Interview: Rose Betts
Interview: Rose Betts
Words and Photos by: Emily May
Growing up in England, singer-songwriter Rose Betts grew up immersed in music and started writing songs at the age of 11. While most of her high school classmates had plans to go to university after graduation, Rose had other plans for herself. She decided to forgo university and move to London to start her life as a musician, and although the process was a slow build, she learned a lot from the experience. She was a regular on the London music scene and frequently performed Sofar Sounds. She toured the UK in 2017 and released her debut EP, Stars Look Down, and has received major radio play on BBC 2 and BBC 6 and continues to blur the lines of conventionality through her collaborations with art, film, theatre, and virtual technology. She has done collaborative projects, such as working on Bazzi’s single “Young and Alive” which was nominated for Best Remixed Recording at the 63rd Annual Grammy Awards. She also has the opportunity last year to do a cover of "The Song To The Siren" for Zack Snyder's Justice League, which served as the leading song of Zack Snyder's Justice League (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack), created by GRAMMY-nominated multi-platinum producer, musician, composer, and educator Tom Holkenborg.
On March 25th, Rose released her debut full-length album White Orchids, which she entirely wrote and co-produced with producer Kevin White in LA. Rose sees White Orchids as representing a loss of innocence; a moment of pure youth and fragility where her heart was broken. Just as an orchid blooms once before it is usually discarded, it feels as though one can grasp on to youth for merely a fleeting moment. She says, “My album 'White Orchids' has within it every shade of who I am, from the fierce days to the low days, from the mornings I wake up happy to the ones I wake up longing for something I lost. I have not hidden from the listener this time. If someone finds something of themselves within this project that would be a magical and precious thing. I hope 'White Orchids' can be a landscape they can take a stroll through, get lost in, be surprised and elated by, and that for their brief time inside the songs they can feel, even for just a moment, free.” Having just signed a publishing deal, her plan is to make and release more music! It’s safe to say that Rose Betts is an artist we should all be following! You can connect with Rose Betts via the following links to stay up-to-date on all upcoming news, music, and live show dates.
FACEBOOK | INSTAGRAM | TWITTER | SPOTIFY | SOUNDCLOUD | ITUNES/APPLE MUSIC | YOUTUBE | DEEZER | TIK TOK
You started writing pop songs at 11 and decided that rather than going to university, you wanted to move to London to start life as a musician there. Coming from a supportive and artistic family, what can you tell me about your childhood and developing such a strong love for music at an early age? What were your early days as a musician like when you first moved to London?
Rose: Growing up immersed in music was and is a gift I feel so lucky to have received. It’s not unlike learning another language while young. You don’t think about it. It flows through and around you and is totally a part of your life. Everything our family did involved music, and it still does. Even now, we’re all grown up and music is intertwined in our love and support of each other. Moving to London was full on, and hard, but I loved it. It was a slow build, getting gigs at small London venues, finding musician friends, building a band, figuring out how to make ends meet. A lot was learned!
In writing such personal and introspective songs, in what ways have you found music/songwriting a good way for you to express what you feel in a cathartic way? Do you find it easier to express yourself through music and that music helps you to alchemize the pain or other feelings you may feel around the topics you write about?
Rose: What a wonderful question. Songwriting is totally a part of how I process my life. It acts as a filter through which i can examine my experiences and feelings, and also release them. But it is also just a fun challenge to take things I see and feel and see if they can fit into a song. I think I find it easier to be vulnerable in music than in real life for sure. I’m working on this.
You did a cover last year of "The Song To The Siren" for Zack Snyder's Justice League soundtrack. What can you tell me about that experience, as well as how you approached writing a song for film vs for an album? What was it like for you to also have the song used by Olympic Silver Medalist Alexandra Trusova in her recent Olympic run?
Rose: Well first off, I can’t take credit for writing ‘Song to the Siren’ unfortunately, it was written in the sixties by Tim Buckley and Larry Beckett. The whole experience of creating my version and then finding out it would be in Zack Snyder’s Justice League was surreal to say the least! All I knew at the time I recorded my demo version was a little outline of the scene, but with no particulars to make me guess what it was.
Working on music for a set scene/film is very different to writing for an album… everything was extremely personal in my album, however the music for the film was all about bringing to life the emotional intentions of the scene, so although I drew on my own experiences to bring authenticity to the cover it was never about my story. I loved seeing ‘Song to the Siren’ being used for Alexandra Trusova’s Olympic performance. Again, a little surreal, but I thought her beautiful skating went so beautifully with the music!
You have talked about how limitation is one of the finest tools for making art, speaking specifically about your process of making your stop motion music video for your song "Rocket". What can you tell me about making that video and how limitation has aided you, if at all, in a broader sense in your career?
Rose: Making the stop motion video for Rocket was an arduous task, and I did my back in for a few days as well! The spirit of the song asked for something full of movement, with a sort of childish naivety hiding something a bit more serious for the visual, so stop motion just felt right. Not having much in the way of budget, and loving the creative side to all this, I jumped at the chance to make something out of simple materials with only an iphone. Storytelling doesn’t have to be an expensive, expansive affair. In fact, it’s really quite simple. I like stretching myself, and dreaming big, and would love to work on all sorts of levels, but I’ve definitely discovered that limitations keep one focused on the story, on what’s being told, make you dig deeper and force you to be more creative.
