An Interview With Australian Musician, ROCHELLE VINCENTE VON K On Her Debut Single “Blazing”, Her Inspirations and More!

Rochelle Vincente Von K is Viennese born Australian singer, songwriter, actress, dancer and chocolatier to the stars.

Her globetrotting career started in Australia gracing magazines such as Vogue, Elle, Harper’s Bazaar, and she moved onto TV and film appearances. Rochelle has collaborated with many artists, such as Ursula 1000 / Dr Luke, Alter Ego, Larry Tee / Princess Superstar, Adam Freeland, Bassnectar & Katie Melua, touring to crowds of 40 000+ people with bands such as Wilson Pickett, Fatboy Slim, The Lightening Seeds & Krome Angels, as well as performances for Radio One, XFM and Tate Britain.

Here is the iTunes link for the track: https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/id1116767286

Photo credit goes to Alex Huggan.

Learn more about Rochelle in the following All Access interview:

Growing up, did you always want to be a musician? Can you recall your earliest musical memory?

I never planned to get into music, no, it was definitely something that found me, and then had to chase me quite a bit, eventually I got the message! One of my earliest memories was sitting with Frank Zappas keyboardist Alan Zavod on our house boat at Lake Eildon in Australia, and Alan teaching me chopsticks!

Why use your real name when so many artists don’t? Do you think it helps create a whole other persona for you?

I had a band in London called Product.01, we did a lot of electronica, dance music, remixes and so forth, then I would collaborate with various music producers, and to separate myself from the band the producers would use my real name, so as a singer people got to know me like that. When I started this project I wasn’t sure about a name for it, and then figured people already know me as my name, so why make it more difficult?

Changing personas is an internal channelling process for me and nothing to do with my name, but I can see why people do it, and I will probably do it in the future, I am always moving forward and changing things up, so I am sure at some stage I will have a new band name too .. probably for the newly written songs after this album.

Let’s talk about your debut single, “Blazing”. Where did the inspiration for it come from?

It was inspired by watching humanity and nature being overridden by corporation.. they say that you can always tell how a society is dominated by their biggest buildings, so back in the day it was the church, and now it’s corporations .. but then one person in our society comes along and does something really amazing to change something, and so it’s a reminder that each of us is powerful, imagine what we could do as a collective ? Plus a reminder that if you don’t like something then don’t cooperate with it. Don’t feed it with your money. We have the power to switch off the machine at any point. The people who are aware complain about it constantly, so Blazing is a reminder that really, if we don’t like it, let’s change it. Let’s start, one by one.

Where did the concept for the video for “Blazing” come from exactly? How creatively involved were you with production of it?

I am very inspired by Day Of The Dead, which is a celebration of life. So it’s about the rebirth of us as a society thru the death of the old things that no longer work.

All the characters are going about their day and being brainwashed in various ways. This is how a society is constructed, because people are by nature born good, we have to be manipulated in ways with false information to either feel we are doing good, or someone else is bad, hence pitting one against the other. So the video is about the different levels of society, the ones holding it together, the ones floating thru it completely unaware, the ones rebelling against it and choosing to go into vibrational rebirth to create something new and better.

We didn’t have a budget for this video, and that limitation forces you to express yourself differently to if you do. We had to get very creative in HOW we were gonna portray the message !

I was very involved in the production side, I also did the dance choreography and put all that together ..  … I had all these ideas and the director Jeff Skeirik was asking ‘but why?’ I had a vision but didn’t always have an answer ! Why do most music videos from the 80s and 90s have no storyline? Why are the band in the desert and then suddenly popping out of a ball and eating a vegimite sandwich on a boat? I have no idea! To me that’s the spirit of music videos. I don’t always want things to make sense. That’s how I’m wired, so Jeff helped to create a story ha ha ha

What is the significance that goes with “Blazing”?

Get off the machine and be free !

After “Blazing” officially comes out, when do we expect new music from you?

There will be some Blazing remixes – one of which is just about complete by Butterfly Child and Stephen Hague, and then another single before the album drops !

As you travel throughout Europe so much, how do you think your experiences have influenced you as a musician and your sound in general?

In Australia everything was about indie and rock at the time, I was always attracted to dance music, and I didn’t fit in. It really was just dance cover bands, and very little original dance music. So I moved to Europe to find my tribe. I eventually did, and the amazing thing was when my records started being played on radio in Australia they had no idea I’m from Melbourne, thought I was British ! I would do radio interviews and visit record stores in Australia and they would be shocked to discover I have an Aussie accent. It was also amazing to see the EDM explosion in Australia… and now America. It’s a different sound to Europe because Europe has been doing it for so long… but it’s opening people up to experimentation and a new sound pallet.

Living in Europe was a deeply enriching experience and I treasure it. They were great days, I wouldn’t know where to begin.. it influenced me on every level, as experiencing so many different cultures does.

Who are some of your favorite musicians? Who would you love to work with one day in the future?

I wrote Prince here, before he died. I had the great pleasure of meeting him, it’s a long story but essentially I was a “chosen one” by him. I also knew his musicians and some of the producers he worked with.. and David Bowie.. it’s been a bad year for losing great artists of our generation-ish.. it’s a heavy question to answer today.

For the future I would LOVE to work with Brian Tyler and Junkie XL, I’m very inspired by the music they create.

At the end of the day, what do you hope is the message of your music? What do you hope listeners take away from your songs?

I simply want to be honest in my music. Sometimes it’s serious, sometimes it’s silly. I don’t want to work to a formula to manipulate the masses… I want it to continue to be a clear channel of inspiration, fun, sensuality .. whatever that ends up sounding like on the day !

For more on Rochelle, check out her website- www.rochellevincentevonk.com