Rose
Addictive Soul
Essent Award winner, singer/songwriter Rose was born in Rotterdam, Holland (‘75). She is curious, self-willed and independent. Her debut album “Trust” is the result of Rose’s search for her ‘own’ sound. “Trust” because she believes in herself and the people around her. But above all, she believes in the power of the individual. “Be yourself and the rest will follow”.
Rose was brought up in an entertainment-oriented family; her father was a well-respected American jazz musician and her mother a sculptress who took Rose along to classical concerts at a very young age. Rose: “There was always music in our house, the jazz from my dad and the classical music from my mum. Ever since I was a little girl I wanted to become an artist”.
At the age of 6 part of that dream comes true. Rose starts playing the violin intensively until the age of 15. Then, she realizes that the human voice is the most vulnerable yet most powerful instrument in the universe. She auditions at the conservatorium and receives a scholarship. “I drove my mother up against the wall,” she recalls. “I remember her telling me: I’ve supported you for over ten years to become a violin player and now you want to throw all of that away to become a pop singer?” But Rose has made up her mind.
At night, somewhere in a New York-club, she grabs the microphone and starts singing to a track played by the dj. That dj turns out to be the legendary Tony Humphries. When the track finishes and Rose wants to put down the microphone, Tony asks her to continue. From that moment on she travels from country to country, from club to club and sings with various dj’s like; David Morales, Roger Sanchez and Kerri Chandler. When Rose returns to Holland she gets in touch with dj Roog. They start making tracks together and perform as well. While she enjoys the sudden success in the underground dance scene, she also understands that this new sound has its limitations, being a female singer who has the need to express herself to the fullest. “What I really wanted was to record a solo album that would be timeless,” she says. “In the dance scene the role of the singer is limited, the emphasis always lays with the producer and the dj’s”.
In the meantime she has written well-over 40 songs. “The only thing that I was missing was the best ‘father’ for my ‘kids’. Rose starts looking for that ‘father’ by going through her record collection. She ends up with the album “When The Funk Hits The Fan” from the Philadelphia based producer King Britt. “His style fits my songs and ideas perfectly. He combines different styles of soul en looks with one eye into the past and the other one into the future. I also use a lot of different styles of music, I don’t focus on one style in particular”.
To get in touch with King Britt, Rose works out a plan. King performs at Paradiso, Amsterdam and Rose asks K.C. The Funkaholic, the organizer, if he is willing to let her sing one of her songs during King’s dj set. K.C. The Funckaholic agrees and it works! King is impressed by what he hears. One week later Rose receives a call from King, he is more then willing to produce tracks for her debut album. A few months later Rose takes off to Philadelphia.
Together with King Britt she records six songs, which form the foundation for her album. While being at the studio Rose gets in touch with the famous Larry Gold. Gold is impressed by what he hears and offers to write some string arrangements. King suggests asking James Poyser (who, amongst others, produced songs for Lauren Hill and Erykah Badu) and his partner Viktor Duplaix, if they are willing to produce a couple of songs for the album. Rose meets up with them successfully; half a year later Rose gets on a plane to Philadelphia again, to record new songs with James Poyser and Vikter Duplaix. After two years of hard work with various producers, Rose feels confident enough about herself and the people around her (among them her partner Sven Figee) to produce the last songs for her album by herself.