‘I KNOW THAT I WILL BE A STADIUM ARTIST ONE DAY’: ALESSI ROSE DREAMS BIG AHEAD OF HEADLINE TOUR
INTERVIEW | ALESSI ROSE By Keira Knox
Alessi Rose has taken the pop world by storm in just over two years, releasing three amazing EPs and touring the globe with some of the biggest stars in the business. We sat down to talk with her before her biggest headline tour to yet, and now it’s her turn to shine.
Your music perfectly blends pop with deeply personal lyricism. How do you strike that balance between mainstream appeal and authentic self-expression?
I don’t think anyone can seek to have mainstream appeal, however I do believe that lots of people right now are looking for honesty in a world that is plagued with so much falsity. AI is making us question what is real from what is fake, so I think people who are making very raw, honest and unapologetic art are finding mainstream appeal because people need respite from all the algorithms and technology.
When you sit down to write a song, what does your creative process typically look like from start to finish?
It’s never really been a simplistic, methodical approach. I think having started writing and producing music with limited resources, sometimes it would be a lyric or a title or a concept that would shape the writing process, or sometimes something as simple as holding down one single note on a keyboard has prompted me to write entire songs. Sometimes I think scarcity is good and even though I’ve been lucky enough to write in studios full of amazing equipment and instruments, sometimes my best work has been born of having less.
How has your sound evolved since you first began making music, and what has influenced that evolution?
I think I’ve definitely developed a lyrical clarity that I didn’t know how to harness before. I grew up valuing honesty in musicians, and writing about things true to life, that let me, effectively the average listener who had no idea about the music industry or what that life consisted of, have a window into it all. I now utilise that honesty I learnt from those artists; Madonna, Taylor Swift, Lorde and I am able to use it now to make people feel what I want them to feel. Sometimes its uncomfortable, sometimes sad, sometimes triumphant; I think when I started out I was just in desperate need to get all this music out of me that I had pent up inside me from my teens, whereas now I’m more interested in using it to manipulate emotions.
Every artist’s journey is unique. What have been some of the most pivotal moments or turning points in your career so far?
I think opening for Dua Lipa and Tate McRae this year were definitely very pivotal in terms of me coming face-to-face with how much I want this. Having that kind of co-sign is everything to me, considering I did grow up miles away from this industry and have often felt outside it a bit, and I think also with both of them being such hard-workers, that impacted me a ton. I have always been a champion of plain, boring hard work. Sometimes it really does matter more even than talent. I can’t control whether I’m the most talented in the room but I can be the most hard-working.
The pop landscape is constantly shifting. How do you navigate trends while maintaining a distinct artistic identity?
I don’t think I’m very interested in trends. I don’t think any trend has evolved from someone seeking to make a trend. And I don’t think trends are inherently very creative. Instead I like to see my job as a pop artist as being to consume as much media from around me that I WANT to consume and use that to inform my music and creation. Books, movies, articles, art are far more useful to me than trends.
What has been the most rewarding (and most challenging) aspect of building your career as an independent artist?
Being independent had its challenges – less money, less ability to execute ideas you may have, and less ‘push’ behind you to market you. However, like I said before, I think scarcity makes you creative, and I have always had an incredible team that’s always been able to make amazing things happen regardless of budgets or manpower. I look back at the shoots we did whilst I was independent and I wouldn’t change a thing about them. I also had the privilege of having a super dedicated audience from pretty much the beginning, and so I never felt truly alone – the most important thing wasn’t high-budget music videos or expensive visuals, but instead the connection between myself and them.
How do you measure success for yourself as an artist beyond streaming numbers or social media analytics?
I don’t think streams or social media analytics are a very healthy way to view life as an artist. I’m very ambitious and competitive, so I do feel a sense of this desire to win, however I think winning has to mean a different thing than numbers as a creative. Is my writing getting better? Am I reading and consuming things that are making me a better lyricist? Are my performances improving with every show? I think for me there has been a very public journey from being a girl in her bedroom with no team just writing songs, to being an actual touring releasing artist, and so as long as people can see that I’m improving, that’s all I can work to do.
Consistently, your fan base has proved just how devoted they are, following you around the world for headlines and support, how does it feel to have such a devoted following?
