I first heard Rose Alaimo’s song “Grow” when I was putting together an episode of the #Tweetcore Radio Hour back in April, and I was immediately struck not only by her voice and the song’s heartfelt lyrics but by the incredibly strong production of the track as well. To my ear, it had a bit of a 90s vibe echoing the Cranberries mixed with a distinctly modern sensibility. At the time, I reached out to see if Rose would be interested in an interview on this blog, and although she was interested, she also said that her next album wouldn’t be out for another few months. Now that a few months have passed (and a few more on top of that!), I’m excited for the chance to chat with Rose about her new album A Place to Go When You Need to Hide.

Your new album has been a long time coming—or at least it seems that way! I’ve been excited to hear it ever since I listened to “Grow.” What was your approach to recording this one?

Thank you for your excitement! 🙂 The approach was technically similar- I record all of my music in my home studio in Ithaca NY, and I work remotely with an amazing producer in Tacoma WA named Jamie Hill. I have always wanted to learn more about sound engineering and production, and Jamie offered to mentor me through the creation of “Grow” and this new album, teaching me about sound engineering in the process. I do feel that “A Place to Go When You Need to Hide” is an improvement compared to “Grow” as far as the production goes, which I am super happy about.

I’ve read that you like to change things up musically from one project to the next. Why is that?

I’ve always been inspired by artists who evolved with their art. The Beatles are an amazing example- they were only together for a very short time but the ground they covered musically in that time is just *unreal.* So a part of it is just feeling like it’s important to grow as an artist and not become a one-trick pony, but also I just enjoy the challenge of pushing myself a bit into new territory with each project.

And how has your sound evolved from your first album, The Importance of Centers, through Grow to your latest album?

“The Importance of Centers” is mainly an acoustic-based bunch of tunes with a lot of sweet vocal harmonies. It’s pretty chill LOL and production-wise it’s pretty raw as I recorded this one before meeting Jamie. When I set out to make “Grow” I had in mind a gritty, big, heavy, straight up rock album. It was actually DURING the recording of the first song when I was introduced to him and it was PERFECT timing because I could not have taken “Grow” where I wanted it to go without his help. Musically, I wanted “A Place to Go When You Need to Hide” to be more diverse than the last two albums. I enjoy making concept albums and having the music be cohesive in a way, but I also wanted the songs on this album to be more broad and to encompass a wider emotional and musical range, and I think they do. There are more string arrangements and synths on this album with a few dance-inspired sounds, there are songs in straight up progressive rock fashion that switch from ⅞ to ¾ to more blues and psychedelic pieces to southern rock leads to lullaby-inspired ballads to eardrum-busting rock sections, and I played around a lot more with fun production tricks like EQ filters and such. There are also two songs on the album that feature a banjo- it’s my first time playing banjo on one of my albums (my first time playing banjo EVER actually LOL)  🙂

Although each of your albums has a distinct style, I feel like there’s still a common through-line that unites them all. To my ear, there’s a 90s sensibility in a lot of your music, but I hear the 90s in everything. Do you think there’s a single thread or feel that ties your disparate works together? If so, how would you describe it?

Cool question–I think, lyrically, I tend to be most inspired by and therefore tend to focus on existential themes in my work: can we change and grow and how much wiggle room do we have? What is my role as a human in this life? How do we navigate the ups and downs of life without losing ourselves in the waves? Musically, I would say the only themes that I know have been consistent and likely WILL be consistent are my obsession with sticking a vocal harmony anywhere one will fit LOL! (Seriously, I just love creating them and love singing them and they are a huge part of my work) 🙂 and having the music be primarily guitar-driven since I write most of my songs on a guitar. Other than that, and based on how I think the next album is going to be once I really get down to putting the pieces together, I’m not really sure how my music is related from one piece to the next LOL 🙂 

By the way, the guitar solo on “Elevate” from Grow is amazing! Were you channeling any particular guitarists when you recorded it?

LOL! THANK YOU! 🙂 I’m really proud of that solo! Before recording it I had the idea to make it a composite solo- recording a few different solos and piecing the final one together from the fragments. The song is about struggling to live a good, ethical, peaceful life in a world that is moving way too fast, and I wanted the solo to reflect this- I wanted it to be one more thing pulling the listener in two different directions. So there is one guitar coming from the left side, then it ends and another comes from the right, back and forth. The two guitarists that I had in mind when recording it were Kim Thayil from Soundgarden, as his solo in “Black Hole Sun” was the only guitar solo that I could think of that was also a composite solo, and The Edge from U2 because I love him and his amazing sounds and have always been inspired by his delay/wah guitar leads and thought something like that would work great in this solo.

What inspired A Place to Go When You Need to Hide?

