Rosemary

Sunflower Tape Machine is the pseudonym and brain-child of Aryaman Singh, an independent musician based in Chennai, India. His love for gear, messing with sounds, and tape echo, result in a vibrant aesthetic, and a dreamy soundscape. His music transports listeners to a sonic realm where memories collide with the present, evoking a sense of nostalgia for those who experienced the yesteryear firsthand while effortlessly resonating with today's generation. Through carefully crafted melodies and lyrics, he explores universal themes, creating a relatable and emotionally charged experience for audiences worldwide. His discography and outlook on music, so far, have been very inspired by the likes of Tame Impala, Dayglow and My Bloody Valentine. While dream pop, shoegaze, and modern indie/alternative music lie at the heart of his creative inspiration, he remains open to exploring a wide range of genres.

His latest single, Rosemary, is a fully acoustic Indie-Folk track about young love from the listeners perspective. The character, Rosemary, who the song is about, isn't anyone in particular but rather, a collective representation of the people you desire, but cannot be with. “It is my most personal track yet, and an extremely relatable one as everyone has come across a rosemary at some point in their life,” says Singh. Visually, the aesthetic of the entire release is very cottage-core, from the album art, to the press shots. Sonically, it merges traditional folk elements with Sunflower's inclination for experimenting with vocals and how they are perceived.

What has the past year been like for you? Could you tell us about your personal and professional endeavours, and anything else that you’ve been occupied with?
Deciding to take some time off to explore my art and work on a larger body of work was extremely difficult and took a toll on me as doing so would’ve made me lose the momentum I gained through Sophomore Sweetheart and Internet Friends. The last year has been a rollercoaster, to say the least; I scrapped my initially planned big release because it was no longer true to who I was as an artist, I had countless episodes of writer's block and, since I never went to university and music was all I did full time, the number of unproductive hours filled my mind with “what if this doesn’t work out” thoughts. This forced me to join a university to study film, but I dropped out one month later. It took me a while, but I finally realised it was okay to take some time off, because it was the music that mattered the most. Ever since, I’ve been working on a larger body of work (an EP/Album) that I aim to release by late 2023/early 2024.

How would you define your musical sensibility? What do you use as inspiration for your music?
When it comes to music and production, I am almost completely self taught. Most of what I do is just out of pure instinct rather than technical knowledge. While some people get extremely technical with their work, my approach to making music has always been a very “mess with knobs until this sounds good” approach. This doesn’t necessarily work for everyone, but I’ve done it so much that I eventually developed a pretty good ear and acquired all the necessary skills in the process. That is also what inspires me the most; This almost playful, friendly relationship that I have with music, and the world of beautiful sounds we can by just messing around.

You say Rosemary is your most personal track yet. What did the writing process feel like? How was it different from songs you’ve composed before?
The writing process for Rosemary was one of the most organic of anything I’ve written. It started with me stumbling across the chords, one night, when I was just laying in bed with my guitar. I was absolutely in love with the chords but I was forcing it down the alt-rock/indie-pop route that I usually go with. It wasn’t until a few days later did I realise, that slowing it down and playing it on the acoustic guitar, made it extremely intimate and bittersweet. That’s when the track truly started taking shape. Immediately all that I could think of, were the last few lines of the song “and i wish i could see her, and i wish i could feel her, and i wish i could hold her” and every other word in the song just came to me, because it is about being in such a familiar position that almost everyone has been in. One of the biggest aspects of intimacy is familiarity and that is exactly what I’ve tried to capture with the sonics of Rosemary. I've tried to make it the most intimate experience possible for the listener, rather than it being just another song. 

If you could give young and upcoming musicians in India one piece of advice, what would it be?
It took me quite a while, but I’m so glad this finally struck me. These last few months have been (knock on wood) such a breath of fresh air when it comes to the music I’m writing; from Rosemary that’s out later this month, to the other ideas and demos that have come up. It got me extremely emotional because I was finally able to write new music that I was proud of, after what felt like the longest episode of writer's block that I’ve had. I’ve always wanted to talk about this on a public forum, because I noticed a pattern about my creative block that I think a lot of us artists are still trying to look for/struggling with.

Every time I sat at my workstation to try and make music, I always sat with the intention to make a hit. This was almost always followed with me laying down some chords, trying to make something out of it, getting disappointed, demeaned, and scrapping the project. We crave an unrealistic amount of perfection and that’s the biggest mistake most of us are making. I backtracked every time I made a song I was proud of, and realised that almost every single one of those times, it wasn’t until I truly aimlessly sat with my guitar/at my desk with no expectations in mind. You never know when inspiration will strike. Don’t try to be someone you’re not. Make whatever comes to you, with whatever you have access to (including skill) at that given moment. Don’t give it more thought than necessary and don’t beat yourself up over it. No one decides what is good and what isn’t, the same way no one decides what is perfect and what isn’t.

You’re born and brought up in Chennai, and a large chunk of your musical journey is based there. Have the city and its people influenced your music in any way? What about Chennai’s music scene do you like and dislike?
It’s so easy finding inspiration in Chennai as it is such a culturally and socially diverse place. What’s not to love about this city? I’ve lived here all my life and the city and its people have given me nothing but love in return. The support I received from everyone (And I literally mean everyone. Somehow everyone just knows each other in Chennai) was a big part of what has kept me going in the past, and what is keeping me going now. The music scene here has picked up so much in the last five years and it is the most wholesome music scene you will come across. It is such a closely knit scene where everyone looks out for each other, whether they’re artists, promoters or listeners. 

And lastly, what do you have planned for the future? What are some things you’d like to work on and achieve?
Apart from releasing the album/EP; A lot of my listeners are based in the United States, United Kingdom, Australia and South East Asia. I would love to, over the next year or so, expand the live experience to markets outside of India. 

Rosemary will be out on the 21st of July. Photography by Shantanu Krishnan. 

Words Neeraja Srinivasan
Date 18-07-2023