ROHAN has been playing music for as long as he can remember. Although he grew up in Australia, it was the music of Berkeley’s Green Day that inspired him to start writing songs.
“My mom encouraged me to start piano lessons at a young age,” he said. “I began by playing children’s songs, but then my sister played Green Day’s American Idiot for me. That made me want to branch out and play guitar.”
He taught himself to play and sing by copying the sounds he heard on Green Day albums. By the time he was 10, he was writing songs and putting together bands. He continued playing in bands and making music after his family moved to Singapore. At the same time, he was programming computers and developing his own games and apps.
“At 16, in Singapore, I was making tunes on my computer,” ROHAN said. “I wrote produced, arranged and learned how to record as I went along. I used GarageBand, Logic Pro, one mic and my computer. I’d program the bass and drum tracks, and sing and play guitar.”
ROHAN moved to California to attend Stanford when he was 18. “I had a bedroom studio and kept writing and recording songs. I taught myself how to play bass as well,” he said.
He studied music, computer programming and liberal arts, but soon dropped out to move to San Francisco and start a business. “I was creating games and apps and helping other people design websites,” he said. “I also ran a consulting company called Punk House, that creates new technology, art and events. I have a fulltime job as well as making music, which is what I’ve been doing most of my life.”
The studio in his San Francisco kitchen has a variety of mics, 30 guitars, a few basses, monitors and synthesizers. He also records occasional tracks at Hyde Street Studio. In the past three years, he’s put 24 songs up on his BandCamp page.
The songs have eclectic arrangements, merging folk, rock, punk, R&B, pop and other styles. “I have a wide-ranging taste,” ROHAN said. “The songs go in whatever direction strikes me at the time. I don’t consciously think of playing in any specific style. Whatever’s in the front of mind comes out when I play. It can be tough to get to the sound you hear in your head. Sometimes a song takes shape in one day, sometimes they marinate for months.”
“Precious” is an inventive mix of folk and electronic textures. A wave of static fades into an acoustic ukulele, strumming simple chords, as his processed vocals evoke the feel of an Edison cylinder recording. Images of unrestricted love, and the joys it brings, are magnified by the track’s booming percussion and vocals that ebb and flow like the feverish breathing of an infatuated lover.
The end of a relationship is described in “I Wish I Could Tell You,” a bittersweet ballad. Guitar, bass and drums bring to mind the sound of an R&B combo playing in a smoke-filled, late-night bar. His pleading vocal is full of longing, as he begs a lover leaving a relationship to stop and reconsider.
The next single in his current series will be “Killing Her Softly With My Song,” set for release on Sept. 17. “I wrote this breakup song about the end of an old relationship from my perspective,” he said. “I borrowed the title from the Roberta Flack hit, but it has nothing to do with that song, musically or emotionally.”
Despite his prolific output, ROHAN hasn’t yet released an album. “I’m working towards a collection,” he said. “I’m trying to figure out what the message will be and putting together songs that move in that direction. When I’m writing, I let emotions flow honestly and curate them based on how they come out and how a song impacts me once it’s done. If I don’t like it, I don’t share it.”
His songs have been featured on Spotify’s Fresh Finds in Australia and New Zealand, and Apple’s Heartbreak Playlist. ROHAN’s songs are available for download on his BandCamp page for free or for whatever people want to pay. “I just do it for the love of the music,” he says.
Listen to ROHAN’s songs at rohanx.bandcamp.com. An album will be released in early 2026. His website is: linktr.ee/rohanhq.
