It has been a minute since I’ve shared my thoughts on the latest new music that’s been swirling around my ears. I get in a rut, from time to time, and it usually takes an extraordinary band to shake me out of it. This time all the credit goes to a little indie act out of sunny Los Angeles, and my discovery of them is one of my favorites yet.
A few weekends ago, I found myself wandering in a north Austin outlet mall and into a Bose store. After eyeing their fine selection of audio offerings and colorful devices, my shopping companion and I found ourselves deep in conversation with a kind, insightful sales associate. In between refreshing shares about rescuing kittens, relocating to Texas, and Star Wars, the gentleman shuffled to the song you hear now.
We were seated in one of those perfectly balanced audio rooms, that are a sort of religious experience for audiophiles. As Rósa pours out of the finest Bose surround sound system on the market, I desperately claw to open Shazam.
“Oh sorry,” the gentleman says gently. “This is my brother’s band.”
Tell me everything, I say.
Rósa is a trio of deeply talented men, who formerly called themselves WYLDR. Singer-songwriter Will Winters, guitarist Taylor Van Ginkel, and multi-instrumentalist Michael Matta came together, just over a year ago, to breathe new life into Winters’ solo venture.
Their EP Gypsy Queen, which released this spring, is an endearing collection of tender, longing songs about a past love. Every single song is stellar.
“Gypsy Queen came about during a time where I was regretting the end of a relationship,” Winters told GroundSounds.com. “They were the very first songs that we wrote together.”
The band’s kiss-off single “Don’t Say” is a follow up to the emotional fallout. There is one line that I haven’t been able to shake for the past two weeks: “Don’t you even think that I could love you, girl.” Good lord.What does that even mean?
The maturity, strength, and depth of Rósa has shaken me to my core...and is impossible not to share. Piecing together a band, and finding a sound, is no easy task for musicians. For these three men to come together and produce these introspective soundscapes so swiftly is nothing short of remarkable. The universe doesn’t allow for this sort of thing too often.
Their following is still so small. This is only temporary, I assure you. These musicians, and this band, will soar. You will say you heard them when. The time to fall in love with them is now.
SIMILAR SONGS
