Rogue FX
... is Andrew Wood from North East England, who was part of the late 80s synth pop group Please and the house music outfit Bass Value who had records released on Reachin Records, Three Beat Records and PWL in the early to mid 90s.
Since Bass Value wound up later in the 90s Andrew moved away from making music until the bug struck again in 2022 and We Belong was born, released on streaming platforms under the name of Rogue FX, influenced by synth pop and 80s synthwave.
Who is the "human" behind the artist Rogue FX?
So I’m Andrew Wood from the North East of England and let’s just say I remember the 80s from the first time around! I was in a couple of electronic bands in the late 80s through to late 90s and we had a few deals and releases with varying degrees of success , I then stopped music to get on with life stuff but this year really had inspiration strike to create synth tracks again and Rogue Fx was born, my first solo project and my first time on vocal duties !!
"Don't talk to strangers" is an amazing Synth Pop/Wave track, what or who was your inspiration?
Thanks for the compliment. For Dont Talk To Strangers I was actually just sat watching Strangers Things S4 when the idea came to me to write a story song about a runaway girl who leaves her whole comfortable life behind to lead her own life in the city, always being wary of protecting herself in such new and often scary surroundings.
The 80s did this kind of story song so well and I wanted to pay homage to that. For the soundscape I just wanted to have really 80s sounds rich synths saxophone, funk guitars etc , basically I wanted to make a track that sounded authentically 80s like it could fit on a movie soundtrack of the era.
The song creates this typical 80s atmosphere, what are your favorite 80s artists?
The 80s is easily my favourite decade and it was an era where each band had their own sound , style and there was so much variety, there are so many artists and bands I admired from the decade but the obvious ones are New Order, Simple Minds, The Cure ( who were actually pretty much a synth pop act at some points of the 80s) Bowie and Prince but also I take a lot of influences from the dance sounds of the era from electro to house music. You’ll always get some danceability from a Rogue FX track.
What was/is in your opinion the last "Turning point" in music history?
The ones that meant a lot to me were the explosion of dance music in the late 80s and the grunge and Brit pop eras of the 90s, I’m not sure there has truly been a huge turning point since then but I’m staying on the look out.
If you take a look back, what advice would you give your 16 years old self?
Don’t stop making music in my case or whatever it is that is your creative outlet. Try not to have regrets but stopping creating music for 20 plus years is definitely one I do have! That and don’t mix your drinks!
Nowadays, you have to be active on social media ... is it more a necessary evil or fun?
I don’t mind it tbh, I’ve had a vinyl instagram account for a few years so I kind of took to having an artist page on Insta like a duck to water! I always like to support the other artists on there and on twitter also, it’s a great community as far as synth wave goes. Im not so sure about Tik Tok however, I don’t really get it, my daughter loves it though!!
How would you describe the indie scene in Durham?
When I was in bands back in the day it was a great scene there were lots of electronic bands and some did really well, nowadays I’ve lost touch, I think it’s more rock based now but there are still some great electro bands from the region, Pensacola Mist for example.
And of course, what’s next for you?
I’ve released three tracks in 4 months now and I’m not sure I can keep up that level of activity but what I do know is I will be working on my fourth single soon hopefully to release this year then after that I have a concept EP planned believe it or not! Plus I do have plans for a side project to release more retro house music oriented stuff, a couple of releases a year for Rogue House would be great. So I reckon I’ll be quite busy for a while…
