festnoise | Music & Festivals

Sep 26

Sep 26 A conversation with ROKKY

Ja Ja Ja Music is the Nordic Club Night that once per month brings the finest emerging talent from Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden to the The Lexington in London and FluxBau in Berlin. It was precisely in Berlin where I first saw ROKKY, a gem still to be discovered.

ROKKY delivers Pop songs with solid electronic bases that inevitably lead us to think about Goldfrapp or Róisín Murphy. But all around ROKKY is a mystery. Despite doing a whole set, there is not much about her or her music we can find on the internet. Fortunately, days after her show we met and had a conversation where I could learn more about her persona and where she is going as an artist.

I met her at the Nordic Night but I'm a bit confused on her origins since I could read she was born in Oxford (UK). What is your connection to the Nordic countries and culture?

ROKKY: “My parents are from Iceland but yeah, I was born in Oxford. I lived in England, moved around a lot and then at 12 moved to Iceland. So I have lived in Iceland as well for four years. Then Munich for a year, France because I wanted to learn French and then back to England where my dad still lives and then Iceland again to finish my A levels. Then finally to Berlin. It's confusing!”.

The desire to learn languages, the financial crisis of Iceland and a parents that moved around a lot, were the reasons why ROKKY moved so much. At some point in between, while being in the countryside of France she would find herself playing Guitar and taking out her first melodies. But it would be years later, back in France to improve her French and surf, where she finally would feel more self-confident after finding the sound and beats she was looking for, recording most of her songs.

Did you always feel the impulse or necessity of making music?

ROKKY: “I remember when I was 8, I was so interested in the idea of finding new music and I wondered how my older siblings found these cool new tracks. I was always dancing and singing in my room with my younger sister, making silly songs. We spent a lot of time as a family driving around and singing along to Billy Idol, Abba and so on...A lot of music in the family!”

“I loved making melodies and when I finally got a Macbook when I was thirteen, there was GarageBand, so I thought: - Woah, this is how I can put it down! - So that's when I started. I was just making stupid stuff with the samples and then there was this DJ competition at school. I always wanted to be a DJ and I used to make a lot of mix CD ́s for the car, but I didn't understand how to DJ or what you needed to do it. I knew the basics of editing in GarageBand, so I just put all the songs I wanted to play together in one track and created fades in and out between each one! Then I went to the place and just pressed play. This compilation even had one of my own songs that I’d created from some banjo samples. I remember people dancing to it, which I was really happy to see, but the banjo made it really funny, it was so ridiculous. Needless to say, I didn't win the competition.”

“I always wanted to make music and play for others, but it wasn't until someone asked me, “So, what are you gonna do with your life?”. And I thought I was gonna do something sensible like international business or something because I thought doing music was just normal, like everybody makes music! And they were like, “No, not everybody makes music!”, so I put more focus into it and took it more seriously I guess!”

How has living in France or in the last years in Berlin, places with a great culture of electronic music, influenced you and the music that you make?

ROKKY: “I love French electronic music! They have such fat synths, all those arpeggiators...it's kind of a little bit 80s synths vibe. I also love how they sing, it's really relaxed and it doesn't have to be perfect. I don't like really perfectly compressed or saturated sounds and I always loved dance music, so when I moved to Berlin, I was like: - Oh my god, this is amazing! - Because when you go out the music is sooo good and it really inspires me.”

With many amazing clubs and a high amount of top DJs, Berlin is considered the capital of electronic music, no doubt about that. But how is the city's scenario for the new talents, are there opportunities to play? Is it feasible to find venues to perform?

ROKKY: “I had a hard time finding places to play, especially because I'm not so well known; like I don't have a following or something. So I created my own events here, evenings where I could play and perform and that's a really good thing here in Berlin actually. You have cool places like Filmkunstbar Fitzcarraldo or Loophole, where I had these events and had two friends who played after me. One is a DJ and the other does live electronic stuff, because you have to create a schedule for a whole evening, not just your own 30-minute set, cause you’ve booked the place. It's really nice but you have to do all the work yourself!”

But on ROKKY ́s emerging career there is a moment that possibly changed everything. One of those moments that sometimes serve to give you the momentum needed to continue in a world (the music business), where a lot of artists usually oscillate between extreme self-confidence and total self-doubt. Before being nominated for the Grammy Awards (2017 and 2019), with certain success but still unknown, ROKKY met Sophie Hawley-Weld and Tucker Halpern, components of the electronic duo Sofi Tukker. Tell me, what is your story with them?

ROKKY: “Well, it was three years ago that I went to one of their concerts at Rosi’s here in Berlin. I was a fan and so I was very excited to see that they were coming to play in Berlin and of course went to the concert. We arrived quite early so we were playing foosball and the backstage was next to the foosball table. Then out walked Tucker! I had seen him in the Drinkee video, so I was like, “Hey Tucker, you don't know me but I was wondering, are you guys doing anything after the concert? You should come clubbing with us!”. I spent the whole gig dancing like crazy and singing along to all of their songs, even though I don’t understand half of them, because they’re in Brazilian Portuguese! At one point, Soph even jumped down to dance with me! It was a lot of fun!”

