By Susie Wilkins
Armaan Zorace, aka Zorace One, isn’t interested in staying in one lane. His work moves between music, storytelling, and cinematic world-building, often blurring the line between performance and psychology. It’s not entirely surprising, then, that his latest focus has shifted toward directing, with his upcoming sci-fi horror film 8th Gate already generating intrigue for its cerebral tone and unsettling premise.
Zorace first began building recognition through his performance-driven music — tracks designed not just to be heard, but to shift a listener’s state — but he’s now stepping into a larger creative arena, one where sound, story, and atmosphere converge. With 8th Gate, he’s aiming to deliver something more than traditional horror: a film that explores guilt, power, and the consequences of pushing beyond unseen boundaries.
Below, Zorace opens up about his creative evolution, the psychology behind his music, building a distinct artistic identity, and what audiences can expect from the world of 8th Gate.
You’ve built a creative identity that spans music, story, and visual branding. When did you first realize you weren’t meant to stay in just one lane?
I think I knew very early. I was never interested in creating in fragments. Music, image, story, atmosphere — to me they were always part of the same language. One emotion could become a song, a visual, or a film scene depending on what form it wanted. I never felt like I had to choose one lane. I felt like my job was to build a world.
Your work often feels driven by intensity, transformation, and inner power. What personal experiences shaped that voice in you as an artist?
A lot of it comes from struggle, reinvention, and having to build strength internally before anything external changed. I’ve always been drawn to the moment where a person is broken, cornered, or underestimated — and then finds something deeper inside themselves. That’s the drama that moves me. Not surface success, but transformation. That’s the emotional engine behind most of what I make.
You’re developing music that seems designed not just to entertain, but to alter a listener’s state. What draws you to that intersection of sound, psychology, and performance?
Because I believe music is one of the most powerful tools we have for shifting consciousness. A song can change your breathing, your posture, your confidence, your memory, your momentum. That fascinates me. I’m interested in music as activation. I want it to do something. I want someone to hear it and feel more focused, more alive, more powerful, more awake. That’s where my interest in psychology, rhythm, repetition, and suggestion comes in.
A lot of artists chase trends, but your work feels more like it’s trying to create its own category. Was that a deliberate decision from the beginning, or something you grew into?
It became deliberate. At some point I realized that if you chase trends, you’re always arriving late to somebody else’s party. I’m not interested in imitation. I’m interested in building a signature. That means taking the risk of being misunderstood early on, but it also means that when it finally connects, it belongs to you. I’d rather build a lane slowly than disappear inside a crowded one.
When you’re creating, do you think of yourself first as a musician, a filmmaker, or a storyteller — or are those distinctions meaningless to you now?
Storyteller, definitely. That’s the core. Music is storytelling. Film is storytelling. Visual branding is storytelling. Even a title is storytelling. The medium changes, but the instinct is the same: create emotional movement. Take someone from one state to another. So I don’t really separate them anymore. I see them as different instruments in the same orchestra.
Your branding carries a very cinematic, mythic quality. What kinds of worlds, themes, or filmmakers have most influenced the way you see your own work?
I’m drawn to filmmakers and artists who understand atmosphere, scale, and emotional symbolism. Work that feels bigger than realism, but still emotionally true. I love stories about hidden forces, inner battles, identity shifts, and the cost of power. Myth has always interested me because it deals in archetypes, not just events. That cinematic and mythic tone naturally enters my work because I’m always trying to make the inner experience feel epic.
You’ve spoken about wanting your work to move people on a deeper level — not just emotionally, but almost spiritually or psychologically. What do you hope someone feels after experiencing your art?
I want them to feel changed. Stronger. Clearer. More connected to something inside themselves that maybe they had forgotten. Whether it’s a song or a film, I want the experience to feel like a trigger — like something has been awakened. Not just, “that was good,” but, “I feel different now.” That’s the standard I hold myself to.
Your upcoming film 8th Gate already has an evocative title. As the director, what can you tell us about the world of the film, and what makes this story the one you feel compelled to tell right now?
8th Gate is a cerebral sci-fi horror film set against a world of ambition, technology, death, and the unseen. On the surface, it deals with an experiment to understand the moment the soul leaves the body. But underneath, it’s about guilt, power, and the danger of trying to penetrate mysteries that were never meant to be controlled. What compels me about it is that it operates on multiple levels at once — horror, philosophy, psychology, and human consequence. It’s the kind of film I’m drawn to because it doesn’t just scare you; it unsettles you. It stays with you. And right now, that feels like exactly the kind of story I want to tell.
As Zorace One continues to grow across music and film, with projects like your workout-focused tracks and 8th Gate, how do you want new audiences discovering you online to understand your work?
I’d want them to understand that everything I create is designed to move them from one state to another. Whether it’s a workout track, an empowerment anthem, or a film like 8th Gate, the core idea is transformation. The medium changes — music or cinema — but the intention stays the same. It’s about focus, power, and stepping into a different version of yourself.
With the music, that might mean helping someone push through a workout or lock into a mindset. With 8th Gate, it’s more psychological and immersive — it’s about confronting deeper questions around identity, fear, and the unseen. But both come from the same place.
So if someone discovers Zorace One through a playlist, a song, or a film search, I’d want them to feel like they’ve entered a world where the goal isn’t just to entertain them — it’s to activate something in them.