After releasing her debut album in early 2023, Stella Rose follows it up with EP ‘Hollybaby’, released on Friday (December 13th). A marked step on for the New Yorker, the songs both finetune and expand her sound to take in more contrasting influences.
The daughter of Depeche Mode’s Dave Gahan, the musician is no stranger to moody, intense sonics, and the EP consolidates her position as one of the most exciting new talents around. Recently, she spoke with CLASH, having just returned from a support tour with A Place To Bury Strangers followed by her own headline tour.
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Hey Stella, thanks for taking the time to do this. You’re not long back from your tour, how long have you been away?
I started off with A Place To Bury Strangers in September and I ended with them in early October. I stayed in London for a few weeks, just to be based out of there instead of coming back to the US, then I started my headline tour in early November, so it’s been a few months but it goes really fast. It was my first tour so everything was really exciting to me, even the early mornings and travelling. I’m not like, what a drag, I was loving every moment and I’m sad it’s over but I hope there will be another one soon.
How was the A Place To Bury Strangers tour? Did you notice a difference compared to your own tour?
I’d played gigs before, in New York and LA, but other than that, not really. Each place you play in has a different vibe, people interact in different ways or not, so that was interesting. My whole life I’ve been dreaming of having an opportunity like this to play around the world with my own music. While it’s happening, you’re not realising that you’re fulfilling the dream. Now I’m sort of having the opportunity to recognise that. You look back and think, ‘Whoa, what did I just do? That’s so crazy.’
With A Place To Bury Strangers, I had no idea what I was doing. I just went with instinct. I tour with a really small group, it was just my boyfriend who does lighting for me, and our tour manager. It was really nice to be embraced by this band and learn a lot from then. Every night I watched their show and had a blast.
I think the biggest difference between the two tours is that people came to see me. The other shows, they were there to see A Place To Bury Strangers and figuring out who this person who’s opening up for them is, which is another challenge in itself. I feel it’s fun to introduce yourself to people. I definitely learned a lot and I’m super-excited to get into my studio and start making music.
I didn’t realise you didn’t tour the first album (‘Eyes Of Glass’) at all.
I never really got a chance. My band, who I played around New York City with, we played the songs off my record but we changed the songs a lot. We played them in our own way, so that’s why I wanted it to be Stella Rose and The Dead Language; it felt like we were creating our own sound and mixture with this album I’d made on my own. I was playing a lot of playback because it was just me, and I played some guitar which was fun, but they sounded like on the record, so that was like the first time of really playing them. Because there’s been a two-year period since I released it, some people knew the lyrics to some of the songs, which I was not expecting at all.
Clash saw you in Bristol and it was striking to see you alone on the stage. Is it quite lonely doing it on your own?
I was still figuring out physically what I could do onstage on my own, not relying on energy from a band. Something I learned from the headline tour was, the sound engineer suggested having one speaker behind me and one in front. That made a huge difference because then I physically could feel the air that’s pushing out of the speaker but also that the drummer is behind me. It was mimicking the feeling of the band on stage.
But to be honest, I move a lot so I didn’t feel as much pressure, I sort of had fun with it. It’s definitely a new experience, and as the tour went on, I figured out how to fill the space when I had to tune my guitar, where it’s this dead silence. But I think that also gave me an empowering feeling, like it’s OK if there’s silence on stage for a few minutes. For the people watching, they just use you as the mediator. If you look like something’s going wrong, they’re gonna think something’s going wrong. I really enjoyed it but now, if I have different elements, I know what I want to elevate the show rather than figuring it out with the band.
Also, I got more comfortable showing my personal side on stage. In the beginning, I was not talking to anyone and not showing the other side of me… but as the headline tour went on, I was finding my place and how it felt natural. I got a couple of people to clap sometimes and things like that, which feels like what a performer does.
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You’ve said in the past that you’re playing a long game. The EP is a step on, so where do you think you are with your evolution?
The album was me still trying to figure out what sound I liked. Obviously now, I’m a couple of years older so I’ve figured out what sounds I’ve heard my whole life made me listen to music and taking what I want from it. Not just mimicking, but what feels like me. Finding your own pace.
