Composing Music 'Naturally' With River Sultan On Tower's Live Show

Indie musician River Sultan joined our Tower Live show, hosted by Whitney Moore, to talk about the recent release of his singles "Falling Out Of Time" and "Purple Shelter", and give us a wider context for his work and approach to making music.

As someone who has to address his ADD and PTSD on a daily basis, music plays a big part in his engagement with the world. He previously composed only instrumental music, but working as River Sultan has pushed him into lyric writing and exploring new territory. He finds that it actually happens quite "naturally", finding its own time to arrive, and he can't really compose just because he wants to. He revealed that choosing the name 'River Sultan' to work under was a combination of his favorite word in English, River, and paying homage to his Arabic heritage with 'Sultan', including a tradition among Arabic Classical singers of using that name.

Now, he's actually started a new collaboration with quite a different sound, he revealed, with his best friend Charlie Milliner, who is a painter. The music is "darker" in both subject matter and sound, but it's great to have two different approaches to music that he can pursue.

As someone who is interested in writing instrumental and soundtrack music for films and TV, River describes that as "the next step" for him, but he's got plenty to do continuing to craft music under the River Sultan name as well as in the newly formed collaboration with Charlie Milliner.