“Between love and madness lies the ROC album. You wouldn’t want to live there. But you do”, was written in 1996 in the UK pop and rock music newspaper Melody Maker referring to the debut album of R.O.C. Now in 2014 their album is at the start again, remastered and reissued on the label Metal Postcard; re-released tomorrow the 22nd of September – and we have an exclusive listening premiere for you of the “I Want You” track out of it.

So who are the artists behind this mysteriously capturing sound that can hardly be put into any speficic genre, as it contains so many different elements? R.O.C began in the late 80s as a loose collective revolving around Fred and Patrick (who had met at school), recording on various floors around London, swapping available instruments and gadgets. An early version of the group played a festival in Warsaw (in communist Poland) in 1987. By their debut single ‘Dead Step’ (1993) R.O.C was Fred and Patrick plus Karen Sheridan (a Glasgow native whose family emigrated to Colorado when she was a child), Russell Warby, and Peter Burgess who recorded R.O.C’s first five singles/EPs in his Brixton studio. The current line-up is Fred Browning (vocals, music), Karen Sheridan (vocals, music), Patrick Nicholson (music).

Back in the days the band started out making tapes from lined-up cassette-players, dictaphones, drum-machines, guitars and keyboards. Dance beats flowed into R.O.Ck ‘n’ roll, through spoken word, pop melodies and into electronic/industrial noise. With sampling technology emerging as they made their first releases. R.O.C had lots of success and some setbacks and if they could change one thing in their career Karen says that: “I think we should have believed in ourselves and our intuition more, from a business perspective, rather than managers and accountants etc.” But nevertheless they kept the passion for making music and they are currently also working on their new EP, which we we can´t wait to hear! And how do they feel about working with an independent label after once having been signed to EMI/ Virgin? Patrick: It’s a whole different frame of mind, not careerism, it’s more ‘we’re all doing this together for the hell of it’.