Saint Mesa dreams of a beautiful future on “Roses”

Indie-pop singer songwriter Saint Mesa (real name Danny McCook) spent two years in and out of hospital with undiagnosed health issues. “It was a weird, mysterious illness,” he explains. “The doctors were like, “We don’t know!” and I’’m like “What do you mean? What the heck? It’s your job!” I was in this place of hopelessness.”

“Roses” is a sweeping pop track that stems from the insecurity of this period, laced with Cook’s warm yet emotional vocals. It’s hard to believe the grandiose synth-pop ebbs and swells came from a place of such uncertainty, hearing them now delivered with the confidence of someone back at the top of their game.

“I had to convince myself to not give up,” McCook says, of the period in which “Roses” was written. “There are very few things that can make you happy and excited when you’re bedridden - you can only watch movies for so long! When you’re making music you feel like there’s progress; you’re doing something productive.”

“This song was [about] keeping my mind on something beautiful in the future; dreaming of something that’s beautiful so you can have something to hang onto, even if the present sucks. Roses [are] the symbol for something beautiful and pure.”