I often feel so incredibly lucky to have had an audience find me, who is not only so passionate and dedicated and loud in their support, but also incredibly intelligent and pioneering in their ways of showing love to my music. I will always give them their flowers for how they ground me, and sometimes when I’m having a difficult day or feeling lost, its that audience that is something so very tangible and unwavering that I can always look to to remember why I do this.
What do you love most about the interaction between you and your audience during a show?
I love to see the real-life reaction right in front of my eyes. When I’m in the studio, I’m thinking about lyrics and the most minute of details in the production, however on stage, all of that kind of slips away to just human connection. I’ve gotten super emotional at my shows before seeing how some songs make people feel.
You’ve been performing a lot recently supporting the likes of Dua Lipa and Tate McRae, how has being on tour changed your relationship with your songs?
It’s definitely deepened my connection with some of my songs. Dumb Girl for example has been a song where arenas full of people have waved torches for me, and that has moved me at so many at the Tate McRae shows. And ‘That Could Be Me’ has been a song where I’ve found a new way I like to perform it whilst being on this tour, and that has been a discovery I made due to having a bigger stage, and a runway, and screens to manipulate how I am appearing to a crowd. Luckily, that’s something I can take to my headline tour as though I’m still in arenas.
What have you learned about yourself as a performer since you started playing to bigger audiences?
I love playing big rooms. I know that I will be an arena/stadium artist one day. Even just being given a big stage and a little bit of a runway, and a HUGE audience during an opener slot, I feel a part of me freed into this liberated, theatrical, campy performer, that’s not afraid of getting a few weirded out looks. I know that I want that whole arena to myself one day, and I will do some really crazy things with it.
With your biggest headline tour fast approaching, how have you dealt with setlist curation? Do you build it around storytelling, energy flow, or fan favourites?
I still have a relatively small discography I guess, so much to my audience’s delight there often only ends up being a few songs that get missed out. The current headline setlist is built almost in acts, songs that evoke similar emotional feelings are grouped together, in the hopes that myself and the audience go on this wild emotional ride from start to finish.
Is there a particular city or venue that you’re excited to play on the ‘Voyeur’ tour? What makes the performance there special for you?
Rock City in Nottingham. I grew up in Derby, and so throughout my teens, if we ever wanted to go see a gig, we’d have to get the Red Arrow bus from the bus station to Nottingham for it. I remember at the very very beginning of my journey releasing music, which is still only like two years ago, I’d go back home and me and my mum would be in Notts, and we’d joke about me one day playing Rock City, and it felt so so so far at that point in time. It’s going to be very surreal.
Do you find touring creatively inspiring, or is it more of a pause from the writing process for you?
I’m a firm believer that in order to write great songs you have to live life to have things to write about, and touring is a weird bubble in which you feel like your life is at its craziest it has ever been, yet in an incredibly niche not relatable way. That being said, I do think it heightens your emotions, and something so simple as boredom can be perceived in such a way that it actually makes for an interesting topic to write about. It’s a weird oxymoron. But I have been able to write luckily.
How do you envision the next stage of your live shows evolving; musically, visually, or emotionally?
I envision a sense of theatricality playing a bigger part. I’ve always admired Madonna as a live performer, and how her shows could range from these high-energy dance routines to a dramatic rendition of a ballad under candlelight on a bed. I wanna play these mini music videos out on stage to everyone just like I grew up watching her do.
You’re part of an upcoming rise of artists from across the nation. How do you hope your legacy as a female artist will impact the industry?
I want to shake things up. There are a few things within me that I feel have the capacity for that. I love language, in a way I would even call an academic love, and my dropping out of me English Literature degree to pursue music full-time is something that I believe I want to pay back somehow somewhere. I was once told that the way I wrote pop music was jarring and my long words didn’t work, but I think they’re a fundamental part of my writing. I also want to empower those who feel they have to settle for not pursuing their dreams because of gatekeeping and not having money or connections. Or maybe don’t have the privilege to pursue their craft full-time as they need to work other jobs to pay the bills. These were all frustrations I experienced and still experience to this day and would like to be someone who champions these people. I also want to be respected as someone who makes really great music, and I want that to be a process that makes me a better artist.
