was the groove along with my ex who broke up with me when I was 14 :-)
What is the most surprising record on your CD-/Vinyl-shelf?
Kyuss – Welcome to Sky Valley
What impact do your surroundings have on your art?
I believe impacts are interchangeable from both sides on each other. My paternal family happens to be far left wing and it was inevitable for me to be part of it. This clearly had an influence on how I perceived music and what I believed music was supposed to be when I was little. For instance, the roots of my liking towards “Rage Against The Machine” back then can be given as an example. I am talking about both good and bad ways. On the other hand life can also imitate art far more than art imitates life as the saying goes, depending on the definition of imitation of course. The humble emotional benefit gained from creating or getting exposed to an artwork does have an effect on the person hands down. Question is to which extent? Genuinely speaking, would it be really possible to dare to say the artworks that we are exposed to don’t have major contributions to our decision making process?
Where does your inspiration for music come from? Which sort of mood produces the best song?
The inspiration comes from a simple act of living I would say. Even an attempt to experiment musically might have dusty ties to a reckless attitude one might possess in daily life. I am not sure if there is an ideal mood to produce the best song though.
Recently your debut album „Flamacue“ came out. How does the birth of a new composition happen for you? How does your compositional process work?
If we are talking in musical terms, it mostly starts in three different ways: groove, sound or in the form of short melodies. Arrangement is the stage where I involve more analytical thinking though. The reason for this is that emotions and instincts fundamentally make up the other segments (grooves, sounds, melodies) of the song in sentimentally-sourced ways. Yet alone this mostly only creates a jam rather than a song for me. Accomplishing an impulsive arrangement is sometimes not that different from solving a puzzle whose pieces happen to have been created by me already. Compared to putting a drum groove on, this assembling process often requires more analytical thinking while creativity is still desired. After the initiative, it either needs a grip to stay how it appeared in the first place or it shouldn’t hesitate to wander around.
Imagine you can choose a movie and put your music in it as a soundtrack. Which movie would you choose?
I would edit the “Sand grains” and put it in the first Matrix movie.
How does the visual aspect relate to and reflect your music?
Music is a picture that everyone sees differently. I always design the release artworks and Spotify canvases (max 8 sec video clips that loop on Spotify) on my own. This definitely gives me more freedom for expression. In the artwork of “Flamacue” for instance, the blue and red add a bit more boldness to the whole album resulting from a contrast between these two colours. Since music is subjective, I sometimes prefer the visuals to be subjective as well, meaning giving a space to the listener regarding the comprehension of the colours and the shapes. Moreover; the logo design along with the website representation is intended to reflect the music coming out as well.
What’s next for you? What are you most looking forward to?
Continuing cycling in every possible way and moving towards playing live. I only used to play live in front of a crowd as a rock drummer at a young age, not really as an electronic artist. Further, original productions along with the first remix release and a music video are just among the things cooking.
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