Songwriter and producer Caroline Rose refuses to be pinned down. In over a decade of releasing music, they have put out four albums, all of which play with different sounds and elements, making it hard for anyone to place their music into a box. Now, a year after the release of their latest and most vulnerable album, The Art of Forgetting, Rose is taking it on the road. A week into their North American tour on March 31st,
our Blog Assistant Ella Mastroianni spoke with Rose about their writing process, becoming an uncle, and giving in to the Gods of rock.
PICTURE THIS. YOU'RE IN THE STUDIO RIGHT NOW. AND YOU'RE WRITING A SONG ABOUT THE WAY THAT YOU'RE FEELING TODAY. WHAT IS IT CALLED? AND WHY?
Caroline Rose: Oh, you're really putting me on the spot.
I AM. I AM.
CR: The title is a work in progress, but I feel like it would be a song about just being kind of grateful for life.
I mean, we're only a week into [tour]. Like, we had rehearsals, and then we had the first show just a couple nights ago, so it's still very fresh. And it's been the same amount of stress that it always is on tour, you know, constant fires being put out. But I still have this general sense of: it's the best job ever. So yeah, I think it would be kind of a funny song about everything going wrong, and it still being the best. Maybe it's called “The Best.”
AND DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA WHAT IT MIGHT SOUND LIKE OR RESEMBLE? BECAUSE I KNOW YOU'VE TRIED YOUR HAND AT KIND OF DIFFERENT GENRES OVER THE YEARS.
CR: Yeah, everybody talks about this all the time. I don't find [my genre dabbling] that weird. But everyone's like, “You do so many different styles.” I'm like, “do you not?”
I think it would sound maybe like— something a little thrashy. I don't know, I got some pep in my step these days. Which is hilarious because I haven’t been sleeping well at all. I feel good. I feel like we have a teenage angst. So maybe it would just be a punk song called “The Best.”
I'D LISTEN TO IT. SO OBVIOUSLY, WE'RE NOT IN THE STUDIO RIGHT NOW, UNFORTUNATELY. BUT WHEN YOU ARE ACTUALLY IN THE PROCESS OF WRITING YOUR MUSIC DO YOU HAVE A SPECIFIC WAY THAT YOU USUALLY KICK OFF THE WRITING PROCESS OF SOMETHING NEW?
CR: I usually go through waves. I'll make an album, tour the album, and then when it's done—or really, as soon as I have free time again—the songs just kind of naturally come. And I think the day that they stop popping into my head is the day that I'll quit. They just keep coming! I don't know, I just— every time I'm like, “Oh, I'm retiring,” the songs just keep popping into my head and I'm like, “Oh, that's pretty good. I should write that down.” And then before I know it, it's like, well, now I have enough songs for an album. I might as well make another one.
YEAH, MIGHT AS WELL.
CR: Probably right after this tour is done, I’ll work on more songs.
AWESOME! SO IT [SOUNDS] LIKE YOU USUALLY START WITH LYRICS WHEN YOU'RE WRITING? OR DO YOU START WITH A SOUND OR SOMETHING?
CR: It really depends… To me, it's always like pulling a string… I could read something somewhere and be like, “Oh, that's a really beautiful concept. I really like that idea.” [The idea] could be something random, like some poetry line or something that I hear that I'm like, “Ah, I really like that; I'm gonna read this whole book of poetry,” or whatever…
And then it's like pulling a thread, where it's like, “Oh, this, this line reminds me of this color. And this color reminds me of this sound. And this sound reminds me of this one time I had this feeling… I want to write about this one time…”
You know, so [it] just depends. Sometimes I'll be walking down the street and I'll be like, “that’s a good melody,” and then I put it into my voice memos, forget about it for three years and then randomly open it up and it becomes a song.
MY NEXT QUESTION IS A LITTLE BIT OF A DIFFERENT DIRECTION. BUT I HAVE SEEN YOU BOTH REFERRED TO AND REFERRING TO YOURSELF AS UNCLE CAROL. AND THERE'S ALSO MERCH WITH THAT ON IT. AND I WAS JUST WONDERING WHERE AND WHEN THAT TERM BEGAN? AND WAS THAT SOMETHING THAT YOU CAME UP WITH OR SOMETHING THAT SOMEONE ELSE CAME UP WITH?
CR: I can almost guarantee it's something that someone else came up with. One of my friends called me Carol kind of as a joke because I'm just really not a Carol. I don’t really feel like a Caroline, but, you know, my parents named me that... So here we are. But yeah, somebody called me Carol and we all laughed about it because it's sort of a soccer mom name. And I think over the years, someone was like, you're way more of an Uncle Carol than a Carol. And it very much clicked. It just clicked so hard. I feel like it's on my Wikipedia page [now].
PROBABLY. IF IT'S NOT, I’LL WRITE IT.