“A Place To Go When You Need To Hide” is a concept album based on the idea that we have a place inside of ourselves where we can go when the world gets to be too much where we can stop for a minute, regroup, and choose how we want to move forward through whatever circumstances life presents us with. It is loosely based on the Victor Frankl quote, “Between stimulus and response, there is a space. And in that space lies our freedom and power to choose our responses. In our response lies our growth and our freedom.” The songs were written during the worst parts of covid amid massive political unrest and racial tension in the US, an uptick in school shootings and the onset of Russia’s war on Ukraine, among other issues. These events also coincided with difficulties in my personal life including leaving (and later returning to) my career as a veterinarian after a period of massive burnout and also being diagnosed with long-term post-infectious Lyme disease. Life began feeling like way too much. I was having a hard time seeing any light in the darkness and had a pretty sizable existential (or early midlife? LOL!) crisis and I kept feeling like I needed a place to GO to just breathe for a minute and figure everything out but no place on earth existed that had what I needed. I felt like I was drowning. I eventually realized that the place I needed to go- literally, the only place I COULD go- to find some peace was inside of myself, and this required a bit of work and soul-searching on my part. Lyrically, the album chronicles parts of my own path as I navigated through this period of darkness.

Your bio describes you as a “a one-lady band from Ithaca, NY.” Do you get to play out much? What’s your live act like?

When I was in my 20s, playing live shows with whatever bands I was in was *my favorite thing to do in the universe* and I played A LOT. It helped me pay my way through college. However, now, my favorite thing to do is studio work- I really prefer letting my creativity just go wild and taking silence and turning it into something intricate and beautiful. That being said, I do try to get some shows in mainly to spread the word about my songs, but given I do not have a band they are generally solo acoustic shows. They aren’t the same as the albums obviously LOL but most of my tunes do work out well on acoustic guitar. Having a full band to help me perform these songs live would be a dream- that said, I’m also happy just focusing on studio work and learning more about sound engineering right now too.

You also work as a session musician. How has playing music on other people’s songs influenced or informed your own music?

I have been so incredibly fortunate to work with some of the artists I have worked with in this way. I think more than anything else, working with these other musicians on their work has mainly inspired me to continue to broaden my own horizons as an artist. The songs I did with The Pernicious Birds in Paris or Alaskan synthwave artist Blue Nagoon or LA-based Nathan Illes were more dance or electronic in genre and it really inspired me to use more synths and electronic sounds in my own music. Doing loads of work for Australian songwriter, Tess James, inspired me to continue to focus on improving my songwriting skills- her songs are just killer both lyrically and musically from the bones out. They are so honest and vulnerable and the song structures are so solid- being involved with them made me work harder on my own work.

You mention in your Twitter bio that you’re a music producer in training. Are you taking classes or self-taught? What’s your approach to learning to record music? Do you gravitate toward any particular aspects of production?

Yeah! As mentioned above, after I released my first album I realized that I was desperately in need of either a good producer or, ideally, someone who could help me LEARN more about sound engineering, preferably the latter. I was listening to Ben Shaw’s “Feet To the Fire” album (which FYI is AMAZING in every way) and was blown away by the incredible production on it so I reached out to him on social media, introduced myself, we became good buddies really fast LOL and then he introduced me to the producer on that album, Jamie Hill. Jamie offered to become my production mentor since I wanted to learn how to produce my own albums and we did “Grow” and “A Place to Go When You Need to Hide” together this way- I basically recorded the tracks, sent him what I had as I moved through the album, he would suggest specific improvements, and we would go back and forth until it was done and I got a whole load of sound engineering education along the way LOL So it is less a formal educational experience and more like an apprenticeship in production I guess. 🙂 To date we have been working together for four years on my music and I cannot believe how much I have learned from him so far (and how much I still have to learn LOL)  🙂

As far as what parts of production do I gravitate toward- I mostly enjoy arranging. I’m not sure if that’s wholly a production thing but it is definitely a part of it.

And you’re a veterinarian! Does your work with animals complement your musical endeavors at all?

LOL not really? I have yet to find a way to combine these two parts of my life, and that’s OK- I’m fine having pieces of myself in different and somewhat unrelated areas. 🙂

What’s on the horizon?

More music hopefully! The songs that have been popping into my head over the last year or so are… well, they’re very weird. LOL! If I decide to go with them, I’m guessing the next album will be on the strange and experimental side. I want to see what happens if I force myself to create songs that are not guitar-based and throw standard song structures out the window and try to mix up the lyrics a bit. ::dramatic chord:: LOL!

Thanks for taking the time to talk to me!

Thank YOU! These were some awesome questions! I really hope you like the new songs.  🙂

I’m sure I will!

Photo credits: Top photo (field) – Kate Catalano Collins. Lower photo (portrait) – Rose Alaimo.