INDEX
Hope and Comfort to Move Forward
In a world increasingly divided and influenced by exclusion, your perspective and the messages in your music feel especially meaningful. How do you think your music speaks to that?
Rol3ert: I don’t expect everyone to think the same way about everything. But even if you can’t fly, that doesn’t mean you just give up. You find ways to calm yourself, to cope, to approach challenges differently. Division is hard to stop, but you don’t have to surrender to it. Music is the thing that works best for that, which is why I want it to reach as many people as possible.
Along with the idea of “not giving up just because you can’t fly,” I feel like your music often reflects regrets and attachments to the past, but rarely expresses darkness about the future. Even in such a chaotic time, would you say you believe the future can be bright?
Rol3ert: I’m actually a really negative and sensitive person, so regrets about the past hit me hard. I constantly think, “Why did I do that?” about all sorts of little things. That’s why I want to move forward with even a bit of hope, so I don’t repeat the same feelings. Otherwise, I can’t move forward at all. That mindset definitely shows up somewhere in my songs. Just like with the idea of “if you can’t fly, how do you cope,” I take things I can’t go back and change and channel them into music. I try to create songs that stay with me and bring some calm to my feelings.
Saying “you can’t move forward without hope” feels more accurate than “seeing the future as bright.” It seems like a very real reflection of today’s world.
Rol3ert: Yeah, that’s exactly it. I want to feel hopeful, of course, but there are times when moving forward isn’t easy. In those moments, I just write lyrics that capture how I feel.
In a recent interview with SKY-HI, he noted that for a long time, gloomy songs dominated the charts, but nowadays more music is focusing on hope—saying something like, “We’ve come this far, so dwelling on darkness won’t help; it’s time to make a change.”
Rol3ert: Oh, really? I think sometimes people cope with bad situations by just shrugging it off, but I’m more the type who wants to resolve them. Music is my way of easing things I can’t fully fix. I’m not writing happy songs that say “everyone be happy,” and I’m not giving instructions on “how to fix it.” It’s more about offering a gentle way to feel a little lighter.
So instead of ignoring the darker sides of your era or your own regrets and anxieties, you face them and transform them into music, offering listeners subtle comfort.
Rol3ert: That’s exactly it. Even in a psychology class at university, I learned that confronting negative things actually reduces anxiety. So my approach is not to ignore them, but to face them and, at the same time, soften the impact through music.
