Jeremiah de Rozario Releases Cutesy Video For ‘Sunflower’

When Kochi-based singer-songwriter Jeremiah de Rozario released his debut single “Run to the Ocean” in 2020, at the time he was working as a banker. Since then, de Rozario quit his day job and took up music full-time. He says, “[I] haven’t looked back.” With a number of singles now under his belt, the artist is back with his latest offering, the acoustic pop number “Sunflower.” In this interview with Rolling Stone India, de Rozario talks to us about the making of the song, its accompanying music video, what he has in store next and more. Read below:

How did the music bug get to you?

Coming from an Anglo-Indian family, I pretty much grew up watching everyone around me play at least one instrument and it seemed like everyone could sing. Pretty much every weekend was a jamming session. This had a massive influence on me but it wasn’t until I turned 16 that I finally picked up the guitar and it was for the terrible reason of wanting to impress girls. However, in that, I kind of found out how much I loved singing and writing music even more. So, it started there, writing cheesy songs and then it went out to become a form of therapy for me where I could be honest with myself.

When did you write your new song “Sunflower” and what can you tell me about it?

‘Sunflower’ was written over two years back. There was no intention of actually writing it but it kind of just happened.

It started with the hook line, or at least the melody but I had no idea where to start with it. At that time, I was trying to write a song that wasn’t about love. I went around searching for inspiration and that’s when I thought of my nephew. He lost his dad when he was seven and I wondered what that father would say to his son if he could see him one last time. Once I had that inspiration and the melody, I was trying to find out what the words could be and randomly stumbled upon an Instagram fun fact that described sunflowers to actually be many flowers in one. I researched a little about that and pretty much based the enter theme around sunflowers. Once I wrote the song, I immediately went to Palee Francis (keyboardist from Kerala folk/indie band When Chai Met Toast). We worked together on a previous track called ‘Dear Us’ and he was just so good. I knew he would be able to help create something really nice. Honestly couldn’t have asked for someone better to produce this.

What can you tell us about the music video and how you put it together?

The director of the video is a friend named Suzanna Vincy and we have worked on previous videos together as well. We were trying to come up with budget-friendly ideas for the video and after a lot of contemplation, Suzanna came up with the idea of giving sunflowers to the people close to me. So, then we simply made a list of a few people who were family and friends and surprised them with a sunflower and a note. It was for the video, but it was also just a collection of wholesome moments. They were so happy to be given flowers and at the same time, I was reminded of how much they meant to me when I was writing the personalized notes to them. Our cinematographer Harikrishnan T Rajan didn’t put down the camera for those three days because we were shooting everything, trying to capture all the emotions that were coming out and it was just a hoot working with him.

What’s next?

I’ve just started working on a four-song EP set to release in about two months and then hopefully a country-wide tour post that.

Watch the music video for “Sunflower” below: