Rozzi at The Peppermint Club in West Hollywood, CA. 11/15/2018. (Photo: Derrick K. Lee, Esq. | Blurred Culture)
The soulful pop artist comes into her own with debut album Bad Together.
In 2012, Rozzi Crane was slated as pop’s next big thing. The singer was just a student at the University of Southern California and became the first artist to be signed to Adam Levine’s record label, 222 Records, at the age of 19. She launched two EPs, toured nationwide opening for Maroon 5, Gavin DeGraw, Parachute and Owl City, recorded a song for The Hunger Games soundtrack and was even a featured “artist of the month” by the Today Show’s Elvis Duran.
After writing hundreds of songs, going through two record labels and experiencing love, loss, disappointment and heartbreak, Rozzi has come into her own. Since parting ways with Levine and signing with Small Giant Records in 2016, the artist, known for her incredibly powerful and soulful voice, has found her confidence as an artist — a journey that has culminated in her debut record Bad Together, released this November.
With lead singles “Never Over You” and “Uphill Battle,” the record is an impressively strong collection of soulful pop and honest lyrics that detail the experience of a relationship from beginning to end. More than that, it marks the launch of Rozzi as an artist who has fully come into her own and found her voice, sound and willingness to get vulnerable.
Rozzi spoke with Blurred Culture contributor Rachel during her Bad Together album release show at The Peppermint Club, Nov. 15th, to talk about her record, the journey it took to get there, and what’s to come.
Rozzi at The Peppermint Club in West Hollywood, CA. 11/15/2018. (Photo: Derrick K. Lee, Esq. | Blurred Culture)
Congrats on the release of Bad Together! How does it feel?
It’s one of those things where I feel like it’s so exciting to me that I’ve almost blocked it out. It’s been so long that I’ve been dying to get this album out and I’m just so excited to have something out that represents me for people to listen to.
What would you say your whole album is about?
I feel like there’s two stories to it. There’s the very obvious story — it chronologically tells the story of a relationship from the beginning, from “Visions” through a breakup and that whole experience and process. The other story, the one that I really hear when I listen to it, is me [and] a kind of coming-of-age story. I feel like I can hear myself coming into my own and really figuring out who I am and what I want to say and what I want to sound like, kind of finding my independence. I think a lot of female artists and probably women in general can relate to this. Being a young female artist in this industry, it’s very hard to be taken seriously and get your eyes and ideas really heard, and I feel like I can hear myself in this album, getting confidence in my own taste, my own ears, my own choices. (…)
“I get the sense that I’m not going to need to tell you to work harder or work more. I’m going to need to tell you to relax and live your life.”
You switched over to your new management at Small Giant. How was the creative freedom that you had working and collaborating with that team to make something that you want?
My manager Ben Singer, the main guy at Small Giant, is just gifted at bringing artists out of themselves. He’s unbelievable, just seeing you as you are and understanding you, and almost prescribing what you need to do to be your best, true self. It’s really an amazing gift that he has. I think he just understands that the most powerful stuff — arts in general — is honest and unique to you.
I remember I didn’t sign with him right away because I’d just been through this whole whirlwind experience [at 222 Records] and I wanted to take my time [and] what convinced me that he was the right person for me to work with was [when] he said to me, ‘I get the sense that I’m not going to need to tell you ever to work harder or work more. I’m going to need to tell you to relax and live your life. Experience things.’ You could see that I was just very ambitious. (…)
To read the rest of this interview, visit blurredculture.com.
Follow Rozzi on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube.
Stream Bad Together online: http://smarturl.it/rozzi-badtogether
This article was featured on Blurred Culture.
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