Talking to: Rozelle
Leading up to the launch of Everyday Magazine’s Friday night live gig nights on our Instagram, we caught up with Hayley, front woman extraordinaire of Bristol based pop/rock band Rozelle, who is our very first featured live gig stream this Friday. As well as a live acoustic set at 6.30pm she is going to be taking over our Instagram Friday afternoon. We couldn’t be more excited, because, quite frankly, having spent just an hour shooting the breeze with her, we know it is going to be a lot of fun.
Rozelle have been working together for seven years, and since March have been releasing a single every month until the close of 2020, which will lead to their double EP release during 2021. They have been gaining fans at a rate of knots in spite of the trials 2020 has brought to the music industry, creating inventive and unifying videos in lock down, and previously taking over social media channels for Tap the Feed and The Louisiana. Rozelle, as well as creating pretty bloody amazing indie pop/rock in their own right, are doing all they can do make the best of 2020 and to keep engaging and positive in the absence of being able to play live for their fans.
So, firstly, tell me more about you, and more about Rozelle….
I am based up in Filton in Bristol, and have been working with the band here for six years, we met at BIMM Bristol. I think BIMM is great, it has so many credits musically, but I think that the main thing we got from studying there was meeting each other.
So, tell us who the rest of the band are and what do they bring to Rozelle?
I will introduce them, so, we have Alex Rowland who is lead guitar, Tom Jarvis, who is drums, and he has a nice setup, it is kind of hybrid which brings a lot of variation. And we have got Dan Hodgson, aka Hodge, on bass. And it works really well, because the way we work and the way we write is really fluid. I will have a song written on guitar with an idea of a theme and some general idea of the arrangement, but then the guys will work with me to understand my vision first of all, and we will work together to change it, and it works. We basically try so many different ideas, and if we are torn between them, over the years we have come up with a kind of voting system. It works really nicely. For example, Alex may come up with some chord progressions, and I will be in the kitchen and he will be in the living room, and I will just be humming something and go “that’s it”! It’s cool, because it’s nice to have different approaches, because I think for us that has always been central to being creative, and being able to produce stuff.
So you are living together as well?
Yes. At the moment Alex is with his parents, but he is allowed to come back and forth a bit more now.
Rozelle is life then….
Yeah!
Tell us a bit more about you…. what got you into music?
I think when I was growing up I had a lot of rage. I had lovely parents who to this day I love dearly, but I had a lot of things from the get-go that needed to be worked out, for no apparent reason really. My parents were great and brought me up well, and a lot of my music influence today is generated from their tastes and their nurturing.
My mum is really into mainstream pop from the 80’s to the present, whilst my dad is a real beatnik, into a lot of the 60’s/70’s stuff outside of the mainstream. Growing up, there was a lot of genre clash going on in the house but in a good way. I think that, combined with me being just this crazy but curious human from the get-go, that gave birth to me having a creative pursuit. I levelled out from this crazy, angry rage that I had for years when I was a toddler, to being able to absorb a bit more. I got into poetry writing, I think trying to decipher my sexuality was part of it. Then my dad got me a guitar and I was left handed and learnt upside down, because I didn’t know that left handed guitars even existed. I just took it from there. Basically, I just realised this (making music) makes me feel really good, it makes me feel some form of belonging in the world that not many other things really do.
Who were you listening to when you were younger which has been brought forward to influence your music into adulthood?
I was listening to a lot of people. You won’t really hear it in the music, but a lot of older stuff, like Van Morrison, was a massive influence in terms of song craft. Especially his older stuff like Astral Weeks; that album was on rotation. I get something different from so many artists, so what I get from him is some form of emotional comfort from having heard that album so much at that time, but actually, his voice is quite raucous. He kind of wants to transcend from where he is at that time with that album.
But on the flip side, I am not even joking, Guy Chambers (pop songwriter) and Robbie Williams, who my Mum used to put on rotation. And I know that Robbie Williams is like the generic pop star, but the song craft from Guy Chambers at the time, I just think they are such strong pop songs it’s insane. But I also find influence in The Cure, in loads of 80’s artists. I really like the 80’s overall, I really like the synths; I feel like there was a big change in music overall in terms of the technologies that were around then. Also what I like about 80’s as an era is that all of the songs have a very specific kind of topic, and they work off that.
Are we talking alternative 80’s or 80’s pop?
Both. I am still like it today; I love poppy stuff but also love really bizarre experimental alternative stuff. It’s never changed, I hope it never changes!
I really notice that Rozelle’s music has a strong pop element, which really attracts people who are into the mainstream stuff. So, who is your audience, who do you want to listen to you?
In a dream world, we want an audience who are really diverse. One of our favourite things that has happened was a garage gig in our house, our neighbours came along, which was so cool, because we really like the idea of our music bringing together a really broad demographic; nans and grandpas, young kids, and older teens and parents. We really like that diversification. Whether we have that right now is another thing, but in Bristol especially it’s quite interesting, we have older people who are into our stuff, but also the younger lot as well. So that is kind of us.
