In Bloom with Baby Rose

In anticipation for the release of the deluxe version of To Myself, office hopped on the phone with Baby Rose to talk about Nina Simone, spirituality, and growing up listening to her dad’s acid jazz. 

Were you always around music growing up? What was your relationship with music as a kid? 

My parents played music a lot. They had their own unique relationship to music. My dad, he loved acid jazz and funk and house music. My mom loved hip hop. Already there was a different, polar kind of complex, whether I was around my dad or around my mom. So I was surrounded by it. And when I was younger, around nine, I got a piano for my birthday, and that really inspired me to write.

Did you enjoy listening to your parent's music? Or did you seek out other things to listen to?

I was into a lot of different shit. That my parents loved acid jazz and hip hop really did form me, but more so it inspired me to find exactly what I liked. I loved Coldplay, Elton John, just a lot of unique voices. I remember having the iPod and having just so many different types of artists and types of music. When I really started singing, I was listening to Amy and Nina and Janice—people with really unique voices to help encourage that in me.

You mentioned that you were gifted a piano. What were some of the first songs you learned? 

One of the first songs I learned, or really had the inclination to play, was "God Bless the Child" by Billie Holiday. That was my grandma's favorite song.

What was your entry way into performing? Did you play piano for your family?

Yeah. My family likes to get together whenever I'm home for holidays, so me and my cousins—we are all around the same age, so they're like my siblings in a way—would do talent shows. That was really the beginning.

Was it apparent back then you had the monumental voice you have now?

I just remember my talking voice was a subject for conversation. My speaking voice and my writing. My aunts are teachers, so they were really encouraging about my poetry.

Was there a moment in your life that prompted your decision to pursue music fully and without reservation?

I really just felt like I could pass away, god forbid, at any moment, and I wanted to have something to show for it. Music was something that I quit several times, and you know what they say: If you quit it over and over again, then it's really for you. I knew that it was something that was always around, that I always had a natural inclination to do. So I had to go for it and see how it felt to really immerse myself in it.

Is music often a form of escape for you? Or do you find that you go to music to dwell on certain thoughts and feelings?

It's both. I use dwelling as a form of escapism. Going back in time or worrying about worry. Thinking about scenarios that could happen but often don't. Or really just going into a surreal spectrum of what would happen if I thought about some shit that I want to happen. Music happens in multiple forms for me at the same time.

Do you have any role models in the industry right now?

I appreciate everybody for what they do. I feel like at this time, it's an industry that really requires a degree of autonomy. Artists just aren't artists anymore. They're visionaries. They're orchestrators of their tours. They're A&R. They're all of those things. I wasn't there at the time, but things in the past seem more plotted out. "Just do this, just do that." Now it's more like you see a lot of unsigned artists touring, creating their vision, and making their sound unique. And I admire a lot of artists who do that. For not being cookie cutter. Building their own tables instead of fighting for a seat. Speaking about fighting for a seat at the table.

Your voice has been likened to those of iconic singers like Nina Simone and Tracey Chapman. Do you feel those comparisons are burdens or blessings?

I don't honestly listen to praise or criticism too heavily for it to have an emotional impact on what I do. Even those praises, as much as they're appreciated, they're not adding any pressure because I don't listen to anything too good or too negative. I know I'm just somewhere in the middle, so I keep my head down and do what I feel like I should do.

You've mentioned in a previous interview that music is spiritual for you, that you consider it a “divine gift.” For a lot of people, especially those who'd be listening to Nina Simone, spirituality and music intersect most powerfully with Coltrane. He used to talk about music as being the voice of god. It was holy to him. For you, does music (yours or other's) ever cross over into a sacred space like that?

I mean I try to allow it. It's very much like a surrender before every show... I have a lot of conversations with God. Prayer and meditation. I want to be a vessel and remain a vessel. I know that I'm not necessarily a gospel artist, but I don't think religion is really what drives that notion of spirituality. It's something that's just inside of you. It's the idea of mortality. The fact that all of us know we're going to die. That we're going to go somewhere. We're all driven by our heartbeat, by oxygen, and we're all here at this time. Yes, we have life that happens, but we also have a life to live, and a purpose that drives that life. I think that surrendering to that unknown, to the thing that got you here and puts life in your bones, and trusting that there's a reason you're here at this place and time, is kind of like turning on a light switch. That rush of electricity comes and there's the music, there's the song.