ON THE RISE
Rose Prince’s first song is a ringing, chiming, singing, rapping pop number that’s all about the party after the party.
It’s called “Freak.”
“It’s a song about the after-party,” he said. “I write the music that I want to listen to. I want to be able to turn on music and hear and feel the same energy that I have when I’m at an after-party and it’s, like, 3:30 a.m.”
Me and her just friends
But a friend brought a friend
She gon’ take off all my clothes
Not the rose on my neck
Wear the rose ’til the end
…Referring to the rose-design necklace that he frequently wears. “It’s really the details that make it appealing.”
Rose Prince is a Bay Area Californian transplanted to Austin, Texas. He has been writing music since he was 12 or so, about 14 years now. He describes his first professionally produced song as “sort of early, mid-2000s electronic pop.”
“It’s like 2008 to 2014 Drake, Weeknd, Blackbear, right when the singing rapping genre was becoming popular, combined with this pulsing electronic rhythm. It’s almost like turning rave music into pop rap.”
Singing- rap is among the music that lands with him, and the after-party vibe is also him.
“Those are some of the songs that I like to listen to the most, because it is just line after line of what resonates with me.”
And that is the way “Freak” is delivered, line after line with the beat rolling along and the ringing melody punctuating the lyrics.
Got a stud
On her tongue
She can’t seem to get enough
Now my homie need a bump
So he can drive straight
“It was a lot of fun to write,” he said.
“If you’re somebody who likes to sleep in until noon and lives for 5 a.m. and goes home when the sun is coming up? This is the song for you.
He added, “I am one of those people.”
His artist name comes from, wait for it, flowers.
“I know it sounds shallow to say that I’ve always loved flowers, but I’ve always loved flowers, roses in particular.”
Still, though, he doesn’t know exactly where the name comes from. It just kind of popped up, “and it felt extremely right.”
“I just remember that ever since it occurred to me, it was going to be my artist name.”
That is the approach he takes to his music. For instance, he issues a standing invitation to any fans hitting the Austin area: Look him up on Instagram, get in touch, get together for a TikTok video.
His artistry is about taking all kinds of music that he likes and turning it into a distinctly Rose Prince kind of pop. After 14 years, he has a lot of music that he is now working on to see what he wants to put out.
He plans to pull an EP out of the material he has on hand.
“Believe me,” he said, “I’ve written so many shitty songs, that I’ve spent a lot of time homing in on which are the songs I want to define and be associated with me as an artist.”
He’s also figuring out the business, deciding how to coordinate the releases, which ones to make singles, which to group with the EP, other stuff.
Like, “Oh, man! This one has a really great first verse and chorus, but I don’t have a second verse or a bridge for it.”
“There’s a fair bit of production and polish that needs to go into a lot of it, too, but, absolutely, I have a pretty broad repertoire of songs that I’ve built up over the years.”
One of the songs he is working on has violins and horns and a lot of classical elements that he’s “turning into a pop song.” His style is to take a lot of different styles and puts them together.
But I would say it all falls under the umbrella of pop music because, thematically, it’s what popular culture can relate to. It’s emotions, breakups, love, sex, depression, despair — you know, reflections on society that is in a sort of standard verse, chorus, verse, chorus, bridge, chorus type format that’s what I consider pop music.”
His next song, in fact, is a breakup song about someone who left the singer but is back and wants to get back together but it’s not going to happen. “That kind of song.” It’s called “You Wish.”
“It’s more of a guitar, indie punk style,” he said.
He wants “to be the next male pop sensation, basically.”
And he’s starting with “Freak.”
“It’s like 2 a.m. and the bars close, but the party doesn’t stop. ‘Freak’ is about the ideal night.”
Connect to Rose Prince on all platforms for new music, videos, and social posts.
“It’s more of a guitar, indie punk style,” he said.
He wants “to be the next pop sensation, basically.”
And he’s starting with “Freak.”