What life experiences do you put into your music? You talked earlier about starting off with poetry. Is it purely your life experiences, or do you work with other people’s viewpoints as well?
Again, it’s a mix. All of us as a group together see our project as an outlet that can express lots of different viewpoints, from different characters in a way. We create characters to navigate different stories, which comes from our own curiosities to decipher this life that we are living. There are some songs where I guess my emotions just spill out and that is kind of apparent, whilst there are others that are more built off a character and do explore different themes of fear, regret, or self reflection; more introspective stuff.
But it’s kind of a mix at this stage, and again has kind of elevated us to write more. I think that songwriting is a kind of practice. When you are in your infant stages it is more direct, and it can take years to work through not only the rhythm and rhyme like in poetry, but also opening yourself up to exploring new narratives. It’s not always easy; there are days where you are there thinking ‘ooh, I have a day off, I would love to write a song’, and there is nothing going on, nothing works. Then there are these other weird days where you will literally be sitting there, not expecting anything, and it is almost like something just drops down from somewhere and installs into your head and you just end up writing three pages of lyrics.
So, do the four of you write songs together?
In terms of the lyrics, that usually comes from me. Occasionally I am not 100% sure on the lyrics, the guys will help me decipher it, but in terms of writing the songs, it is definitely a joint effort.
What sort of music are you listening to at the moment?
I listen to a lot of stuff. To be honest, I have just delved back into Foster the People. I listen to a lot of their stuff, I think they are great. Radiohead I have just jumped back into as well. In terms of new music, I listen to a lot of new artists. I am digging the Irish music scene a lot at the moment, especially Fontaines DC and Biig Piig. There is a lot of good stuff coming from Ireland, which is really nice, because I can’t recall a time where there was so much Irish music being accepted into the mainstream.
Other than that I listen to anything, I listen to Drill, I listen to Grime as well, I think Spotify is great for that, you can kind of cherry pick where you want to go next. Every day and every hour can be so radically different, and I like that idea of listening to one genre and then a minute later skipping on to another genre. There is so much good stuff. And even just in Bristol there are so many wicked artists at the moment…. Harvey Causon is really cool, Keir as well, we actually know Keir very well, I also like Idles, and so many more.
How is the pandemic affecting you both as a musician and personally, and how do you think it has affected the music industry in general?
For us, we have been fortunate in the fact that we live together, and we have been a support system for each other; we have been able to create on the go and help each other out in that way. Other than that, of course, as individuals, each day is different. So, given this grey cloud that hangs over our heads, of not knowing what the future holds… i.e. if this whole thing is going to come back… you feel different day to day.
I am kind of an introverted extrovert I think. So I like the idea of going out, but I also really like staying home and making music, being creative, not only just with music, anything really; cooking, writing. So for me, it has been great having that time to do more stuff, not just being productive, but being able to think a bit more. It makes you realise how busy the working world is. And how western modernisation has gone, it’s crazy how much pressure we put on ourselves and on everyone else as well.
But one thing that has become apparent is how important live music is. And from our perspective, we are releasing new music this year, and we weren’t extensively gigging the live music circuit yet, so as a revenue stream that wasn’t there for us yet. But in terms of other artists, so many are struggling and are worse off than us, because live music is their main income. Then, aside from money, live music is first and foremost the most organic communication of music. So I think from the musicians’ side it sucks that we can’t communicate our music that way.
It is amazing how powerful live music is. I think a lot of people, outside of your music enthusiasts, and artists, have realised how important live music is. It is like a unity. I would go as far as saying live music is one of the biggest forms of unity in the whole world. For me and the guys, it just doesn’t feel like things are back to normal until that comes back. Live music is at the heart of it all.
I feel like this time a lot of people have realised what is important. Even before lock-down I was kind of getting the feeling amongst the networks of people that I know that people are wanting to focus more on their mental health and well-being, and this whole situation has allowed time for that… there are some positives….
I am a bit concerned that at the start of lock down, it looked like we were going to move away from a libertarian way of thinking, with stuff like mutual aid taking off, and I am quite disappointed to see that people are going back quite quickly to being selfish, that it hasn’t really stuck…
I feel the same way. There was a nice period where it felt like a sense of community was going to stick, whilst now, it is almost relevant to bigger corporations, and their marketing. Marketing for these bigger corporations is basically always centred around pushing some sort of fear, for example ‘I am incomplete so I need this to feel good’. So I think when that creeps back in again, that is when people start becoming a bit more insular and selfish.
Obviously we have seen a lot of love in the community, and it would be so cool if that lasted. I think there are a lot of people innovating, with how they can put on live music during this time; social distancing in a venue, reduced ticket sales, I have seen a lot of suggestions. But also things are being planned and then being pulled again, and it is really hard to see, and I wonder how things will ever get back to normal again.
