Dear readers, we are pleased to offer you in this article an interview with a German artist who weaves together Electronic, Avant-Garde and Post-Prog sounds. Please welcome Ophelia Sullivan.
Hello, how are you?
“Hello! I’m doing ok. Preparations for the upcoming release have been challenging and at times quite stressful but also extremely rewarding. I’m just so happy to get this new chapter of my work out there soon. It’s a very special moment in my career for me.“
Your career started by proposing Electronic and Experimental music, which particular anecdotes and memories have remained with you from these experiences?
“One of my unquestionable highlights was my performance as ECSTASPHERE at Maschinenfest 2016. I was lucky enough to be able to make it onto the stage of this legendary countercultural festival just before its last edition in 2018. Turbinenhalle in Oberhausen. Undoubtedly the best sounding and looking stage I’ve ever had the pleasure to perform my music on. What characterized this festival for me was this really unique culture of communitization of knowledge. There was little to no seperation between artists and audience and we would spend a lot of time just sharing our methods and artistic approaches with each other. I really cherish my time at Maschinenfest. But as for my most personally rewarding concert experience so far, I’d have to say that came quite a while later, 2020 in London. I performed at this amazing festival, Chaos Theory Fest, at the Boston Music Room. It was actually a festival mostly showcasing experimental Rock, Metal and Post-… music, which you can probably imagine held quite the significance to me considering what sort of music I had already been working on on the side for years. And part of this festival was this special Electronic late night lineup under the monicker “Towards Collapse” with a handful of experimental and progressive Electronic music acts, including myself. And the crowd was just… beyond amazing. You know, that feeling when you really connect with an audience, when an audience whole-heartedly embraces following the narration and dramaturgy of what you’re putting out, and you can feel their bodies collectively reacting to each and every twist and turn. They grow more and more euphoric each time you penetrate their minds with some unexpected wall of sound, you grow more and more euphoric each time you feel their bodies reacting to the impact a musical phrase or turn has had. You feel so seen, it’s indescribable. I think this sort of symbiosis only happens when there is a certain sort of trust established between an audience and an artist, and it has nothing to do with familiarity with the material or anything like that, but rather with a certain mindset on both sides, an unspoken, unconscious agreement. I open up to you, and you open up to me. I’m not only here to party with myself, I’m here to become one with you for just a moment. This sort of thing doesn’t happen to me a lot in this pure form, to be honest, so I still think about that concert a lot.“
With your new project the sound is Post-Progressive with traits of Avant-Garde, Experimental and Alternative. Where does your passion for these genres of music come from?
“Well, I grew up listening to a lot of Progressive Rock because of my parents, so I guess I was always heavily predisposed to these sorts of genres. But to dig a little deeper, I think at the core of it is probably the fact that I am completely obsessed with contrast. I didn’t realize this about myself for the longest time, but nowadays I know that it wasn’t so much the instrumental virtuosity, alluring structural complexity or the inherent intellectualism that drew me to Progressive music, but rather the indulgent experimentation with contrast that is so central to the spirit of Prog. Whether you listen to the works of Jethro Tull, Opeth or even Björk – there is always this intricate interplay between contrasting structural parts, style elements, instrumentations and so on. The juxtaposition of the hard and the soft, the loud and the quite, of heavily distorted power chords and tender violin phrases, of meditative soundscapes and restless breakbeats, things like that. For me, personally, contrast evokes a very emotional mode of listening, it makes me really invested in the musical dramaturgy I’m following. I also just personally relate to the concept a lot as a non-binary person. Contrast simultaneously demonstrates the ubiquity and absurdity of binaries.“
“Disposable Identity,” your debut album, is due out in October 2023, how would you describe this work?
“An act of liberation. Tender, passionate and brutal. Versatile, eclectic, inconvenient and unapologetically emotional.“
The music and vocals are intense and sophisticated, what themes do the lyrics deal with?
“The main themes of the album are mental health, otherness, sexuality, identity and vulnerability. Some of the songs also deal with relationships, love, passion, connection, heartbreak and so on. I’m the kind of person who has their most important processes of self-reflection in relation to others, through the mirror of loved ones’ gaze (or sometimes the absence thereof) I see myself.“
Several instrumentalists participated in the album, what did they bring to the sound of the album?
