Jesse McCartney

DANA JACOBS - SAN FRANCISCO, CA - JUNE 2022

ROSIE: Embracing the Light and the Darkness

PHOTOS BY CALLIE CRAIG | WORDS BY CLAUDIA CORTEZ

Uniquely herself, ROSIE encapsulates authenticity, honesty and no filters to show the world that she is who she is. By channeling her raw emotions into her songwriting, ROSIE is able to welcome both the good and the bad days. We caught the singer-songwriter for a moment at Lollapalooza in Chicago to chat about how she uses songwriting as therapy, what the future holds for her career and the importance of just being yourself. After blowing up on TikTok in 2020 with her song “Never the 1”, signing to Arista Records and releasing her debut EP 20mg of Happiness, ROSIE is ready for more.

Her latest single “Something I Hate” is an incredibly vulnerable song and falls in line with the kind of music in which ROSIE is known.

“I am a firm believer in writing about what scares me, and this song was particularly terrifying to put into the world because it really touches on some of my deepest insecurities,” ROSIE said. “So when I finally put it out — I had no plan to [initially] — but as soon as I saw that there were definitely some people in the world who would relate, I put it out. As soon as I did, I just cried and cried because it was such a relief. It was such a cathartic experience because it wasn’t easy, but I felt that it was important to put it out not for me, [but] for anyone else who needed to hear it.”

As an advocate for mental health awareness, ROSIE is heavily inspired by her true emotions to hopefully spread the message that it’s okay to not be okay. With the help of songwriting, she finds the ability to express herself in a healthy way. “I truly do it because it’s healing for me. I don’t put myself through any type of pain intentionally ever,” ROSIE said. “I have always been a very deeply healing person, and I’ve always had a hard time being 100% honest when having conversations about how I’m feeling because I like to center things. I don’t want anyone to worry about me.” She said that she figured out from a young age that she could channel her feelings in the most unfiltered way through her songs. “I write songs regardless of anything that’s going on outside of myself, because for me, it’s just a form of coping and it’s super cathartic,” she said.

Even on release days, it’s important for ROSIE to be able to ground herself through activities like meditation, journaling or going for a walk. Whether it’s a heavy

song about dark fears or something lighter, ROSIE said that it is important for her to remain centered, especially on those days because she’s essentially putting a very vulnerable part of herself out into the world.

“It’s incredibly humbling and I always say [that] being a songwriter is the most selfless job you can possibly have because you’re quite literally creating something for a higher purpose and for the greater good,” she said.

With millions of streams across her discography, there’s plenty of people out in the world who can relate to the personal messages that she’s putting out there. After her first time touring as an opener for Chelsea Cutler’s 2022 North American tour earlier this year, she also played her first festival in June at the Middle Waves Music Festival in Fort Wayne, Indiana. She describes her “why” moments as those when she’s on stage and can see people in the audience physically resonating with her music. “It’s like whenever I forget why I’m doing this [and] why I put myself through what I do and the hours I put in, I go back to these wild moments of being on stage and seeing people cry or seeing people sing the words back,” ROSIE said. Starting from writing her music in her bedroom to now where she has access to the newest technology in studio sessions, ROSIE likes to maintain her younger mentality to channel her deepest feelings in her songwriting. “I would say that physically, there’s a big difference [between writing in the studio versus my room] because now I can afford better equipment and can afford going into the studios,” she said. “But emotionally and mentally, I am still that 12-year-old. Up until 2021, when we were finally able to go back out into the world, I was still writing songs every single day in my room, and that’s not going to change anytime soon. Even if I’m writing with a bigger artist, or even if I’m recording in a super fancy studio, that 12-year-old younger self is always in there [and] always just excited to write.” At just 22 years old, this New York-based artist has managed to go from writing bedroom songs to being the voice of a generation that is constantly surrounded by the damaging mental health effects of social media and society itself. With no plans on changing

her songwriting methods, ROSIE does have serious aspirations about the future of her career. “I want to be spreading mental health awareness through music on a global level. What that means more logistically is, I want to be playing arenas,” ROSIE said. “I basically want to get to the biggest platform that I possibly can and just raise this awareness as loudly as I can and just normalize being a human being. I think all these celebrities and artists are really deified, people look up to them and I want to be that artist.” Despite getting pushback from people who felt that without filters, a bunch of makeup and changing her outside appearance ROSIE would get nowhere, she understood that branding herself as purely herself would put her in the position that she needs to be in order to become a successful singer-songwriter. Her family of creatives has helped inspire her broad music taste and support her dreams. In fact, her older brother, Matteo Scher, plays a key role in her day-today life as her manager. “He and I always say that the position of a good manager is quite similar to the criteria [of] being a good brother. It’s all about being protective of your client, looking out for their best interest, knowing when to take a break and when is a good time to have fun and let loose,” she said. “Truthfully, I think he’s been an amazing brother my whole life, so transitioning to manager was pretty seamless. It’s really just about trust.”

Her brother-turned-manager also has helped cowrite some of the songs from her debut EP 20mg of Happiness. The theme is inspired by a longing for happiness. “In my freshman year of college, I started an antidepressant, 20 milligrams. So, when I was writing the song ‘Sad, Sad, Sad’, which has the line ‘20 milligrams of happiness,’ which I actually wrote with Matteo, my manager, and [Dominic Florio], I was trying to figure out [a way to say], ‘Okay, I’m medicated. I should be happy, but I’m not,’” she said. “That’s how I came up with 20mg of Happiness because it’s this idea of doing everything you literally can be to be happy. At the end of the day, human beings weren’t created to be happy all the time.” Now that ROSIE is an expert in writing the perfect songs to help us on our bad days, she hopes to switch up her sound in the future. Although most of her tracks lean on a ballad type of structure, there’s room for more upbeat tunes. “I’m really trying to take everything and just step it up [by] bringing the tempo and energy up, and stepping up my lyric game and melody game,” she said. “Still staying honest and always taking a singer-songwriter roll, but I’m ready to dance to it and take it to the next level. That’s where I find myself, [with] more pop, more percussion, more jump.” With brighter ideas ahead, there’s no telling what’s in store for ROSIE. However, no matter what heights she reaches, she knows exactly how to ground herself and remind others of the importance of being sincere. The message she wishes to leave with the world encapsulates her feelings perfectly. “I hope that everyone — anyone who reads this interview — feels validated and that whatever they’re experiencing, it’s because they’re a human being. We’re all human beings. Nothing separates us from that, so whatever it is that they’re going through in this moment, whether they’re feeling happy, sad [or] anything in between, I want them to remember that it’s real.”