The name TURQUOISEDEATH feels like a paradox—bright color and finality. Is that contrast intentional?
Not necessarily, but now I think it reflects my music pretty well. Moments of blissful atmosphere broken up by darker and more hazardous moments. It’s just a coincidence though, I picked that name because it sounded cool when I was 14.
Was there any intent behind making your name all caps or just for visual effect?
I thought it would catch people’s attention that way. It’s a weird name so the more it stands out the more it catches your eye.
What does your musical community look like for you now? Most people based out of London, online friends, etc.?
The people I collaborate with are usually somewhere else in the world. I don’t think I’ve met anyone who is into the kind of electronic music I make in London. It’s kind of an uncool sound, which I embrace. I’m the guy who makes sappy trance. My “community” is really just the members of Breakers Gang. I connect with them musically, we share a similar taste.
Any people you’re looking to collaborate with in the future?
Nobody in particular, but I’m looking to work with instrumentalists in the future. It feels like a logical step to start using real instruments. Oh, but maybe Traumprinz would be an ideal collaboration.
Do you have aspirations to move (if yes, where?)
Iceland. Either that or a cabin in the welsh woods. Both immensely unaffordable, but a dream is a dream!!
What do you seek when thinking about moving to a new city?
Beautiful scenery and kind people. And a functioning public transport system. I live in the middle of London so you get basically none of that. When I traveled to Sweden a few years ago I was really amazed by how efficient everything is. I do love London however, there’s just something here you don’t get anywhere else. I’ll probably move after I finish my time at University though, especially if the political climate gets any worse than it already is, and it looks like it will.
Outside of making music, what do you like spending time doing/What's a standard day look like for you?
I like to go on long walks, play my drumkit, watch movies, and draw. I also do a bit of gardening sometimes. You get a lot of deep, rich sounds if you mess around with a leaf, field recordings wise.
When did you start getting into creating music?/Did you have an “Ah ha” moment for wanting to start dedicating all of this time?
Back in 2021, I started arranging loops on Bandlab and made some songs. My family said they were surprisingly good and thought I wrote everything myself. I guess that I just enjoyed doing it and downloaded FL Studio. The first 5 months of making music on a DAW were so frustrating. Like, “how the fuck do I do this??”. Then you get used to it. It did help that I had been playing piano and drums for a long time, so writing melodies was more fun than clicking them into a piano roll. When “Guessabelle” came out, I decided to take the whole project a lot more seriously. I guess I felt like I found the thing I really want to do.
You once joked about “putting way too much reverb and delay” in your music, how did you develop the TURQUOISEDEATH sound beyond that starting point?
I guess a lot of trial and error? You find things that work over time and rely on them, that becomes a “sound” you are known for. Then you instantly feel the urge to tear it all down and introduce new things to the sound. I’d say the sound consists of a lot of wide reverb, synth pads, panning inconsequential sonic elements and sound effects and melodies made from bells and pianos. That’s just the kind of music I like. I also do a lot of sampling. All the vocals in my music are sampled.
Your songs tend to revolve around a few yet lush chord changes with lots of extensions. Is this something you do consciously or is it a sound you are naturally drawn to?
I self-taught piano, so I didn’t initially learn any music theory. I know a bit now but I don’t really care about playing the “correct” chords. I just play whatever sounds cool. I’d say I’m playing what I’m naturally drawn to, yeah! The chords in “The Looking Glass” are probably at offensive levels of cheesy, but that’s the kind of sound I like to make. It would probably make more sense if I mention that I self taught piano by recreating anime openings. “Haruka Mirai” from Black Clover was one of my biggest inspirations. Listen to that guitar line! (It’s SO GOOD!!)
Along the same lines, some of your chords are reminiscent of something you’d find played on guitar for a shoegaze track but in an electronic context; given some of your collaborators are in this scene as well (Asian Glow, Parranoul), what draws you to wanting to intertwine those genres?
