Melbourne/San Francisco alt-pop artist & producer ROHAN softly delivers the blunt truth of a bitter breakup with “Killing Her Softly With My Song.” The acoustic-forward ballad takes its name from Roberta Flack’s “Killing Me Softly With His Song” that the artist found via one of his favorite artists and inspirations, Lauryn Hill and Fugees.
Drenched in nostalgia and old-school folk/Americana with a modern twist, the track feels both timeless and confrontational — a breakup letter disguised as an autumn lullaby. The track was self-produced and recorded between ROHAN’s bedrooms in Melbourne and San Francisco and one of the primary studios, Hyde Street Studios, in San Francisco. GRAMMY-nominated Scott McDowell helped engineer it.
On the honest, intimate track, ROHAN shares, “It represents the other side of Lauryn Hill’s perspective — instead of being the one undone by someone else’s song, I’m the one “strumming [her] pain with [my] song”, “telling [her] whole life with [my] words” and “killing [her] softly” with the truth she doesn’t want to hear. The song embodies the contradiction of using tenderness to deliver judgement, channeling my dismay into something sweet and melodic. Not a lot of other cheekily confrontational & blunt songs feature acoustic guitars, pedal steel, tambourine, harmonies, and violins.”
Earlier this year, after receiving encouragement via TikTok from Beabadoobee, ROHAN shared the confessional “I Wish I Could Tell You” where he yearns for closure over a hooky guitar loop. “Fizzy,” shared earlier this year, is a nostalgic, punky tune that sinks into the messiness of a bad breakup.
ROHAN was raised by Indian parents between Australia and Singapore and was introduced to music through Australian Idol and Green Day’s American Idiot. After high school, he moved to California and attended Stanford to continue exploring his love for technology and music. Recently opening for Devon Again proved to be a cathartic moment as the pop artist was a shared love of ROHAN and his former love. Now, out of his own studio in San Francisco and pulling inspiration from Australian indie rock bands like Skegss, 90s R&B like Lauryn Hill and contemporary pop artists like Dominic Fike, he’s ready to officially introduce himself with his own blend of Australian indie rock with R&B, electronic and folk influences that form his self-produced confessional alt-pop anthems.
