On the Rise
Amelia Rose

On the new EP, Rose broadens her sound embracing garage, electronica and organic instrumentation alongside her neo-soul roots and smooth RnB vocal lines. It’s an expansive ride of sonic experimentation that keeps the energy flowing, even as she touches on the more tender moments in her songwriting.

Originally from London, Rose moved around a lot as a child, her entrepreneur parents instilling an early hustle in her. Her dad was a formative influence, bringing a passionate appreciation for all genres to long car journeys. “My dad is a huge music geek,” she says. “He likes all sorts, so I think having that when I was growing up was really good for me. We would listen to Estelle’s ‘American Boy’ when it was really early on, or Gil Scott, people like that, but then he would also like a lot of punk rock stuff. It was just a huge range of things. It definitely helped me shape a unique sound.”

In her early teens, Rose began listening to the likes of Tyler, the Creator and Childish Gambino, developing her own taste in music. “I think I loved the beats behind it, but I wasn't too interested in the rapping at that point,” she says.

She took classical singing lessons as a child, progressing through the formal grade structure. When she discovered the world of neo-soul, everything began to click into place. “I realised that people actually sing on top of these really soulful but hip-hop bass beats,” she says. “I think from that it kind of went into alt RnB and trying to figure out anything within that because I think the whole jazz bass, that you could just experiment around that, was what I really liked.”

In 2023 Rose won a competition to spend five days at Abbey Road, working with pioneering producer Hannah V to expand her abilities and experience in the studio. That week was pivotal in the inspiration for and creation of her new EP. “I was very active in the production process. I think that kind of confidence and that certainness made me want to write the EP and produce it myself,” she says. “I've done so many collaborations and let people produce for me. Abbey Road was the start of me being way more assertive. Just being around that environment was very cool and Hannah V was super on it how she was editing stuff and I really took that on board.”

Alongside her singing tuition, she took lessons in piano, drums and music theory, sang in choirs and did musical theatre. She began producing at the age of fifteen, picking up bass and guitar to help her recording process. Taking A Level Music and Music Tech, she was the only student on the course, getting one-on-one tuition that she fed into her solo practice. “I started on GarageBand and obviously I was awful but just having teachers there helped me learn on the side,” she says. “I was doing a lot of smooth trap beats. I think my sound throughout has been very atmospheric, ethereal. I was doing a lot of electronic stuff as well, just experimenting with stuff. It’s always been part of me.”

After completing a music technology degree at the University of Surrey, she gave herself a year to focus on music. “I tried that and I think I'd too much time on my hands,” she laughs. “I'm now teaching part-time, but I think I had a year just to see if I actually could do this full-time, but I wasn't making any money. I've always been in education, so it was a huge jump from everything I was doing. I needed some structure.”

In 2022 she released her debut single “midnight,” a collaboration with New York-based producer Relyae. Picking up over half a million streams and a sync placement, it did better than she expected and pushed Rose to continue her run of collaborations. “A lot of people I meet are through Instagram,” she says. “There’s this whole hip-hop, soul community on Instagram and I was trying to get into that and I just saw his page. He was doing really well but I just DM’d him and was like, ‘Do you want to make a track?’ And that was it.”

She continued releasing singles, but after finding her confidence at Abbey Road, was inspired to self-produce and write as much as possible. “I'm glad I did it because it made me just release music quicker because I wasn't too worried about it being too precious to me,” she says. “That's why I want to release this EP, which apart from one song is just me. But it was good collaborating, just having that network of people that can help me in the future.”

Across Inner Monologue, “Ride Home” is the only track on which Rose collaborated, working with London-based producer and accordionist Anatole. “He's the only person that's a feature,” she says. “Normally I have a million people on it. Because I'm doing it all my own I'll realise what I actually want instead of having to need someone. I could be like, ‘Here's what I'm lacking in my production’ or ‘Here's where I actually need more for my sound,’ and I can get people in.”

She brought in a bass player and keyboardist for some session work, but the rest of Inner Monologue is completely Rose. Written across a couple of years, she pushed herself to create something that felt cohesive. “I don't like to sit on things too much, but I needed to have a bit more of a concept instead of being too random,” she says. “Some stuff I've made a few months ago or finished a few months ago, some things I finished in a few days a year ago, so it's quite sporadic.”

Across the EP Rose’s subtle production weaves a fine tapestry around her soft and full vocals. The instrumentation is inventive and expansive, every sound built with consideration. EP opener “worth the stress” is a harmonious mediation reminiscent of early Imogen Heap, while her recent single “push up” is a pulsing rush of Jersey Club groove.

As well as her own solo material, Rose has been working with up and coming artists to help share the confidence and experience she gained at Abbey Road. “I'm just working with a lot of emerging RnB artists and some of them haven’t ever released anything,” she says. “I think I want to keep a relationship with them instead of just doing one session. A lot of RnB female singers, which is cool. I just want to keep some relationships going with helping them get their sound.”