I really enjoy the two genres, and I think the ethereal beauty of dream pop and shoegaze mixed with the high pace adrenaline of drum & bass is equal to a sensory overload. That was the aim with “A Sky Fell”, like a 6 minute shoegaze track packed into 3 minutes with all the same amount of punch and emotion. I’m not entirely interested in redoing that combination. Maybe one day, but right now I’m more focused on entirely electronic stuff. I’m 100% sure someone is going to do breakgaze better soon.
When you’re arranging a song, does it begin with you playing a keyboard or an instrument, or does the process revolve around programming in your DAW?
It does depend on the song, but for something like Guardian, for the most part it was playing the melodies and then building something around it. Canyon of Secrets and Voyager for example were built off of these simple chords and melodic phrases. I’d then keep developing the music until I got somewhere with it.
The closing song on your newest album Guardian, ‘Close Your Eyes,’ is a 30-minute masterpiece, how did you even begin to approach creating a song like that? Did you intend to make something like that for the albums closer?
I knew I wanted to do a big piece for the final part. I originally thought that I’d do a 17-20 minute song, which is already ridiculous. That’s what I started with, and it was a demo called “My Best Friends”. I left it, then about 4 months later took my laptop to a library and basically did the exoskeleton for the rest, and spent a good few months occasionally visiting it and tweaking or adding new things. I think any producer can relate to the feeling of being scared to touch a song… that’s how I was. When it was finished, I was like, “holy shit, this is EXACTLY 30 minutes long”. I decided it was probably fate and just left it at that length. The idea behind this song was to match the journey and arc of the first disc but in a darker tone. After the first disc, being poppier and more melodramatic, the real sense of danger is thrown at you. It is an entire half of the record after all, so I wanted there to be a sense of story. The entire idea behind Guardian was how “visible” I could make the music. I want the synths to be streaks of light when you close your eyes, and I want there to be an entire world you can visualize, but also vibe to when your doing other stuff.
Do you have any future aspirations for how you would like your music to develop?
Not really. Development usually happens naturally as I become inspired by new sounds and ideas. I think forcing an idea of what I “want to do” will ultimately be a disservice to the music I’m supposed to make. Good music is spontaneous!
Your music seems to dabble in a lot of different sub-genres of DnB. Do you actively think in genres when making music, or is it more spontaneous (or both)?
I consider genre when putting together rhythm but other than I just do whatever I can think of really. They usually end up sounding like a specific genre though, that's probably subconscious.
Your music seems to always build a world in my headphones. Do you take influences from any real world spaces?
I’m usually just trying to make a place that I wish existed… sometimes I feel like this reality isn’t magical enough. It’s easy to feel like that when you forget how magical it already is. I didn’t remember it until after Guardian was released.
What did you listen to growing up? Where did you learn about new music?
I grew up on Avicii, Depeche Mode, New Order, Lucinda Williams, Television, Nick Drake, Steve Earle, Coldplay, Rufus Wainwright, Arcade Fire, Van Morrison etc etc. My mum had an Ipod and I listened to all 300 albums on it in my childhood.
How has what you’ve listened to changed over time?
I tend to listen to a lot more in general now. I give anything a chance. There is great music hidden in almost any album.
Do you have a dream artist/artists to perform/tour with?
Wow, I’ve never given this any thought! I guess Dillinja. It wouldn’t happen but I would love to play a set through a valve system.
Any live shows coming up?
Maybe next year. Maybe.
What’s your favourite part about performing?
Not sure yet!! I guess watching the crowd lock into a groove would be pretty amazing. That or doing epic mega hype aura DJ moments.
Any chance we could see you in Chicago!?
That could happen…
[Place for a shameless plug]
Check out the new Mark William Lewis album, its sick as fuck. Check out vmrrobotic’s album “Observatory”. “I Only Care About You” by Teresa Teng is also amazing. I found it after watching a film called “Comrades, Almost a Love Story” which I absolutely loved. I've also recently been reading a manga called "Hirayasumi" and I really love it. I recommend it to anyone who likes a chill story and really loveable characters. Also I dropped a new EP, it’s pretty different from my usual stuff. I just wanted to get silly for once. I’m not all atmosphere. I think people would be pretty confused if they went through the demos on my laptop.