Baby Rose sounds like she's been transported from the past. Her voice, rich and textured, is closer to icons of yesteryear — Ella Fitzgerald or Etta James — than many of her contemporaries. And yet, she’s here right now, making music that still feels grounded to today.
For her latest project, Slow Burn, Rose teamed up with the ever-busy jazz trio BADBADNOTGOOD to make a project that has the same synergies as Nina Simone’s stint with Muscle Shoals. On “One Last Dance,” she sings a moving ode to time’s ceaseless churn, her voice buoyed by layers of flutes and guitars. And on “Caroline” she bumps up the BPM for a dancey spin that circles the ache of longing. Between the trio’s addicting musicality and her timeless voice, the project highlights the best qualities of both Rose and the unbeatable trio.
Today, Baby Rose continues to explore the story she told on Slow Burn by offering a moving film version of this very personal record. Shot on film to mirror the analog tape the project was recorded on, the visuals have all of the vintage texture of the songs, and all the heart as well. Set between a studio and speakeasy, the film is an “internal reckoning with past versions of [Baby Rose] from a present perspective.” As Rose reads a letter from a future version of herself, she considers her own growth and journey and her own tenuous concept of home, which was shaped by a childhood moving around and a career that has her on the road.
“[Home is] my routine in the morning, my water carafe, journal and satchel I carry with me everywhere I go,” Baby Rose tells PAPER. “It’s the walks I take where I talk to God for hours. My home is the memories that I stamp in time in my songs. My home is my body that shelters my soul.”
PAPER caught up with the busy singer in the lead-up to the premiere of the Slow Burn film to talk about this special album, working with BADBADNOTGOOD and translating her music to film.
You made all of Slow Burn with BADBADNOTGOOD. What was the experience like locking in with them and creating this project together?
It was a pleasure locking in with them. Our chemistry was felt from the very first day we met. We made “One Last Dance” and “It’s Alright” on that first day, and it wasn’t even planned for us to be making music that day, just meeting. David Maxwell, who directed the short film, also helped me write the songs “Weekness” and “Slow Burn.” Sylvain Chaussee, who is their creative director, was there filming the day we met and returned when we got back in and shot my album cover and visualizers. Travis Pavur, the recording engineer, also mixed it down. It honestly was the smoothest process of all time.
Tell me about the process of creating this film. How does it encapsulate the world of Slow Burn?
The concept of the film was thought of along with the conception of the music. I felt in my heart that speakeasies would be one of the main places where I’d hear this record played. The album is an internal reckoning with past versions of myself from a present perspective; I’m time-traveling to relive and reconcile with those versions of me. We shot it all on film as Slow Burn was recorded all on tape, although different mediums there was the shared sentiment of not wasting a moment and being very intentional about each shot. It shows myself, on a quest inside of my mind, represented by this speakeasy/studio. In the studio, I am the most vulnerable in a lot of ways. I say the things that I’d keep inside in real life, so the setting at One on One Recording Studios was perfect.
The film explores home in its many forms — people, places, feelings. What does home mean to you now?
I used to be envious of hometown heroes who had a direct idea of where home was. I moved around a lot when I was younger, I was born in DC, came of age in NC, got my music off the ground in ATL so there are many places that feel like home to me. Home has been a revolving destination and so what I’ve come to accept is that home for me holds a different meaning. It’s my routine in the morning, my water carafe, journal and satchel I carry with me everywhere I go. It’s the walks I take where I talk to God for hours. My home is the memories that I stamp in time in my songs. My home is my body that shelters my soul.
The film revolves around a letter from your future self. Do you often daydream about what your future self may think of your present self?
I have a vision of who I will be later on, or at least I know how I want to feel. I think that version of me is proud of the self awareness I have now, but also concerned with how anxiety leads me to do nothing sometimes. Future me is rooting me to remember how wise being child-like is, fearless and direct. This wall of sound that is Slow Burn is me unfiltered, raw, on tape, recording while the band is playing simultaneously. We didn't waste any time at all, making the record in a week and a half, mixing it down in two days and releasing it a couple weeks after. The film was done in two days with a small but mighty crew. Nothing was over-thought, it makes me excited to be headed down this path.
The film ends on an ambiguous and hopeful note about your next chapter. How would you describe the chapter surrounding Slow Burn?
Slow Burn’s chapter of my life is one of transition and trusting myself. We end the film and record with “One Last Dance”, which is that blanket, bittersweet feeling of yearning and acceptance that I have about all of the characters and settings in my past that aren't currently in this season of my life. I used to roll with an entourage and felt so cozy and safe in that, but things changed as they do sometimes and I found myself starting over and finding my own voice again. I hope everyone who watches this gives themself grace wherever they are. I believe we are always in a perpetual state of growing and shedding. This film and record serves as that reminder.
Photography: crsh, Sylvain Chaussée
FILM CREDITS:
Directed by: David Maxwell
Script written by: David Maxwell, Baby Rose
Music by: Baby Rose, BADBADNOTGOOD, Mereba
Executive Producers: Secretly Canadian, Kevon Jaundoo, Joyce McClain
Produced by: Sean Geist
Director of Photography: Sean Geist
Editors: Nikoli Partiyeli, David Maxwell
Sound Designers: David Maxwell, Nikoli Partiyeli
Visual Effect Supervisor: Alex Howard
Production Designer: Campbell Young
Wardrobe Design & Stylist: LA CLEANIC, David Maxwell
Color & Film Scans: Jack Tashdjian
Steadicam: Eric Cancela
G&E Swing: Alex Shock
1st Assistant Camera: Ethan Tschida
2nd Assistant Camera: James Frank
Gaffer: Michael Tellup
Grip: Jonathan Tollentino
Still Photographers: crsh., room for error, Nikoli Partiyeli, David Maxwell, Sean Geist
Key Makeup Artist: Penelope Eyerman
Filmed at: One on One Recording, Los Angeles, CA
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