Name: R.O.S.A.
Nationality: German
Current release: R.O.S.A.'s new album No Peace for You is out via This Charming Man.
Recommendation for Berlin, Germany: Check out Neue Zukunft where we promoted our release concert.

If you enjoyed this R.O.S.A. interview and would like to know more about the band and their music, visit them on Instagram, and bandcamp.



When was the first time you noticed you were drawn to darker themes and moods in music, literature or the movies?

Phantom of The Opera, Amenra, MySpace Texts, black Hair, experimenting with dark delay tones on e guitar in basement of house as a Teenager, Tool, Nine Inch Nails, earlier Slipknot (Subliminal Verses).

“Darkness” is, of course, not strictly speaking a term related to sound. What constitutes darkness to you, especially in instrumental terms?

Creating atmosphere to put images in your head or to bring you in a mood. Hard to describe it technically because e.g. for the guitar, there are so many different ways of riffing, types of melodies, song structure, effects, etc. And you can find such ways for kinda any instrument.

In a multi-instrumental setting, like a band, it depends on how you put everything together to create a mood of darkness.

How would you describe the physical sensation and possible attraction of being exposed to darkness in music?

It matches how you feel inside.

And the fact that someone else created that particular musical piece tells you that it's okay to feel dark inside and others do, too.

Does your interest in darker musical themes extend into extra-musical fields such as fashion, or politics?

Fashion: You can always wear black.

Politics: Start to put some focus on the darker spots in the world, like fascism. They’ll haunt you anyway, and when you fear them, it might bring you down, stay angry and fierce.

Who/what are currently artists, labels or even genres which draw you in because of their darker approaches, aesthetics and sound(s)?  

Amenra, Emma Ruth Rundle, Russian Circles, Chelsea Wolfe, just to name some.



Speaking of labels? You can always rely on Sargent House and Deathwish.

Genres? Definitely Goth.

What were some of the first performances or releases when you became active in exploring truly dark places in your music yourself?

Two songs come to my mind.

With one of my former bands, Souls For Sale, we released the downtempo song “Almeria” which includes some experimenting with delay effects.



And with another band, Mayak, we released Trenches, which goes more in a kinda melancholic direction, mixing death and black metal components, of course with some delay effects too ;)



I have had a hard time explaining that listening to death metal calms me down. When you're performing a piece with a darker energy, does it tend to fill you with the same energy or feeling – or are there “paradoxical” effects?

When we play with R.O.S.A. it’s always a catharsis and you can let everything out. That’s one of the big reasons why we love to play gigs. And and some point I tend to fall into a story in my head while doing the riffs.

For example, playing “Geometry Of Control” I always have the image of a bat in my head flying to a high castle and when the slower cleaner part comes, the children of the night awaken out of their tombs …



Tell me about the creative process for No Peace for You, please.

We all bring ideas into the room and create something new about it together. We decided to ask Jan in Hidden Planet, because of his releases all the years.

In the studio,  we didn't really overdub the effects but I continued to play along, using the effectboard exactly like on stage. The music is made in the room with you and not in a streaming platform.

Throughout the history of art, there have been artists who did not want to exorcise their demons, afraid they might lose their creative spark. What's your take on that?

You do you.