Suzan Köcher's Suprafon

"I started writing songs when I was 14 because I was afraid to talk about things and be rejected. Music was my way of saying what I think" - an experience that the German-Turkish musician Suzan Köcher shares with many, especially other women. With her debut album "Moon Bordeaux" (2017, Unique Records), which was celebrated by radio and the press, she went on tour with her band, played festivals such as the Maifeld Derby and the Orange Blossom Special and began to make a name for herself in Germany. The music on the second album "Suprafon", recorded in Austin in 2019, became more experimental, developed more towards dream pop and psychedelia and culminated in performances at the SXSW in Austin, Texas and at the WDR Rockpalast.

Now she and her band are releasing their third album "In These Dying Times", which will be released on Unique Records in October 2024. A lot has happened in the five years in between: "I've always had an issue with fear and what people might think of me. Through therapy, I learned to let go of my fears to some extent and started writing much more personal songs. It's like a kind of superpower that you get when you manage to let go of your fears." Her current single "Seventeen" is about unrequited love, insecurity and abuse of power in teenage years. About what it's like to be taken advantage of by someone and not be able to get away from it. An experience that she shares with many young women. "At the end of the day, I'm not alone with these experiences that I had in my youth and I want to encourage other women above all that you can grow through such experiences."

The current unrest and events in world history are clearly felt on the new album. "In These Dying Times" deals with the tragedy of the present, with powerlessness and the ever-growing cracks in our society. With the album, the band looks to the future and the past, but remains entirely with their own feelings. It's about self-empowerment and self-discovery, about forgiving yourself. But it's also about escapism and escaping from yourself, about fears and overcoming them. With the album, Suzan Köcher's Suprafon become clearly political for the first time and position themselves against war and structures that are shaped by lies and hate.

"In These Dying Times" is a new chapter that shows Köcher as a matured artist who is not afraid to show her personal, vulnerable side. "Perhaps people will find themselves in my experiences in one form or another," hopes Köcher. "In times when there are such deep divides between people, it is all the more important to find common ground and to stand by one another."