With regards to your song "Rocket", you have said that the song fell into your lap fully formed but how when you wrote it, it felt like a throwaway. The response from your dad and others helped you see the song in a different light. Have you had other instances like that in your career, where you didn't like a song you wrote but an outside perspective helped you to see it differently? Do you often have songs that seem to write themselves?
Rose: I never disliked Rocket. I guess I just didn’t respect it very much immediately, but I do now! I have had a few times when songs have fallen into my lap. I heard a song in a dream once and woke up to sing it into my phone, and it ended up on the album! That is a rare occurrence though. My song “Driving Myself Home” felt similar to Rocket, in that it sort of wrote itself and felt like a throwaway. However, when I shared it on my tiktok it blew up which made me take it a bit more seriously, as clearly there was something in it that people really connected with! It’s strange when that happens. The songs I pour my soul into don’t always connect how one expects, and then something that feels too easy turns into the song that sparks.
In 2017 you self-released your debut EP The Stars Look Down and on March 25th, you will be releasing your debut album White Orchids. Having said it is a departure from your EP, what inspired and influenced the songs you wrote for the new album and how would you compare the two bodies of work? With your EP having been completely self-released, how did you meet and come to work with co-producer Kevin White on the new album and what was it like for you to work with someone else this time around?
Rose: There is a fair amount of time between these two projects… most of that time was waiting to find the right producer as I was writing songs that I had big sound ambitions for. I started working with a management label in LA and met with Kevin while out there. We immediately connected with a shared vision for the songs and working with him was really easy and creative. I worked with producer Asa Bennett on my first EP and learned so much about the process, so I knew the ins and outs of being in the room with producers. What we did differently this time was co-write on a couple of tracks and this was new and a fun challenge. I feel like it brought songs out of me that I normally wouldn’t have written. My time in London, the friendships and relationships I had all inspired the album. I feel like I experienced a brilliant moment of youthful innocence and love, and the album explores coming to terms with the loss of this moment. The themes felt big to me and led to big songs which is why this album is so much grander in its production.
What was it like for you to be so vulnerable with this album and, as you said, include every shade of who you are and not hide from the listener this time? Can you talk a bit about the significance of the album title for you and how it signifies the loss of innocence you experienced after heartbreak?
Rose: The album title ‘White Orchids’ comes from the song I wrote, which in turn came from a metaphor in The Great Gatsby. Fitzgerald uses the flower to describe Daisy and her world, symbolising her innocent beauty and youth. I thought about these themes in connection with a flower that cannot support itself, requiring a stake to stand upright, blooming once and then appearing dead for another year before the next bloom. It made so much sense to me, that innocence and youth are so brief, so vulnerable… I felt that my own moment of glorious youth shared this reality and that the songs were all part of me processing this. Being vulnerable is never easy, but weirdly I’ve become used to it… hardened to it perhaps. There is a wonderful feeling of freedom when you let those walls down.
In April of last year, you released the song "Recovery", the first single from the new album. What can you tell me about the experience it came from and how it changed you and the way you write and sing songs?
Rose: I wrote Recovery while literally in the storm following a relationship that ended painfully. For a moment the storm cleared and in that moment I wrote this song. It’s easy to feel a panic to be ‘ok’ after the world has crashed around you, to want to appear healed and unaffected as soon as possible. I realised I needed to stop, to let myself recover, sit in the moment, let it wash over me. It was the first time I’d really felt that and the first time I let myself be completely open in a song, and once you’ve gone to that place as an artist there’s no going back.
What can you tell me about the album artwork, the idea behind the photos you took, and spending time on El Matador beach?
Rose: I had a bunch of artwork ready and none of it was fitting so we took some pictures in my manager’s garden and then I was wearing this dress and it was so floaty I wanted to play in it and we took that photo. I like it because it feels powerful and present. I hadn’t listened to the album in ages and then before we submitted the final mix to mastering I listened through and was surprised by how the songs felt so sure of themselves. I wanted the artwork to reflect this. We went to El Matador to do some filming and I was amazed. I didn’t know there were rugged beaches like that here, really beautiful.
You brought your poet friend Angelique Neumann onto the new album. What can you tell me about the poetic element of the album and the songs "Cyanide Tooth" and "Park Avenue" that she wrote?
Rose: I was so thrilled to work with Angelique on this project. I’ve known her and her work for years and always felt it would compliment anything it touched so I’m so happy I managed to convince her to bring her wonderful voice to the project. Her poems give the album a moment of breath and stillness… she was present for much of the time that the songs were written and knows everyone involved so she already had such a deep understanding of the themes. I’ll leave her to describe her work but for me I find her poems and her delivery utterly enchanting, magical and they bring SO much to the album.
What has your time in LA been like? What do you love and find inspiring about the city? What are some of your favorite places to go in the city?
Rose: My time in LA has been full with new people, challenges, places, adventures… I’m finding things to love which is a little harder than in cities I’m used to but there is much to love here. There is a gorgeous bar near me like something out of the 20’s, live jazz or honky tonk piano most nights… also the public library is a gem, a temple of a place, and I walk a lot around Echo Park in the evenings, keeping an eye on the water lilies. And I love looking up. The buildings in Downtown will reward you for this.
What's next for you?
Rose: More music! I’ve just signed a publishing deal so I’m hoping to be in writing mode. Although that said I have a bunch of songs that would like to see the light of day so that’s something I’m focusing on too… but basically I want to share as much music as possible, enough of these long breaks between projects!