Hometown Hero: A Rose Is Blooming
Born, raised, and still residing in Plainville, Connecticut - population 20,000 - Nick Rose makes music that feels larger-than-life; more “King of New York” or “Waking Up In Vegas” than his hometown might imply. Each track has a mind of its own, yet clearly stems from the same source. Nick embraces beloved tenets of past pop hits, seen in his purposeful song structure and power chord progressions, but regularly integrates new ideas from the forefront of today’s music, with hard-hitting sounds and tasteful vocal processing. There is a theatrical air in many of his songs that feels like riding a sonic rollercoaster. In addition to his proficiency in both singing and rapping, Nick also plays the piano, trumpet, and trombone (and is currently learning the bass guitar). His understanding of music theory and ear for harmonies make for some truly satisfying moments not often heard from DIY artists.
Many creatives - myself included - have found themselves discouraged living in an area with few invested artists. Where others might despair, Nick Rose found hope. “I would not be the musical person I am if I didn’t thrive in an environment where it wasn’t expected. When I was just starting to make music in 2012, 2013, there were maybe a couple of local bands playing at bars, but there wasn’t ever really an established person or scene or venue or anything like that in my hometown. Growing up, there wasn’t any expectation that anyone was going to be a music superstar, and I felt like that was a very easy lane with the amount of love that I have for it to just kind of slide into.”
The situation in Plainville was ripe for someone like Nick’s picking, with plenty of music lovers ready to support a music-maker. As a freshman, Nick had made friends with some upperclassmen that he’d hang out and occasionally freestyle with. One of them, his neighbor Andre, introduced him to Wu-Tang - Nick recalls that Triumph quickly became the first song he ever memorized front-to-back. Even though Nick is now doing things uncommon in Plainville, he has a lot of reverence for the community that nurtured his passions and talents to prepare him for the road ahead.
Rose also expressed gratitude for Plainville’s public education and music programs. He credits his elementary school music teacher Kenneth Craig for inspiring him to take his current path, and if he wasn’t a full time-artist today, Nick might’ve been a music teacher as well. Mr. Craig and Nick’s high school band teacher Mr. Talotta valued both old and new music, which you can hear in the fusion of eras in much of Rose’s work.
As a kid, Nick wrote poems and short stories, and progressed to posting “cringy, embarrassing raps” on YouTube in middle school. To him, his first ‘real’ upload was a mixtape in eighth grade called The Bedroom Chronicles LP, which he assured me was not inspired by Eminem whatsoever. While that project came and went, his first impactful musical moment happened the following year - Bobby Shmurda’s smash hit was inescapable, and at the urging of his soccer teammates Nick recorded a remix. It went over so well at his school that he ended up performing it at his school’s Homecoming celebration.
Nick has built an extensive and impressive discography in a relatively short time, including four albums: Purple November, Rosewood, Dream Sequence, and Ceiling Theory. The latter is the most recent, released about two years ago. Since then, Nick has also dropped the second installment in his “Very Cool!” mixtape series along with an EP, “Everything’s Cooler!” He laughingly described Purple November as “trash, but cool” and admitted he still has 100 Rosewood-branded hats sitting in his basement, which brought us to a more in-depth discussion of his third album.
Dream Sequence was released in October of 2020, a byproduct of a horrid mental state brought on by the anxiety and isolation of the pandemic. To cope, Nick made lots of music, and struck gold with Nightmare. Three years later, Nightmare is still Rose’s most streamed track, recently passing 800,000 plays on Spotify - and it’s not hard to understand why. The song oozes the heartache of a young adult disillusioned with a cruel world, with Nick crooning smoothly over a minimalist electronic pseudo-waltz. It comes off light and easy to listen to - but pay closer attention and you’ll be swept up in the true emotions of the lyrics. Nightmare was a great song to begin with, which is why Nick knew to promote it, and he was fortunate enough to catch the ear of some popular playlist curators whose placements helped Nick Rose become a recognizable name in the online underground artist space.
It can be daunting for an undiscovered artist when a song blows up for the first time. In late-stage capitalism, with pressure to commodify everything we do, big numbers on one song can distort an artist’s perception of reality and hinder their ability to make their best art, in pursuit of a repeat performance. When I asked Nick how he felt having one song with so many streams, he thoughtfully responded “I’m just grateful that people found one thing that they liked from me so much that they’re willing to play it over and over again.”