I don’t think anyone knows, it is such a weird time. For me, both as a music editor and personally, I am so missing the live gig experience. I don’t feel I can get to know what the artists are really like without hearing them live, being amongst other people loving what they’re doing….
I think it is an organic format, you get everything you want (from live music), you get the music, you get the personality, you get the full experience, so fingers crossed. I think there are a few shows being booked locally in the later part of the year. There has been so much negativity in the music industry and the live circuit in 2020, but I think a lot of artists that we know and from what we have seen online are thinking of a lot of new stuff to do to engage their fans.
Yes, including you! Rozelle have been doing a lot of stuff across social media, tell us about that.
Yeah, I have become a bit of a socials queen. Well, not quite, I wouldn’t quite give myself that title. The thing is, March was always when our first single was due to come out, and then all of a sudden, the world is on lock down. It almost felt when that came around like it was the wrong time to be pushing the single, it felt like the wrong agenda to be pushing. But we thought we are going to have to carry on. So this year we have done a fair few things, I have tried my best to bring some positive vibes to people. We have been posting little behind the scenes clips for next year’s singles as well. I have been doing my best to post regularly. You have some weeks where you are like ‘yes! I am going to post every day, this is it!’ then you have other weeks where you just literally want to unplug yourself and not surround yourself with technology.
We are really looking forward to having you on our Instagram on the 21st.
Yeah, yeah, I am really looking forward to it as well, it’s going to be great. We haven’t done one in a while. I will be playing the new tracks and a couple of others that aren’t online yet. And it will be a great way to meet your followers, and introduce them to us.
How is the single drop going?
Really good considering what is going on; our singles have racked up an amazing amount of plays, and we are really grateful for that. We never thought we would get more than 100 Spotify plays, to be honest, but to see the tracks we have lived with so long, to see them getting out in the world and getting so much love, is so nice, it is actually really rewarding. It’s not just Bristol, we have had plays in Brazil, in the US as well. It is a bit of a commitment, a single every month, we have been making our own music videos, which has been so fun to do.
Our next single Mystery comes out on 17th August, and this one I am really excited for, as it brings a darker side to the band; it is not as lighthearted, it is quite dark and hypnotic. It is a song I wrote when I was working four jobs and I was in a really bad way. In terms of I was overworking myself, and I was thinking ‘god, is this all there is to life? There has to be more’.
Have all of your videos been shot in lock down as well?
We shot our first two videos pre lock down. For our third single we wanted to do something that would bring people together, so we got 65 people from all around the world to create a video together, it felt like the right idea. We thought ‘what can we do to unify people?’ and the response we got from that was so cool. After that we had a bit of fun with Tell Me in front of a green screen; we were in lock down and thought ‘let’s just put ourselves in front of lots of different paradises from all around the world’.
How do you feel about signing to a label at some point or carrying on marketing yourself as a band?
You know what? Labels are brilliant usually, we have had chats with a few labels, some small and some big. It’s a tough decision, because even though you could have support from a bigger label and there is a chance that label could break you, but if that does happen you are going to be thinking ‘Could I have learnt how to do that myself and been able to have put more money into what I am doing without having to pay it all to a label?’
So (working independently of a label), I think it is going to be a harder road in terms of generating different incomes in our music. But we are willing for that hardship. We know that in the long term, learning that marketing, and learning those tools to elevate our content, and then also focusing on other platforms is a good thing. There are so many opportunities, like Patreon, but it is so hard to find an honest payment from these opportunities. How much do you see your music being sold for? What is the true value? It is really distorted. I think that is why the live circuit is the most organic, honest payment for your work.
It does feel like you have to be so multi-faceted as an artist nowadays, you have got to be good at selling yourself. And there are artists across the whole spectrum of creativity, that is not what they are good at… they are good at making, at creating. But that is that enough nowadays, is it? You have to push yourself.
Totally. Expecting artists to also learn all of the marketing and deal with that is actually quite barbaric. What I have tried to do is, from around 6 months ago, I was at a different point in my personal development, more comfortable with myself, and just thought, if we are going to prevail, people need to know us, I need to be more comfortable with talking about what we are.
I have just tried to be more relatable and reach people in a way. I could have been this super-cool person all like ‘you will never get to know me’. And that is great, but in the long term, with a band that has no label and no management, if you are just delivering that side of this cold-hearted mystery person, you can’t connect with your audience. So I have been trying to diversify with everything we put out.
I really like a lot of the bands that are out today, but I think there are a lot of people who try and grip on to trends. I don’t think it’s all intentional, but I have noticed that if a certain genre breaks through...hail… all the other bands in that genre will come through. I like to try and keep an eye on that, and not in a corrosive way, but I like the idea of a brand identity for Rozelle instead. I am always just trying to make sure our stuff isn’t like that.