Introducing Rogue Souls: Interview with Raouf Rectobiasi and Cliff Lin
Rogue Souls is a new label from Dos Brains – they released their first EP, Toxic Rain, a few months ago.
Modern, massive, epic and dramatic, Toxic Rain is a very trailer-friendly album: “epic orchestra and choir collide with powerful drums, edgy synthesizers and heavy electric guitars to battle over control of the world in these dramatic, building trailer cues”, Dos Brains explains.
Behind Rogue Souls is the duo of composers Cliff Lin and Raouf Rectobiasi.
INTERVIEW
Trailer Music News: When and how did you start Rogue Souls ?
Cliff Lin: We started working on Rogue Souls in 2015 when Raouf suggested that we should collaborate on writing, since I had mixed and mastered a few of his albums previously and we had a mutual respect and admiration for each others’ sound.
Raouf Rectobiasi: Yes, after hearing how Cliff did an excellent job on mixing and mastering my tracks, I felt like he really understood my vision and focus, as opposed to just applying some audio engineering knowledge and moving on to the next project! Besides, since I was also a fan of his music, I reached out to him and suggested that we try out a few tracks together to see what would happen. Cliff was kind enough to accept and we were surprised at how smoothly it went track after track – so here we are as Rogue Souls.
TMN: Why did you start your own label ?
Both : We wanted to make music that we liked – music that was distinctly original and ‘us,’ but also trailer-friendly – so we figured that the best way was to have our own brand where we could be free to do that.
TMN: Toxic Rain is a very trailer-friendly EP, what was the creative process behind it ?
Both: The creative process was primarily about making music that we liked, and making music that came natural to us. We wanted to create something that we would listen to afterwards while still being flexible and open to customizations. We also wanted each album to have its own story and mood. We naturally found a home in the trailer world due to us both having sensibilities in hard rock, electronic, and orchestral styles – which are frequent elements in the hybrid sound of trailers today. It was also helpful that we both had experience writing for trailers and that we understood how music should work in a trailer.
TMN: How did you work together on this EP, can you describe your collaboration ?
CL: Well, it is interesting considering that we are thousands of miles apart and have never met in person, but thanks to modern technology we are able to send ideas to each other and let inspiration and creativity take its natural course.
RR : Also, due to the fact that it was a personal project for us, we took our time and didn’t apply any kind of pressure or deadline for the album. Our main focus was on quality over quantity, especially in this over-saturated industry where huge libraries with dozens of filler tracks are released multiple times each year. After discussing ideas and sharing musical similarities and even differences, we just sent each other ideas with the mindset of “just do whatever feels right to you.” The process was so natural in that we were able to express our own voices without any limitations whatsoever.
TMN: What are your next projects ?
Both : We will be finishing a new album soon (the sequel to Toxic Rain), which will retain the epic sound but will be much heavier, darker, and of course very trailer-friendly. We can’t wait to share it with you!
Toxic Rain is currently not available to the public for purchase. For licensing information, contact Dos Brains.