“I can shoot a million shots - I can make a song, I can put a crazy feature on it, I can have the best beat I think I’ve ever made, but ultimately it’s whatever people on the other side hear. It’s not up to me to decide. The fact that I was being incredibly vulnerable at a point where I wasn’t doing well and that piece of art transcended what I was going through and has helped a lot of other people - it’s a beautiful thing.” We drew parallels between Steve Lacy’s lukewarm feelings on ‘Bad Habit’ prior to it becoming an international sensation - Nick didn’t think that Nightmare would be the song that took off - “but if that’s the shit that hits, that’s the shit that hits.”
As touched on previously, much of Nick’s music is a direct window into his headspace and mental state. I asked him his feelings on his past selves and how he has changed through the journey, and he said “I think every album from Purple November to Ceiling Theory has been an attempt to try to capture where I’m at in life in that moment. I think that’s always kind of been the mission; to try to hit as many different aspects and parts of myself and my personality to give you the full purview of where I’m at.”
“Ceiling Theory is basically just Dream Sequence but better and more fucked up. The more I’m aging and experiencing life as I make music, the more I feel comfortable delving into the darker and not as easy to explain. Ceiling Theory was a really ambitious but also desperate and broken version of myself trying to chase the glory of music I herald the greatest.”
‘Escapades’ - one of the standouts on Ceiling Theory - saw Nick Rose secure a feature from an artist he’d long followed and been inspired by, Sylvan LaCue. Nick fondly recalls listening to Sylvan’s ‘24 Freestyle’ with Logic and Jon Bellion (back when LaCue went by ‘Quest’ instead) repeatedly and “living with Apologies in Advance for so long” (LaCue’s 2018 album). He never thought getting Sylvan on one of his songs would even be a possibility, but when LaCue posted that he was open for work, Nick didn’t miss his chance. “He smoked it - Escapades is still one of my favorite songs that I’ve made. It’s hard to recapture that energy because I was just so excited to get a song with someone I have so much love and appreciation for.
All of Nick’s recent releases have come out under his ‘DONT TRIP’ LLC, a collective he and several of his friends started right before the pandemic. While he is the most actively invested artist in the group, the members’ shared appreciation for music - both listening and making - keeps Nick grounded to his purpose. In addition to any music made by the founding members, he envisions someday expanding DONT TRIP into a creative agency; a one-stop shop helping other artists make music, videos, and anything else they’d need extra hands or ears for.
Nick Rose will return to school this fall in an effort to pursue a degree in business and put what he learns to use as he builds up his finances and the DONT TRIP LLC. He’d like to do a small tour in the next year or two, which would hopefully be successful enough to set up for a bigger one in the future. There aren’t many who would say they dream of being a “working-class artist”, but the journey and maturation Nick has gone through in recent years is pointing him to exactly that. “I think the dream is a process and not really a destination.”
We discussed the idea of being a “full-time” musician and the decision developing artists face. “People when they’re first starting to consider being an artist for real - it seems black and white, either you’re an artist or not - but in reality, most of us have to find some sort of middle ground. I respect anyone who was willing to take a jump at a time where they had no idea what was going to happen, but I also think it’s equally as brave to do the mundane, disciplined bullshit. Let that be the fuel to your fire, having those moments of escape or ‘I know exactly why I’m doing this’”.
“I was letting that fear of normalcy drive me away from making a smart decision.”
“I have a life and family I love here in Connecticut and there is so much to be built on here in terms of giving us more local infrastructure and culture and community. Making more Nick Roses, kids that want to make music out here, there’s big potential for that - nonprofit stuff, educational workshops, helping kids get in the studio and learn these things.”
The name of the next album Nick is working on is “Sonologue” - a contraction of ‘sonic monologue’. He plans for no features or co-producers. We talked about how many great albums take pacing and structure cues from movies - starting with exposition and background, into rising action, then climax, falling action, and resolution. Rose is looking to refine the album experience he’s given his audience in the past, with brighter and more cinematic music. “Soundtracks and movies have been a lot of what’s been inspiring me lately - my passion for movies is bleeding over into how I want to make my music. ‘Pulp Fiction’ was the first experiment with that idea of, ‘can I reinterpret the idea of a movie I love?’ The album will have a bunch of different tracks named after movies that inspire me.” Although I almost prevented a reveal of one of the titles by interjecting “it’s Rubber”, Nick was still kind enough to inform me that ‘Apocalypse Now’ will make the cut. “The next album is going to be a lot more optimistic and a lot less ‘oh here’s me and a song about a sad story.’ I think I’m getting better at telling emotional and negative things without having it come off as self-pitying or indulging.”
Nick Rose has matured deeply both as an artist and a human in general over the past few years. He has made peace with his past, the mistakes and the triumphs, and heads comfortably into the future knowing what he wants and what he’s capable of. From Plainville, CT to a stage near you someday, home is where the heart is - and with Nick’s love for music, there’s no place like home.
