Damian aka Szopa is a musician and an audio-visual multi-talented artist wwith a keen interest in art, poetry and music since early childhood. He started playing the piano at the age of 16 and found it thrilling and satisfying at the same time. Damian has released several albums including his first album, 'Hollow trees' in 2020, second album 'Vial organs' in 2022 and continues his musical journey with his latest deeply personal album 'Prayerbook' in August 2024.

Can you tell us more about your musical journey? What is the role of music in your life?D: I think I was always obsessed with music, even when I wasn’t actively making it or learning to play instruments. It was ever-present in my life and still is. I started playing the piano when I was 16, and it was one of the most gratifying and exciting experiences of my life. I cannot imagine expressing myself more accurately than I do through music. I had a pretty troubled childhood, and listening to other artists helped me escape that and find some peace and solace during a difficult time in my life.
I think that making music and existing as an artist is synonymous with having to be successful to a lot of people, and it’s something I’ve been unlearning most of my adult life. In a culture that seeks financial gains and profitability, I’m trying to make music for the purpose of self-expression and to connect with other people. To an extent, every artist, at some stage, needs to exist “as a business” – if we want our music and presence to reach other people, we need to market it and advertise ourselves. It’s very easy to lose sight of what is important in the process, so I try to put a lot of pressure on making sure that I remain my authentic self when growing as an artist.

What is your most memorable work and why?D: “Swan”, the last song from my 2nd album, “Vital Organs”. It is definitely the most striking and heartfelt composition that I wrote. I know that “Lore”, the lead single for that album, is the song that became popular and drew a lot of attention, but “Swan” is the one I come back to the most.
It originally started as a small piano composition which I also included on the album, “Lament of Flight” that I then enhanced with poetry that I intended to recite on top of the music. At some point, I started adding instruments and playing with reversing sounds and vocals and it became a fully produced composition. I loved the original intention of both lyrics and music simultaneously building up until they reach a breaking point and drop back to the original melody. It felt simple and effective, and worked very well with the theme of the song. I find the lyrics to be very haunting, as they describe a very personal moment of romantic heartbreak I went through quite a few years ago.
“Forgive me for staring blankly with eyes wide open as if piercing time
and hoping that my stare could snatch you from the past.
Forgive me for crying every day for a year
while biting pillowcases and hoping they were skin”
I used to have a tendency to dance around the subject rather than being honest and upfront when it comes to writing lyrics, or trying to be very enigmatic and mysterious. I think I used to find that poetic, but then with “Swan” I had a bit of a breakthrough, by simply describing events and what has actually occurred, and noticing what was poetic about it, rather than rationalizing and decorating my own thought process. It’s very raw and emotional and it serves its purpose perfectly, and it was a lesson I applied to my future songs.

Who is your musical inspiration?D: There are so many. I grew up on a lot of Electronic, Balkan and Folk music, but then really got into the 90s alternative when I was a teenager, mostly listening to female artists (Tori Amos, PJ Harvey, Fiona Apple, Portishead, Cocteau Twins), but there were also a few guys in the mix (Bowie, Peter Gabriel, Depeche Mode).
Back in 2009 me and my school friends went trick or treating around our neighbourhood, and we accidentally ran into our art’s teacher, who invited us for some tea. She was very excited to show us an album she’s been listening to recently. It was “Point de suture” by Mylene Farmer, and she played us “C’est Dans L’air”. I fell in love with her work immediately. It’s like her music covered everything I was interested in – powerful, emotional vocals, very intentional and subtle use of electronica, intriguing compositions and bold, cinematic structures.
I must’ve listened to her entire discography a hundred times before the end of that year. She’s a big inspiration for me, both as an artist and a music icon. She doesn’t try to fit anywhere or accommodate any trends, and her lyrics are very honest and to the point. I love her vocal style as well, with it reminding me of Tori Amos’, where the use of a very natural vocal fry and breaths intertwines with words, making for an intimate and personal delivery. It definitely reinforced my belief that for music to be meaningful and to have any power and meaning, it needs to be full of honest, undiluted intention. I especially love revisiting her earlier albums (L’autre, Ainsi Soit Je). They were full of great production tricks that I haven’t heard in a lot of modern music. Some of her work uses more oriental melodies and middle-eastern instruments, which is something very close to my heart, and it was definitely a big source of inspiration.

What is your favorite place to visit? What do you love about that place?D: Just like most autistic individuals, I love my routines – a few years ago, I used to go on a walk to Norfolk Park in Sheffield pretty much every day. It was before I released Vital Organs in 2022; I would just put my headphones on and do 2-3 laps around the park whilst listening to some rough mixes and demos, taking mental notes on what I still need to work on. It’s one of my favourite places in Sheffield. It’s very peaceful and green.
If we’re talking about travelling a bit further away, I haven’t yet seen that much of the world, but so far Turkey is one of my favourite countries to visit. I feel very much at home and welcome when I’m there. Nobody questions why I’m listening to Barış Manço either, which is always a plus.

What tips/advice do you have for those in our community who are interested in learning music?D: Enjoy the process. Don’t feel like you have to be good at it either. Making music and being creative should be as natural for us as it is for bees to build their hives. You don’t have to turn it into a business; you don’t have to make it profitable. Just be creative, and if you start gravitating towards that becoming your passion or career – great, follow your intuition!
 When it comes to neurodivergency and making music, I feel like I really haven’t done enough research to provide any practical advice, other than reflecting on my own experiences. Whilst learning to play the piano felt like second nature to me, and like my fingers were reconnecting with a long lost limb, singing posed extreme difficulties. I don’t know if it was a lack of genetic predisposition, training or autism, but I really struggled with pitch recognition. Learning to sing was a frustrating process – it felt like I wasn’t able to command my body to do something that my brain understood. It’s a very organic and intuitive skill.
 Use all the help you can get. Use visual aids, follow routines, train – and most importantly, have patience. Learning how to sing well enough to have it recorded took me years, and I’m still nowhere near finished learning. It feels more like I’m just starting. It’s a process and a journey without an end goal – there is always something to learn.

Are you using any AI tools or tech in your work or daily life? If so, how do they help you?D: I used AI to generate the base for the artwork of my upcoming album, “The Prayerbook”. Even then, I used it mostly as a starting point that I then designed on top of, but it’s not something I’m planning to do regularly. AI tools exploded as I was finalising my latest piece of work, and it felt like a good opportunity to utilise it in my project. I think that at least for me, personally, the AI hype is slowly starting to die down – if anything, I am becoming fonder of traditional arts and the human input, and coming back to more analogue techniques. I bought a few rolls of film just yesterday and dusted off my trusted Praktica MTL5 to start taking pictures again. There’s certain magic and soul that AI cannot reproduce, some sort of power of intention. It feels almost tangible in human-made art.
When it comes to music, I haven’t heard any AI generated songs that evoked any feelings in me. It felt like cheap entertainment. In that sense, I am not too worried about the music industry becoming oversaturated with AI, but I am quite curious about how this will be utilised in music production. I think there are already some plugins that can AI-generate specific sounds, which will be very useful as a tool in the future.