The Artist Explains: Rosie Jones - 'Silver Buttons'
Rosie Jones’ dance-driven single ‘Silver Buttons’ is the first tease from her debut EP - a track that pulls the listener in to hear more of it’s late night vibes. Assembling an all-female production team to create this track, Rosie took a moment to talk to us about the song in more depth.
Hey Rosie, how are you? How does it feel to be releasing music during this strange time for music?
Hey! I’m very happy to get the chance to chat about the song, thank you! This year of course didn’t go to plan. However, my EP is fully recorded and produced, and just getting the final touches on mixing as we speak. I’m not entirely sure it would be ready yet if I didn’t have all that time to pour myself into the recording and production. So I’m grateful for the focus. I realised I spent way more time with Ableton than I did with my family and friends this year, so we’re pretty close now. I’d love to be able to start gigging the new tracks soon.
So your track - ‘Silver Buttons’ is out now, can you tell us what the track is about?
Silver Buttons is about the feeling of being paralysed in a social setting (in my mind it’s the start of a dimly lit house party). The paralysis comes from an infatuation with an incredibly intimidating and attractive stranger. These polarising feelings of intimidation/desire push against each other leaving you stuck and unable act on either intention. This was the first song that I’ve written where I had a clear sense of what it needed to sound like very early on. I had the childhood rhyme of ‘Miss Mary Mack’ in my back pocket as an idea for a while, and once I had the synth bones of the production it seemed like the perfect setting to use it.
Where was the track recorded? Any behind the scenes stories from the recording process?
Thankfully last year I set up a very basic home studio situation so I was able to produce the demo and record my vocals during lockdown. Once the production was the best that I could get it, I handed the song over to the amazing Eilish Gilligan to coproduce and make everything hit harder. I was really thrilled when Eilish liked the song and wanted to work together, she’s such a talent and she knew exactly what we needed to bump it up to the next level. The lead synth part I discovered in the least musical way possible - I was mucking around with scale settings on my Ableton Push and happened to run my fingers over the pads with it set to a minor blues scale. It was so simple but the witchy feeling I got hooked me and it became a core part of the song.
This is the first taster from your debut EP, how is that coming along? When can we expect to hear that?
We are almost done! At the moment I have the incredible Becki Whitton (also known as Aphir) mixing and mastering the last track. You will be hearing more from me early next year.
There are a lot of dance-pop vibes in your music, what are your key influences when writing?
I had a profoundly life-changing night a few years ago seeing Christine and the Queens at WOMADelaide music festival. The performance was everything I’d always wanted and needed from a pop concert, that and Chris’ incredible writing has really carried me through in moments of doubt or exhaustion with the whole music-making process. I also come from a musical family and absorbed a lot of songwriting technique from my Dad, who is always writing pop songs, despite often housing them in the folk-rock scene. I tend to problem-solve in my writing; almost all of my songs are me unpacking something that feels slightly off or uncomfortable and throwing energy and sparkle at that discomfort.