Gözde Düzer (Aux Animaux) interview on joining IAMX, touring with Chris Corner, and balancing two worlds
Aux Animaux (Photo by Karo Kratochwil)
(Interview by Karo Kratochwil) Gözde Düzer has spent years shaping Aux Animaux into one of the most distinctive projects in today’s dark alternative landscape, building its sound, identity, and atmosphere with persistence, instinct, and a very clear artistic vision. Now, with IAMX, she steps into another world that carries its own emotional charge, visual intensity, and devoted audience, while continuing to perform under her own name at the same time.
That makes this chapter especially compelling for Aux Animaux. On the current run, audiences are seeing Düzer move between two strong artistic identities within the same night: her own fiercely individual universe in Aux Animaux, and the heightened, immersive live world of IAMX. It is a rare position, and one that says a great deal about trust, presence, discipline, and creative range.
In this interview, Aux Animaux’ Gözde reflects on what joining IAMX meant to her, what surprised her once she entered that circle from within, how Chris Corner’s artistic language connects with her own instincts, and what it means to keep building a path with integrity in a scene that does not always make that easy.
Gözde Düzer (Aux Animaux) interview
Karo: Joining IAMX is not simply stepping into a band, it is stepping into a whole emotional and aesthetic universe. What did that invitation mean to you on a personal and artistic level when it first became real?
Gözde: IAMX and also Sneaker Pimps have both been two of my favorite bands of all times. When the question came, I was hoping to go on tour with IAMX as support act with my own solo project. So it definitely caught me by surprise, a wonderful one for sure! I was of course honored to get the question and that Chris had faith in me to be the right person for his band before he even met me. I am so glad to be part of this amazing universe and everyone in the band and the crew are phenomenal people, and so are the fans! It feels damn good to be in a band again.
Karo: Chris Corner has always had a rare way of transforming pain, desire, fragility, and inner chaos into something poetic rather than literal. Did that sensibility feel close to your own artistic instincts from the start, or did joining IAMX reveal new sides of yourself as a performer?
Gözde: Yes I was already a fan of IAMX so I connected with his music because it felt familiar to me. We only just started the tour and it’s already bringing out a more bestial side of me with no boundaries whatsoever.
Karo: From the outside, IAMX can feel like a very intense and carefully built world. Once you entered it from within, what surprised you most about the way that world actually works, creatively, emotionally, or even practically?
Gözde: It was just amazing that it felt just right from the start. Chris and I are quite similar souls especially where we stand in life today, so we hit it off from day 1 and the practicing has been very smooth. He’s also very easy going and considerate of his band and crew, and that makes playing together all the more fun!
Karo: Aux Animaux already has such a distinct identity, its own atmosphere, its own tension, its own language of darkness and beauty. When you perform with IAMX, how do you protect that identity while also fully serving a larger collective vision?
Gözde: Because I am touring both with AA and IAMX on this tour at the same time, we’re working on a slightly different approach with the outfits and makeup so it is not repetitive to the audience. Other than that it is just me being myself. I feel I already fit into the gang like a glove, it feels like I’ve known everyone forever.
Karo: With Aux Animaux you have built your path with real determination and without shortcuts. Looking back at everything you had to overcome, does this moment feel like a breakthrough, a reward, a new beginning, or perhaps something more complicated than any of those words?
Gözde: I really don’t know what it is but I know it feels good. I definitely worked my ass off for aux animaux for years. I started this project from scratch and worked on getting it where it is all on my own without knowing anyone in the scene and learning how to produce music all on my own. It sure took its sweet time. The last two years have been pretty tough and brutal in my private life, where in the meantime aux animaux finally started to really grow and get some real recognition and that’s what kept me going.
Karo: Why do you think Chris Corner chose you specifically? Was there something in your presence, your sound, or your artistic temperament that you feel naturally belongs in the IAMX universe?
Gözde: I think he liked my wildness, ambition and drive. My stage presence and energy.
Karo: There is often a big difference between admiring an artist and creating beside them. What has it been like to move from that distance into direct collaboration, and has it changed the way you hear IAMX’s music now?
Gözde: If anything, I like it even more. Chris is amazing to work with and the songs are already phenomenal. I’m definitely digging the song in a different way today, now that we’re rocking the songs together with the actual band. As a producer, I think the songs are genius. And I like that live versions are a bit different to get even wilder on the stage.
Karo: This tour places you in a very unusual and fascinating position, because you appear both as Aux Animaux and as part of IAMX’s live band. Does that double role feel liberating, challenging, exhausting, or energizing, and how do you shift between those two states of being on the same night?
Gözde: It was my choice to do the both shows so if it becomes physically exhausting then it’s only myself to blame. But it is only for this tour and a couple of summer festivals then I will be either with IAMX or Aux Animaux.
Karo: At EoNLY and on the current European run, audiences will see you inhabiting both worlds almost side by side. Do you see this as a special chapter for this tour, or do you imagine a longer future in which Aux Animaux and IAMX continue to grow alongside each other?
Gözde: I don’t know if I do more shows same night in the future as it’s quite intense for me. But I definitely am inspired a lot by Chris as a producer and a musician, and I learn a lot from him. Maybe we do a collab in the future if we get the time. We’re both pretty busy as it is.
Karo: Your story carries a strong sense of self creation, resilience, and artistic self belief. For women and independent artists who may be fighting through gossip, doubt, or resistance around them, what have you learned about staying faithful to your own path long enough for the right doors to open?
Gözde: Being a solo woman artist and musician has definitely struggles of its own. Not being taken seriously, not being given credit… I have been doing this for a while now and it still happens to me. Men who get rejected with their private forwardness, trying to mess with one’s musical reputation is definitely something I have had to deal with as well, which I am guessing doesn’t happen to a lot of male musicians. But I work hard and keep going and that’s the best thing you can do to fight off the negativity.
Based in Wrocław, I work as a music journalist and photographer covering electro, industrial, EBM, gothic, and darkwave. My work includes features and live coverage, as well as concert, portrait, promo, and theater photography. What interests me most is the connection between artistic intention, what the work communicates, and what unfolds live on stage, all in pursuit of the bigger picture behind the music.
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