“This was my first time working with instrumentalists on an album, on every release before I would always just do everything myself. So I was really nervous about this but it was the best decision I could ever have made for the album. I worked with Daniel Gräupner on the piano, Vanessa Jung on additional guitars and Fenix Gayed added some actual drums to my programmed electronic percussion on some of the tracks. Vanessa really brought another level of precision and a much fuller, sharper sound to the guitars, and also she improvised that amazing solo on the album’s opener, “Hourglass”, which I could never have come up with, let alone played. I love it. Daniel actually made a lot of subtle but extremely impactful changes to my original piano arrangements that really add a lot to the album. This is especially evident in “The Key.” Working with him was such a joy, he’s a really passionate musician. And well, Fenix brought something to the table I was desperately missing in some of the songs: the mind of an actual drummer, and a brilliant one at that. The drums on the closing track, “Core”, really became what they are now through Fenix’s creative input. And I also have to mention Mo Harris Sommer, a fellow theater composer, who added just the tiniest bit of additional guitars to the intro of “Core”, it’s actually just a few notes but somehow it was so impactful, really breathed so much life into the song.And then there were all the wonderful string players, who are just too many to all mention by name and comment on individually here, but please do check out the album credits to see who played. We recorded with a string quartet for “Hourglass”, “The Key” and “Farewell To The Suffering” and with a string orchestra for “Rest Your Trigger On My Finger” and “The Game”. I really cannot overstate how crucial this was to the sound of the album. Before I started producing it, I didn’t expect for the string arrangements I’d written to take on quite such a central role in the mixes, but they really did and I am so incredibly grateful to have had the privilege of working with the string players.“
Is this new project of yours just for studio recording or do you have plans for live dates?
“Oh, I definitely want to play live with this project, no question! It’s just gonna take a little while longer. It’s lots more logistically complicated than I’m used to from my electronic solo projects. After the release of the album, 30 th October, I’m going to start developing the live setup and adapting the songs with a small live band. I’m planning on playing the first concerts in the second half of 2024.
How difficult is it (if at all) to establish yourself in the modern music market with a more elaborate genre like yours?
“I can’t really answer that because so far I’ve always had difficulties establishing myself and I think there are a lot of things factoring into that, not only questions of genre, but yeah, that certainly didn’t help. Actually I believe this new album might be the least niche thing I’ve ever put out there and if you listen to it you’ll find that says a lot. So I really don’t have any comparison. But I mean, let’s be honest, we all know what a nightmare of commodification and exploitation the music market has become. So it also becomes a question of: how much do you even want to participate in these exploitative structures, at what cost are you willing to establish yourself to what degree and, frankly, do you have at least some of the privileges that allow you to navigate these structures without serious threat to your mental wellbeing?“
What advice would you give to young artists approaching music with experimental sounds like yours?
“I would say: if you’re able to, collaborate as much as possible with other artists you respect. Exchange ideas and methods, show each other how you work your gear, explain to each other the meaning behind your creative choices. Discuss music with other musicians, but also with artists of other mediums, as much as possible. Apart from the obvious fact that new perspectives will help you grow as an, it also just feels really good to share passions, makes you feel less alone with them. Above all, music needs to remain a source of pleasure to you. Which leads me to my next point: be really careful not to let your creativity primarily become an avenue for monetization. Contemplate professionalization carefully. Stay in touch with the underlying needs that led you to making music. Never stop asking yourself: are these needs still being met? Being able to create music is so very, very precious and should remain somewhat of a safe space for you, if possible. And most importantly I would say: never stop listening to lots of music from a wide range of genres, time periods, locations and communities. You need to be able to keep being surprised by music in a way you simply cannot surprise yourself. Only by continuosly being confronted with things you’ve never heard before, you’ve never even imagined before, will you be able to sustain the sort of relationship to music that makes you want to continue growing as an artist.“
Do you have any other passions or artistic activities outside music?
“Well, first of all, there’s quite a bit of overlap there. I’m a big fan of theater, performance art and dance theater and I’ve been able to integrate my craft with these other art forms more and more over the years because apart from pursuing my own music projects I also work as a composer for theater, performance and dance projects. I also write a bit of poetry from time to time. And once in a blue moon I suddenly get the urge to paint, then I paint a bunch of paintings in the span of a few days and the urge vanishes again for a year or two. It’s pretty funny how that works.“
I thank Ophelia for the interview and wish them all the best for the continuation of their artistic career.
