DORAN fixes everything

Based in Brighton, UK, Doran is a multidisciplinary artist blending music, animation, and visual storytelling into immersive worlds of sound and emotion. Inspired by lo-fi, synthwave, synth pop, and nostalgic culture, his work transforms personal experiences into creative journeys of self-discovery and connection.

Through DIY experimentation and a love for storytelling, Doran creates a universe where music becomes a way to explore memories, emotions, and the possibility of healing through art.

‘‘Music has always been my way of feeling connected — a language for the emotions I couldn’t always express’’

Could you tell us a little about your journey as a musician and what first inspired you to start creating music?

That's a hard one. Music is basically my life! From listening to 90s and early 2000s tunes on the back seat of the car as a kid, all the way to falling in love with lo-fi hip hop, synthwave and alt pop as an adult, it's always been my guiding light through life and made me feel seen. As a kid, when I felt lonely, or sad it was a way to feel a connection to someone or something bigger than myself. It's helped cheer me up so many times. So, it's quite tricky to point at a single spark that inspired me to make music. If I had to pick two though, the first would be being lucky enough for my Mum to take me to see Carlos Santana live as a kid. I remember coming out of the gig, ears ringing, and immediately wanting to pick up the guitar. He is such a phenomenal musician, it was hard not to want to try and be like him. So that's how I picked up the guitar! I've played ever since. The second would be seeing the music video for Digital Love by Daft Punk for the very first time on MTV. As a big fan of cartoons, the space age animation and music completely blew me away. It made me feel things I never even imagined and spoke to feelings I didn't let myself feel or knew I even had.

The fact they created this whole universe around the music also inspired me so much and was so evocative that I just felt the need to at least try and do something like that of my own, so I've been sort of obsessively inspired by that for decades in my own music!

I stumbled on a copy of Magix Music Maker as a teen and made some of the stupidest music known to humankind with my friends at the time. We were big fans of Lonely Island and just were trying to do our own version of that. Then, we noodled around on Fruity Loops for a while, I made dozens of instrumental tracks using the synths on it, all sort of in a 8bit game vibe aesthetic which was really fun. At the same time, I had been learning guitar for some years and was finally good enough to play some of my favourite songs from Linkin Park, Sum41, Green Day etc... Eventually, I decided I needed to sing on top of my guitar when I play, and maybe to add to my computer beats someday. It really took a long time to find my voice, in more than one way. I was not good at it first, so I just practiced and practiced until it sounded better.

It's an approach I've had to take with everything because nothing really came instinctively to me. Today I use different tools, but the passion for it has just kept going. But yeah, huge respect to my friends and family who listened to me singing at the time!

Your work spans music, performance, and visual creativity. How do these different forms of expression influence one another in your practice?

So, I actually started sketching way before I did any music.

I absolutely loved, and still love cartoons. Especially Sunday morning cartoons, so as soon as I could I started sketching characters on paper. I already discovered Gorillaz then, so I remember sketching 2D quite a lot. Later when I started making more and more music it became obvious that I could create my own visuals, but I hadn't connected the dots myself weirdly enough. But then it sort of clicked: I always dreamt of being a cartoonist, so that was my excuse to finally apply that dream to the music! A lot of times, I'll start with the music, and let it inspire me some scenes, characters, landscapes... Often I go for a walk or a drive with the new demo and try to imagine something. Once I have an idea of the visuals, eventually I try to make sense of it to create a story out of it that is at least somewhat coherent to fit the song.

If often feels like a strange form of reverse engineering, because I nearly craft the story, characters, visuals and all the rest based on the vibe of the music but also try my best to keep some sort of through line. What's great about it though, is that it has really helped me to identify the most important messages in the music itself, by having to decipher deep down what it is all about and make visual stories to match it. It may be funny to say, but a lot of times I don't know what my own songs are about until I am done.

Every artist has a creative process that is uniquely their own. What does yours look like, and where do your best ideas usually begin?