“And then we went to Berghain after the gig. It was really fun and we always stayed in touch. I was more in contact with Tucker so I said that I make music as well and he asked me to send him some stuff. But I wasn't 100% happy with showing everybody this because I didn't want to show something unfinished, something I wasn't proud of. That's when I went to France and I finally found the sound I was really looking, so I sent him and he called me straight away and he said, “ROKKY, I really want to work with you!”. That also gave me the confidence in my music because they were so enthusiastic about it, sending me videos of them singing to my songs. That was crazy!”

Back to your music, there are only two songs on Spotify and one music video on YouTube. How come you have not released more music?

ROKKY: “Everything takes time and if there’s one thing I’ve learned, it’s patience. I thought there would be more releases out by now to be honest but I assure you, there will be! I'm planning them now with the label and there will be some news around Iceland Airwaves! I'm dying to release my music ‘cause I have a lot! And there is another video on the way too!”.

It's great to hear you have a label that supports you, but surely there is now someone wondering if you have someone helping with the management, press, etc... What's your current situation on that?

ROKKY: “I don't have a manager at the moment, but I do have press in England; Freeman PR, run by Amanda Freeman, she’s super lovely and very cool. And my label, +1 Records , they’re also really nice. I’m very lucky”.

“I am a DIY person definitely. Because of the whole moving around I'm very independent. That's kind of the reason subconsciously why I just wanted to learn to make music by myself. I prefer to rely on myself rather than others. But I would love to have a great manager, of course, it would make things much easier but I’m just waiting for the right manager. Again, patience.”

And how about including other members, have you ever considered playing with someone else or you always wanted to go solo?

ROKKY: “Well, yes, I’ve played a few gigs with a live drummer, like at Secret Solstice this year and at Tallinn Music Week in Estonia. But for the last few gigs I played I've been flying solo and using a trigger pad, so sometimes I do a bit of improvised stuff in between songs. And it's also just when you have to travel and pay your own expenses, you want to try to keep it to a low budget.”

She might not have too much music out there yet, but ROKKY has a cool public playlist on her Spotify artist profile. Is that the music you listen to?

ROKKY: “Yeah! That's the music that I dance to! I listen to a lot of French electronic music but also a lot of DJs and so I tried to do a mix of all that in the playlist. Some artists I even put more than once, like Tiga and Jaded, I just couldn’t help myself!”

ROKKY was this year confirmed for the Icelandic edition of acclaimed Sonar festival, but that was before the festival had to be sadly cancelled after WOW Airlines, the company that the majority of the artists were supposed to fly with ceased operations the week before. However, weeks after she made her debut at Secret Solstice and she is about to perform at Iceland Airwaves.

Iceland, despite its small population and extreme climate has an excellent number of music festivals and ROKKY is in the lineup of the two biggest this year. What are the main differences between one and the other?

ROKKY: “Secret Solstice is in a valley in the middle of Reykjavik. It's a different vibe to Iceland Airwaves and I think there are more people from Iceland and also younger people. At least from my experience. Iceland Airwaves is more spread around the bars and different venues in the city and more international. More press and people coming from abroad. I think I prefer Iceland Airwaves, also because I’m more of a night-owl and it’s a lot darker in winter. Reykjavik is so small compared to other cities and it’s really nice that when you go out around the festival, you know that everybody is going to a concert and it's a nice energy in the air, it's really cozy”.

How is your show at Iceland Airwaves going to be, what can we expect to see?

ROKKY: “I'll be playing two gigs at Iceland Airwaves. I’m playing a slightly more poppy set on the Thursday off-venue at Dillon and then Friday night the main show at Hressó (Hressingarskálinn), which is a really nice dance place. It's gonna get sweaty! It's a dark place which is perfect for my vibe and there will be even more dancing than on the Thursday!”.

Francine Gorman among many other things is the booker of Ja Ja Ja Music, but more importantly she is also behind the Keychange campaign, an initiative which is empowering women to transform the future of the music industry, and encouraging festivals to achieve a 50:50 balance across their programming by 2022 (Iceland Airwaves festival is already part). As a woman, what has been your experience within the music industry in terms of gender?

ROKKY: “Well, I thought there were more women making music. I never really thought of it in terms of gender, but when I saw how surprised many people were when I said I make all the music myself, that’s when I realized there aren't so many female producers. However, I have been meeting a lot of different women who produce their own music and I think more and more women are doing it now. Like the other day at the Ja Ja Ja Music event, there were 3 female producers and solo performers. The only times when I really think about the fact that I’m a woman is when I tell people I make electronic music and they question if I make my own drums and play the things myself. They ask if it’s actually me or if I have someone else doing it for me. I’m not sure they would necessarily ask a man that. It can feel a bit patronizing, but whatever, it doesn't really affect me, I’m fine”.

Before finishing, when are we gonna have the chance to see you perform at any other place but Iceland Airwaves?

ROKKY: “I'm trying to set up a gig in London soon, then I’ll be at Iceland Airwaves, of course and then I will set up another one of these events here in Berlin to play when I have more songs released”.

If you happen to be in Reykjavik (Iceland) on November, don't miss the chance to see ROKKY on Thursday the 7th and Friday the 8th as part of Iceland Airwaves festival (November 6th - 9th). Otherwise follow ROKKY to stay updated on future shows!

Cover photograph by Rut Sigurðardóttir