Meet ROZKOL

I'd always wanted to be some sort of artist growing up but took the “practical” path for college and studied computers instead. Still, whatever created that dream as a child was not something easily suppressed, and eventually it overwhelmed me. The fear of leaving such an essential part of myself unexpressed was too powerful to ignore.

When I started, I had no concept of music theory, or the practicality of recording, mixing, and releasing music. I was naive, could barely play my instruments, but driven by a manic compulsion. To an omniscient viewer, I must have looked very much like the ape at the beginning of 2001: A Space Odyssey discovering a bone could be used as a club while the surrounding apes were using power tools and driving spaceships. But there's something to be said for learning “on the job.”

Today, I am so deeply grateful I get to make music. Every fan or creator that messages me, every video or podcast I've ever heard my music pop up in, it brings me inexpressible joy. - ROZKOL

III (Cat's Cradle) - Released 2016
The track I'm proudest of to this day, the one that I think really captures the soul of what I wanted ROZKOL to be when I started, is Teaching Crystals from III.

A driving bass-line, strange metallic percussion, and a lead synth that's actually something like an industrial machine being fed through enough distortion to become a warbling melodic cry like that of some ancient, giant animal. I know I made it, but if I sat down and tried, I could never do it again. - ROZKOL

Rust Symptoms - Released 2017
My most played/used track is Chase Scene. I'm always shocked at how bad I am at guessing based on my own tastes what people will like most on a given release, but it's a freeing realization.

I've never felt compelled over the years to stick to a narrow genre. I make what feels good and true to me at the time and trust that someone out there will find a use for it, whether that's a fairly straight EDM song like this or a gritty/sleazy disco track about Jean-Paul Sartre's "Nausea" like Roquentin from my album Hail. - ROZKOL

Demos Oneiron - Released 2024
My latest album, Demos Oneiron means roughly “the land of dreams”. It's a gentler album than some of my other work, though still a bit more melodic and percussive than my ambient tracks. I've been listening to loads of 90s trip-hop and downtempo music, so I think it's fair to say those sounds have bled in.

Awakening starts the album with what I hope is a bit of a culmination of the sounds I've used throughout my albums at this point. I wish there was more of a story to it, but it's one of those songs that just came together, the driving guitar melody most of all. It gives me the image of staring up at the most beautiful clear blue sky on an orange sunny day—triumphant and serene.

Hey, Coolstepper is a sort of sleazy Dust Brothers-esque trip hop track that I titled after a nickname for my cat, who likes to skulk around the house with these huge stretching steps. When I started with track, I was very afraid to seem too goofy as an “industrial” artist. It felt like the genre demanded a sort of brooding boiling anger to it, but I realized I couldn't, nor did I want to, hold my work to such a self-serious standard.

Samsara is inspired by Philip Glass's cyclical composing techniques. I wanted to close this album with something beautiful. I always try to put my best work out there, because you never know when you're going to release your “last” album. However, I think if this was to be the closing statement of my work as ROZKOL, I can be satisfied thematically and musically. - ROZKOL