The EP feels like something I would listen to, so that made me feel excited that I’m finding my sound, I guess. The album feels to me like a sensitive thing; maybe I would have done things differently. I guess that’s normal. With the EP, I feel like it all moves around together. The album feels like I’m all over the place, a full-on journey situation. What is cool though, is that ‘Muddled Man’ on the album feels like ‘Hollybaby’. The drum pattern is the same, it feels like its cousin. The next single feels like the other side of ‘Angel’, so that’s a nice feeling to see that there is some cohesiveness and connection. I don’t feel like I’m an artist that’s going to do one sound, I’m probably going to explore a lot of different things, so it’s cool to see that, even in exploring different stuff, there’s this thread connecting them. I guess that’s what I mean by the long run, I really want whatever I make to feel like it’s coming from me and not some rushed production. I don’t think that would work for the kind of art that I want to make.
Did working in New York differ from being in LA?
I’ve been trying to get Yves Rothman to make music with me in New York for like a minute! That was really exciting for me. I think that trip to New York, we worked out of a personal studio that I have and he just crashed there. Me and him were just in the studio, really comfortable, deciding that we weren’t going to have an engineer or anything like that. Obviously, I’m from New York, so it brought out a side of me that usually I have to bring like a hitchhiker bag to LA. LA is a totally different vibe to New York so it definitely influenced the music to be here and hang out and go out after. The main difference between the two is that I was a lot more sure of what I wanted. Coming to New York really solidified that for the EP. It’s nice after being in the studio to come back to your place, read through your books, and you’re not like, ‘fuck, I left that thing in New York.’
Can you give an insight into what the songs on the EP are about?
I have a hard time answering that question while it’s still fresh because I feel like I’m just understanding what the songs on the album are about. It’s not even like I need to be cryptic, I just feel like the songs on the EP felt the most visual. I had a lot of references from movies and weird synchronicities. There’s a line in that song where I said, ‘The King Of New York has a night’ and I didn’t even realise there is a movie called that. I feel like that feels true for a lot of these songs, I was going for what sounded good together, following an initial reference then turning it into its own thing. I feel like they’re more fun songs to listen to and have a poetic flow to it.
‘Hollybaby’ is the most ‘letter to Los Angeles’ song that I have because it’s almost directly referencing those people you see on the street holding those signs that say I Love Jesus. It’s just unworldly, it feels like a freak show almost. That’s what’s so scary but it also gives you a curiosity about the city. I had a really hard time being there.
I think the songs are these little snapshots of things I’ve seen in the last two years, and my love letters to those snapshots. Movies are definitely a huge inspiration to me, I have little notes in my phone of things I’ll take from what people say, or what people in the theatre might say. That’s more my process of writing recently; collecting all these different things, putting them together and then later it gets more clear. ‘Oh shit, that’s that representation of what was going on in my life.’ And there’s a fear of this fantasy world. The EP definitely represents a deluded fantasy world that, in your twenties, you create sometimes. You create this world around you that fits what you want to be, and what you think it is, is not what it is. Everything around you may look great, like a fantasy, but maybe if you’re a fly on the wall, it’s not as glamorous as it seems.
Do you gauge your Dad’s opinion when it comes to your music?
As much as you would with any parent? I know that seems a strange answer to some people, but that’s just what’s true. I think what’s cool is that we both share this love for singing and performing and that’s been a really cool thing to share. Especially since I’ve toured now, and I noticed the little things that dads do, like slipping things in your suitcase or whatever, that might help. That’s the extent of it, it really is just normal stuff.
So what’s next after the EP?
We’ll see. I definitely really like how the EP turned out and I want to tap into that Massive Attack, Portishead, Sneaker Pimps world, where there’s a cool beat going on but it has that dirty feeling still. The Kills are a huge influence on this EP; it’s why I got a Hoffner guitar for the tour because I saw Jamie talking about his love of those guitars. I’m still looking around seeing what is inspiring now, but I think the bottom line of whatever I make has to have some dirty bassline or gunslinger guitar. That’s what makes me perform more provocatively, or just to feel something. Expect dirty basslines! It’s gonna be an extension of this EP, for sure. I’m definitely enjoying playing more guitar live. It’s something that I don’t put a lot of value in because I don’t think I’m that good, but I’ve gotten more into pedals and changing the sound. It’s going to be a lot of pottering around in my studio, finding my sound for the next couple of months! Probably no-one’s going to be hanging around when I do that, it’s not always that pleasant sounding. It’s a lock and key situation!
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Stella Rose will release her ‘Hollybaby’ EP on December 13th.
Words: Richard Bowes
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