In the spotlight – Rogue Proxy
Rogue Proxy is a two-man team, childhood friends from Canada with years of music experience, reunited to work on a studio production focused music project. Their goal? To blend vintage tones and styles with modern production techniques to produce a new rocking and grooving sound… A new flavour of rock!
Who is Rogue Proxy? Is he a man, a robot, a superhuman?
“Rogue is our conduit to transmit sound, energy and visual wildness. While working on perfecting our sound (driving tube amps to their limits, hitting compressors way too hard and pumping the saturation into the red) we went too far and a freak accident occurred and Rogue appeared! Rogue took control of our music and image and has become our out of control proxy!!! Rogue lives in your speakers. He lives in your TV. He lives in your computer. He is everywhere and anywhere he wants to be!”
Rogue is described as the illegitimate love child between the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Daft Punk. Growing up as a rebellious teen he was influenced by everything from Black Sabbath to Massive Attack to Jimi Hendrix to Jamiroquai and more.
Thus far Rogue Proxy has released three singles. All of the songs come with a fantastic animation video starring Rogue. The first single ‘Dirty Pool’ is at #7 in the chart. It’s a classic rock song with a modern twist.
In ‘Dirty Pool’ Rogue sings “You must wash your sins”. Does Rogue have any musical sins?
“Rogue works with ones and zeroes, and has no moral compass and we never know what to expect. Rogue will break every rule during songwriting and music production to get that exciting new sound he wants!!! It comes at a price of not fitting the typical formula nowadays, but he can live with that.”
What does Rogue want to preach?
“Rogue is wild and can not always be taken seriously. The last thing he said that made any sense was “Rock ‘n Roll and vodka will save your soul!”
The second track ‘Old Show’ is a retro and laid back instrumental track. Back to the psychedelic ’70’s! Bring out the chill guitar riffs and vintage organ! It’s jazz, but also blues and it has a trippy video. It takes me back to the to the time my parents used to have orange curtains that resemble the orange wallpaper in the video.
What is Rogue’s favourite old show?
“That has to be Magnum PI.”
(“Up tot eleven” is a reference to the 1984 movie “This is Spinal Tap”, where the guitarist proudly demonstrates an amplifier whose volume knobs are marked from zero to eleven instead of ten, ed.)
So, what song deserves to be played at eleven?
“Rogue loves old rock, but is very focused on the new and not living in the past. One track that stands out as sounding great cranked, is ‘Give Life Back to Music’ by Daft Punk. The mix, production and players on that album are amazing, maybe not considered rock but what a great mix of rock and pop and that big fat pumping low end!”
The recently released single ‘Dressed to the Nines’ can best be described as Red Hot Chilli Pepers meets Daft Punk.
Speaking of ‘Dressed to the nines’, who is Rogue’s fashion icon?
“If Rogue had an icon, it would be a mix somewhere between Jane Birkin, Antoni Gaudi, Lady Gaga and Elvis Presley. The notion of fashion seems to fascinate Rogue, going retro in ‘Old Show’ and disco-rocker in ‘To The Nines’ and we can expect anything the music inspires in the future.”
It’s safe to say, that no two tracks by Rogue Proxy sound the same. The Rogue Proxy sound stands out as unique and exciting.
Is there anyone Rogue would like to give the evil eye?
“Artists without honest character, like Machine Gun Kelly, blandly trying to tick every marketing box like a formula. Or bedroom guitar players hacking Guns ‘n Roses solos so they can watch themselves on Instagram. These definitely don’t fit Rogues definition of rock ‘n roll!”
How do you feel about the internet in the music industry?
“There is the obvious advantage of the democratizing of the industry, which makes it possible for Rogue Proxy to have fans from all over the world. However, it comes with the need to constantly promote on social media, which drains precious time away from actual music creation.”
What can we expect in the near future?
“Rogue Proxy’s initial three releases are somewhat of a learning experience to start to understand how the online music world works and to start building a following of Roguers. 🙂 Rogue has been learning and computing the path for the future. The trajectory holds the ingredients to push our songs, sound and YouTube presence to the next level! Expect the next release soon and it will pack one hell of a punch!!!”
And for the final question: What’s your favourite song from the Cool 20? “There are many, but we are particular to Higher Funktion by Josephine Pascoe. Slick guitars and funky vintage groove and as an instrumental feels like it would fit well with Rogue’s retro instrumental Old Show.”