CR: Yeah, and it is kind of funny. I dated somebody who had an uncle Carol from Texas. And I think that's another thing— it's like an old Texan name for a man. Which I find [it] like really funny that Carol's… a gender fluid name.
I DON'T KNOW IF I'VE EVER MET A GUY CAROL, BUT I’D LOVE TO.
CR: They usually spell it differently. They spell it was like two R's and two L's or something and that, you know, genders it.
SO, ASIDE FROM YOUR OWN WORK, YOU'VE ALSO DONE SOME RE-MIXING. DO YOU HAVE A SONG OR ARTIST THAT YOU WOULD ABSOLUTELY LOVE TO REMIX IF YOU WERE GIVEN THE CHANCE?
CR: I haven't really thought about it. I really like completely transforming a song. Sometimes it could be taking a dance track and turning it into an emotional ballad kind of thing. I did that with this band Overcoats once. They had this dance track that I got, and I was like, it's already a dance track, it's already a bop. What am I going to do, turn it into a different dance track? It just seemed kind of bizarre to do that. So I ended up like stupidly stripping it down and changing some chords around. And it ended up being really beautiful. So I imagine it would be kind of fun to do that with something really electronic, or… any EDM or techno.
ARE THERE SONGS YOU'VE BEEN LISTENING TO LATELY THAT YOU'RE LIKE, I JUST WANT TO [MESS] AROUND WITH THIS.
CR: I'm actually obsessed with this Mannequin Pussy record right now. I would love to remix one of their songs. I would have a lot of fun with that. They're all such great musicians and such great people, and I'm obsessed with their record. I think every song on it is perfect.
SO YOU'VE BEEN RELEASING MUSIC FOR SOME TIME NOW, AND I'M SURE YOU HAVE ENDURED A LOT OF CHANGE OVER THE YEARS. BUT I'M REALLY CURIOUS WHAT YOUR FAVORITE SONG [TO PLAY] FROM EACH OF YOUR ALBUMS IS?
CR: Yeah, that's always hard to choose...
I don't know, I'm kind of coming around to some songs on LONER. I think it's been like six years since it came out. So it's been long enough now that I'm kind of coming around to some of the songs that I have sort of been neglecting over the years. Like, I haven't played “Soul No. 5” in ages. It's been probably since 2018. And I heard it the other day, and I was like, “This is hilarious. This is a hilarious song.” So I'm like, “Maybe I'll resurrect that.” Maybe that'll be my favorite for a while. Kind of goofy and playful… I feel like I'm kind of getting my sense of humor back after being in the darkness for three years.
But yeah, I think “Someone New” on Superstars is a really good track. I can play it on piano and it sounds like a full song to me, so I like playing that one— there are a lot of fun changes in it.
And [off] The Art of Forgetting, I really like all of them. I think “The Doldrums” might be my favorite. It reminds me of The Carnival of the Animals, “The Swan.” [by] Camille Saint-Saëns. [Or], it's called “The Aquarium” or something, and it's got like an underwater theme.
CAN YOU SEE YOURSELF RELEASING MUSIC PUBLICLY FOREVER? OR DO YOU HAVE ANY OTHER ASPIRATIONS CAREER-WISE THAT YOU WOULD CHANGE PATHS TO OR DO IN ADDITION TO MUSIC?
CR: Yeah, I think about quitting all the time. Or not even really quitting, but just like pausing. But the songs keep coming. That's what's so annoying is [that] as soon as I'm like, “Alright, I'm gonna try something else,” then all these songs just keep popping into my head. And I'm like, “Well, you know, I should strike while the iron is hot. These are good songs, I should at least put them out.” And then before I know it I am on tour again.
IT’S JUST OUT OF YOUR CONTROL.
CR: It's out of my control. You know, I just gotta follow the Gods of rock, and the Gods of rock say write more songs. So I do what they say. But yeah eventually, I want to do something else. I have a whole degree in architecture— I'd love to build my own house. And there [are] a lot of things I want to do… I could see myself writing; I could see myself writing a screenplay; I could see myself doing a little part in a movie or something. And you know, writing film scores would be a true dream come true. So yeah, I think I’ll always be writing my own music. But at a certain point, I would love to do something else. Yeah, that’d be cool.
I CAN ABSOLUTELY SEE YOU WRITING A SCREENPLAY OR A FILM SCORE. I FEEL LIKE YOUR MUSIC IS JUST SO REMINISCENT OF THAT TO ME. MY FIRST INTRODUCTION TO YOU WAS ONE OF YOUR MUSIC VIDEOS, [SO] TO ME, THAT JUST MAKES SENSE.
CR: I'd say film is probably my number one influence in my music. So it makes sense to dabble in that in some way. But I don't know, it's gotta feel natural. And if it feels forced I don't want to do it.
Tickets for Caroline Rose’s North American tour are available here, including their stop at Royale in Boston on Sunday, April 7th.