It's honestly quite chaotic, because most of the time it's me trying to agree with myself about a consistent approach and never sticking to it! I'll often start with some chords that feel inspiring, then try to add some drums or a beat, and write a vocal melody and lyrics on top of it. I try to do as much myself as possible, so anything that I can perform or record myself, I will.

So, I keep things simple if I can, because otherwise I'd never get anything done! I apply the same logic to the animations and art, keep it simple, as much as possible. Sometimes I only start with the guitar or piano, and sing on top of it, but I find it a lot easier to create something that feels right using synths and a beat. I'll compose this stuff on the iPad, as I find it great to noodle around. It's where most of the creative part happens, though sometimes I start on the computer. The iPad makes it very easy to record vocals on the fly, and experiment. I'm often on the sofa changing some beats, or synths, or adding a new backing track.

The beat usually comes together fast, but the vocals take a long time to get right because I get so critical about them. Once the demo feels quite solid, I'll export it to my desktop or laptop and do all the final production. Normally, that's when creative bit is done, but I often end up switching things around or adding effects that completely change the track right at the last minute. Sometimes, a track is fairly similar to the demo, and sometimes it ends up completely unrecognisable! It sort of happens on a hunch, when I'm mixing sometimes, I realise the track is too full or too empty or something, and I end up changing things massively. Other times, I barely process the demo, just cleaning it up. It really depends!

Looking back on your creative career so far, what has been one of the most meaningful moments or lessons that has shaped you as an artist?

There are so many lessons I've learnt. Doing everything myself is great for freedom, and DIY is a big part of what I do, but it takes a while for things to click for me, and I am very prone to falling into rabbit holes. I have tried so many tools, sifted so many forums, watched so many tutorials, read so many books and ultimately wasted so much time obsessing about things instead of just creating music. The biggest lesson for me was to stop second guessing myself so much and just get that music out there.

Learn to commit to something that sounds or looks good enough early on, while reducing the amount of time I spend adjusting things that don't have much impact, and commit to actually sharing it. The emotion in art matters so much more than the production value, and so many of us artists leave ideas unfinished because we think "if only I could master this first to fix this" or "if only I had this piece of equipment to improve that first", it ends up crippling us. I won't lie; I still suffer quite a lot from perfectionism even though I say this. Especially now, the choice paralysis is so overwhelming that I've found it's easier to just stick to whatever you know for as long as possible and go for it. And speaking of that, to answer the other part of the question, my most meaningful moment so far was finishing and releasing my EP: Two Cats, last year. It's far from perfect. I listen back and find dozens of things I'd do better now, but it's there, and it really has some soul, which I'm very proud of!

What are you currently working on, and what can people look forward to from you in the near future?

I'm actually working on my first album: Broken. The Barista is the first single and came out a couple weeks ago! The next single, Nobody, should be out in a couple weeks. For the first time on this project, I'll get some professionals involved to master some of the tracks as a bit of a test! I've learnt it's fine to let go a bit and trust someone else, especially having a second opinion for that final polish. It's one of the themes in there: letting go and trusting others. But anyway, this album will be the first time I actually bring things together: the visuals, the music, the characters etc... in an overarching concept and story. It will be a journey of self-discovery and healing through music, art and animation influenced by lo-fi hip hop, synthwave, house and other genres I love. I've done a lot of work on the visuals, improving the sound and really creating a whole universe around it like my favourite artists do.

I'll also be singing more in French in that project, and maybe other languages if I can. French and English are both my native languages, so it feels natural to use both and it really helps to express different things. Another thing I'll be doing is integrating more "real" instruments in the songs. I've used my guitar and bass before, but I've been collecting folk instruments whenever I travel since doing the EP. While I love synths, I really love the idea of using physical, handmade instruments from all around the world to add to my music, but it's hard to master them so I may have to sample them for now until I learn to properly play them, we'll see! am really excited to finish it and release it to the world!

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