“It’s like 2 a.m. and the bars close, but the party doesn’t stop. ‘Freak’ is about the ideal night.”
Connect to Rose Prince on all platforms for new music, videos, and social posts.
ON THE RISE
Blossoms caught up with NME to discuss competing with The Beatles and Johnny Marr for this week’s Number One album. With ‘Songs From The Wedding Cake’ in the running, the band also explained why making things themselves remains such an important part of their work as AI becomes more common.
The Stockport group put out their sixth album last Friday, October 2. By the midweek update, it was sitting at Number Two, between The Beatles’ expanded edition of ‘Rubber Soul’ and Johnny Marr’s latest solo album, ‘The Age Of Everything’.
“It’s mad, to be honest,” singer Tom Ogden said to NME about the chart race. “Liverpool on one side, Manchester on the other and Stockport in the middle. If you’d told us this 10 years ago, when we were releasing our debut, I wouldn’t have believed you. But I mean, we’re in good company aren’t we?”
Discussing the stories behind the album, Ogden described ‘Songs From The Wedding Cake’ as “about being married and all the everyday stuff that comes with it”. He married Katie Donovan, the sister of Blossoms drummer Joe, in 2021. Married life has since given him a new appreciation for what he describes as “the extraordinary ordinary”.
“Saying the wrong thing in an argument, losing your wife’s no claims bonus, crying at the Kardashians, it’s all in there,” he explained. “The album is named after Stockport Town Hall, which everyone round where we live calls the Wedding Cake, and it’s where I got married, so it couldn’t be much closer to home.
“The last album [‘Gary’, 2024] had a song about a stolen fibreglass gorilla, which everyone loved, and that gave us the confidence to bring the same playfulness to this one, just with more personal subject matter this time.”
Alongside tracks that came out of writing sessions with Declan McKenna in a hot tub, the album reflects the band’s desire to stay involved in every part of the creative process.
“It started with the recording,” Ogden explained. “We made the album with Shawn Lee, playing live straight to tape, and once you’ve done it that way you can’t really go and fake everything else. We sat down as a band and picked the colour palette, and everything visual followed from that. We had body scans taken of ourselves and cake toppers of the five of us 3D printed, put them on a real cake and photographed it. I’ve directed and edited the videos, and the sets are all built by hand, no green screen. For the pop-up shop on launch weekend, a local artist hand-painted the album cover for the sign outside.
“It’s more work, but you end up with a world that’s yours, and I think people can tell when a band’s had its hands on everything.”
With AI tools and digital effects becoming increasingly widespread, that approach feels particularly relevant. For Blossoms, though, the motivation is simple: “the fun is in the making”.
“Tape doesn’t let you cheat and neither does a real cake,” Ogden said. “If a set’s a bit wonky, it’s because one of us or our mates built it. I think the more stuff gets generated, the more people want to know a human being actually did it. We’ve been in this band together for over 10 years, five lads from Stockport, and that isn’t something you can ‘prompt’.”
Maya Jama also appeared in the video for the album’s first single, ‘Meet Me In Love’. Her appearance came shortly before the UK launch of Celebrity Traitors, where she took on the role of a traitor alongside a cast that included Richard E Grant and James Acaster.
“She was brilliant,” Ogden recalled of working with Jama. “We’d met her at the MTV EMAs in Manchester a couple of years ago, so we took a chance and sent her a DM …and she said yes. Next thing she’s in a theatre in Cheadle miming my vocals while a load of people dressed as me serenade her. She got the idea straight away and was a proper laugh about it.”
The conversation then turned to whether he thought Jama could take home the win on Celebrity Traitors.
Ogden joked: “As for Traitors, she spent a whole day pretending to sing my song and I almost believed her, so I’d say she’s got every chance.”
Fans can listen to ‘Songs From The Wedding Cake’ now. In November, Blossoms head out on a UK arena tour with The Royston Club. Tickets and further details are available here.
Before the tour begins, the group is also scheduled to appear on SNL UK on Saturday, October 24.
