London based singer, songwriter, and producer ROCH shares a new video for latest single + album title track ‘Via Media’.
A slinky, melancholic pop song, partly inspired by a small drawing of a violin by the Polish artist Franciszka Themerson – the video examines people’s perception of space in the world we live in.
Directed by Linda Dorigo, speaking on the video ROCH said: “I saw the creation of a music video as an opportunity to invite the viewer in to a space I momentarily inhabit. I’m interested in our perception of space and the people within it, which compliments the songs themes of communication and placement.”
“Untangle our selves from what’s feared,” she sings, breathily, over soft synths and a staccato beat. “We are tipping / While we’re missing / Sounds of violins and roads / Keeping our distance yet welded so deep.”
With a sound that is completely unique, ROCH’s (aka Kate Miller) spiralling electronic pop creations are truly something to treasure. Fascinated by crossovers of space and language, and by rethinking the “mundane and ubiquitous ideas” found in every day life. The bridging of grand scale and domestic scale is a concept Miller has been exploring in her work since her time studying performance and sculpture at University of the Arts London’s Central Saint Martin’s college, and continues to probe in the impassioned synth pop she makes as ROCH.
Miller’s interest in the lofty versus the mundane stems from her religious background as well. Roch was Miller’s confirmation name, after St. Roch, the patron saint of the plague. Miller grew up going to Catholic school and studied 13th and 14th century medieval art history in school. She’s captivated by medieval art, patron saints, and religious paraphernalia, and the way those emblems manifest in every day life. “The music is influenced in a lot of ways by sacrifice,” Miller explains. In line with depictions of Catholicism and sainthood, the songs on ROCH’s debut album, Via Media, often deal with sacrifice of the body—taking that quintessential religious image into the every day. Instead of the sacrifice being for God, it’s for family, career, or comradery. “Rather than this saintly sacrifice being these dramatic Catholic ascension-type scenes, it’s work, labour, pregnancy.”
ROCH’s debut album ‘Via Media’ is released 6th March 2020 (self-released). Pre-order here.