Wanaka singer Rosie Spearing and her band Corduroy played their biggest gig yet at the Rhythm & Vines Music Festival in Gisborne on December 29. Now the popular Wellington-based, indie-pop band are bringing their neo-soul influenced sound to Wanaka. Marjorie Cook reports.

Wanaka singer-songwriter Rosie Spearing’s performance alter ego is Alba Rose. It is an inversion of her first and second names and in Spanish, Alba Rose means “first light of early dawn’’ or “light before appearance’’.

The Spanish interpretation is resonating with Rosie as she contemplates life after university. She is not sure yet how 2020 will unfold, but new beginnings loom. One thing is for sure - music will have a say.

Rosie, 21, has just completed her Bachelor of Arts degree in psychology and sociology, and graduates from Victoria University in May 2020. The former Mount Aspiring College student is no stranger to the smaller stages of Wanaka.

Rosie was mentored by singing teacher and performer Jenn Shelton and performed in many shows and concerts while she was growing up in Wanaka. Her band Kairos won the 2016 Central Otago final of the smokefreerockquest, seven weeks after coming together for the competition.

Rosie performing with Willy Mac. PHOTO: Supplied

Rosie left home in 2017 to study at Victoria University and while music is her passion, she chose not to do a music degree because she didn’t know how much music she would actually be doing and wanted to keep it a hobby.

“If I was studying music I would be doing it full time and there would be a lot of pressures with that. I really like the mind, why people do things the way they do things, and I love learning to understanding behaviour. I am always interested in connecting with people. If I was fully immersed in music I don’t know if I would be doing it for myself or because I feel like I should be doing it,’’ she said.

Rosie said her studies in psychology and human behaviour help when it comes to writing lyrics. Much of her song writing begins as an intuitive improvisation on things she is thinking or feeling.

“I think it puts a different perspective on my songwriting. I think about things in different ways, why we do the things we do, and why we are acting certain ways on the surface, such as if we’re upset or frustrated with something, thinking what other social factors are contributing and what else is going on,” she said.

Rosie has enjoyed several musical collaborations over the past three years, but her main collaborations have been with student band Corduroy and with ARLS, a duo formed in 2018 with Bravo Bonez (pronounced Bone-ez).

She has produced two EPs – one which has been released with Corduroy and the other with ARLS which is to be released April 2020. Her main performance venue to date has been Meow, near Capital Markets in the city centre. It holds about 350 people and has a stage that fits five band members comfortably.

Corduroy formed through the Wellington hall of residence, Weir House, mid-2017. Band member Will Cole had met Rosie at Mount Aspiring College in 2016, when he was enrolled in MAC’s Year 13 hostel programme. He was also a member of Kairos at MAC.

Rosie PHOTO: Supplied

They reunited in Wellington when Will (guitar) was looking for a singer to jam with fellow Weir House residents Dean Gibson (drums) and Simon Kenrick (keyboards). The friends then met Riley Barrett (bass) at an inter hall music competition - “we were like, he looks pretty fun, pretty groovy, let’s see if he wants to join’’ - and three years later, the five are still together.

“We just kept going to the music rooms at Vic because Dean and Simon studied music. Then we got asked to play a gig for a ball, which went really well.”

The first song the band wrote together was Fire. It came about when Rosie was at home in Wanaka, feeling fed up with the rush of the modern world, “how everyone is so busy doing so much all the time that we rarely stop and listen, to think about what we are doing here and now’’.

“We take things too seriously instead of thinking that what is here and now is adequate and I was realising I’ve kind of given into that as well,’’ she said.

She wrote a chorus, took it back to the boys in Wellington and they workshopped it.

Their first recorded song, The Usual, was created from a personal project by keyboardist Simon, who had been working on some lyrics and chord progressions. Eventually, he brought it to the band and sought their input.

“I think that is still my favourite song to sing and play,’’ Rosie said.

“Simon on keys came up with the first few lines of the verse with the root notes and the synth and melodic progression. He played it to us and we decided to play with it. The first few lines [Last night you turned up at my door/As it got close to three past four/With a bottle of Jack and a brown paper bag] we thought, well, that’s relatable. I followed up with more lyrics while the boys filled in with instrumentation.’’

The single was recorded at Lee Prebble’s Surgery Studios in Wellington with sound engineer/producer Andrew and released July 2018 as the band's debut single. Rosie is not sure what will happen to Corduroy in 2020, with four of the five band mates now graduating and Riley still working towards his degree, but she is amazed at the sorts of offers now coming the band’s way.

Rhythm & Vines is the biggest festival the band has played at to date, but it has also played at New Plymouth’s summer festival in front of about 600 people. More shows in New Plymouth, Kapiti, Auckland and Christchurch are on the cards, as well as a January tour, stopping off in Queenstown and Wanaka.

Corduroy has already completed one tour to Auckland, Christchurch and Wellington, and has played in Dunedin three times. The band has also played with Australian outfits Great Gable and Spacey Jane in Wellington, and would love to play in Australia because some months they have more Spotify listeners in Australia than in New Zealand.

“The work is still growing. It is extremely hard for five different people to keep together in the same place and same time to write and create. That is our main problem. Everyone is just away or if not, away working or busy at uni or with big assignments,’’ Rosie said.

While things are already exciting for Rosie and Corduroy, things have also become very interesting for Rosie and ARLS. ARLS is a trip-hop duo comprising Rosie and composer-producer Bravo Bonez. Bravo prefers not to use his real name but ARLS is an acronym combining the initials for Alba Rose and the initials from the name Bravo’s mother gave him.

They are a bit of an unlikely combination (ventsmagazine.com describes Bravo as a “perpetual planet-traveller’’) and their planets may not have collided but for their mothers, who decided to set their offspring up on a coffee date to talk about music.

“We met because our mothers were at a dinner party and started talking about what their kids do. They decided to get us together. I was initially, “Oh Mum why, haha, but we met for coffee in Wanaka.’’

Rosie said collaborating with an older artist has exposed her to new influences and more experimentation. The collaboration also introduced her to top producers Greg Haver, Simon Gooding, and Eddie Johnston.

“He [Bravo] was into the Bristol sound, Verve, Massive Attack, Portishead - music that I wouldn’t have considered following. Working with him has opened me up to a whole new influence of sounds,’’ she said.

Since collaborating with Bravo, she feels she is no longer in a bubble and has been inspired to be more creative. Their debut single, Lucky, began as a short voice memo that included the word “lucky’’. Rosie recorded it and sent it to Bravo.

He then helped her develop the lyrics and lick into a haunting, tough-hearted song about leaving an unfulfilling relationship.

Lucky was released in April 2019 and will be followed by an EP, Meld, in April 2020. British producer Mark Saunders is working on their next single, Pace.

Rosie loves collaborating across multiple genres and recently began a new project with Wellington musician Ethan Blackwood, dabbling in the genres of house, soul and electronica. She is still learning and is tempted to go it alone one day.

“I can really imagine myself jumping from hip hop to drum and bass to soul, I love to do that, I can’t see myself yet tied down to one sort of genre, and plus it always keeps things interesting and exciting, keeps pushing myself to be creative. That does make it hard identity-wise, but I am trying to work that out too. Meanwhile, I am getting software and instrumentation skills up so one day I could go on tour with some Rosie tunes. That would be amazing.

“But this summer, I have just finished uni and my degree and am taking a solid break. I am using this time to just play and work on my tools and my music.’’

Hear Rosie and Corduroy at Yonder in Queenstown on Friday January 10 and at Post Office Lane in Wanaka on Saturday January 11. The gigs are free.