Q&A: ROSIE’s Latest Project ‘5 Songs For Healing’ is the Perfect Soundtrack for a Healing Summer
ATTENDING A ROSIE SHOW — an unforgettable experience. It’s rare that an artist can make a room of strangers feel like family, but this 23-year-old artist sings honestly about her struggles with mental health in a refreshing and surprisingly catchy way.
Having just wrapped her first 11-stop headline tour, her newest singles, “Potential” and “Someone You Once Had,” explore the raw emotions that come with experiencing and making mistakes in love.
Throughout our chat with ROSIE, her ability to be a musician shined, one that her younger self would have appreciated. Excluding the use of filters or Facetune while posting on social media, she encourages her fans to love themselves in an authentic way.
ROSIE includes genuine mental health check-ins during performances, which draw in her audience. Her kind energy extends beyond any performance or interview — it's the spirit that guides her music. She’s like the older sister you’ve always wanted, helping carry you through the next chapters of your life.
Check out her latest EP, 5 Songs For Healing, now, and read below to learn more about ROSIE’s experience on tour, how she accounts for her fans’ mental health, and where she gets her inspiration.
LUNA: What’s it like to be on your first headlining tour? How have you been feeling with all of this?
ROSIE: It's really surreal. I keep using that word because I process things a little slower sometimes. So like, I think it's going to start setting in a couple of weeks from now … what's really happening right now. But it's truly such a special experience. And I'm just so grateful that people show up and people want to heal [through] music, and they want to hear me sing. And I want to hear them. It's such an awesome first-tour experience.
LUNA: That's so beautiful. What does your pre-show routine look like? How do you prep?
ROSIE: I have such a specific pre-show routine. About an hour before, I have to vocal steam, which, if you're not a singer, it's basically like an inhaler. I do that for 10 to 15 minutes and then I have to meditate for 10 to 15 minutes. And then as I'm getting dressed, I do my vocal warm-ups — it's like 13 to 14 minutes, and I have a very specific set. 15 minutes before the show, I have to journal — it's so funny, I'm really type A, which you can totally tell from this. Then five minutes before stage, my band and I and my crew, we all have our own little routine, which is that we do a handshake, we spray all of our faces with rose water. And then we go out on stage.
As I'm going out on stage, I have affirmations that I say. And it's funny because I'm a firm believer in taking things day by day — if one day you don't feel like doing this or that … it's okay, [you don’t] have to meditate every day. You don't have to journal every day. But when I'm on tour, the routine is so… It’s not like this in everyday life. You know, I'm a human being — I have different days every day. But when I'm on tour, that is literally my exact routine.
LUNA: Routine is good, I totally get you! Do you ever look back and read your old journal entries and be like, “Oh my goodness, this is how far I've come as an artist/person/performer”?
ROSIE: A couple of years ago, I actually threw out all my old journals because I was really devastated at how I was writing about myself and how I was speaking to myself. I think maybe it was in 2020 [that] I got a new journal, and I just remember saying, “This is the last journal I write where I'm … shitting on myself all the time.” This is not the purpose — I want to heal, I want to feel better, I want to be kind to myself.
So now I have this one journal that I've been working on for three years and tracking that progress, seeing from that first page … “I'm not doing this anymore, I'm not going to be self-destructive — I'm going to be kind.” I'm doing everything exactly as I'm supposed to. It's a really, really special feeling.
LUNA: When I saw you perform in Boston, one of the things that I rarely see artists do is ask the audience for a legitimate mental check-in. How do you prioritize mental health awareness in your music or as a performer?
ROSIE: I firmly believe that the scary part of mental health — at least for me, I can't speak for everyone else — is feeling like you're alone in your struggles. I know for me, when I was really going through it when I was younger, the worst part was feeling isolated. My intention behind the music I write, my concerts, and my social media presence… and just who I am as an artist, my intention is to be a source of understanding and relatability … someone who uses their platform to say, “Hey, you're not alone in what you're feeling.”
When I do a mental health check-in on stage, specifically, I'm really looking for honest answers because if someone says they're feeling like a two, I guarantee someone else in the crowd was also feeling like a two. If someone says it feels like an 11, I guarantee you someone else in the crowd … [is feeling like an] 11.
What's even more interesting is that I realized [that] as I go through my songs, I like to gauge how I was feeling, and in some of the songs I was feeling like a two when I was writing them … like, a lot of them. And so, I don't know, it's kind of a long-winded answer. I really try to bring that consciousness toward mental health and every aspect of my artistry.
LUNA: You can definitely feel that positive energy in the crowd. I know that you kind of kick-started your career on TikTok. I was wondering if you feel the pressure to constantly create music or constantly create content because of how fast-paced social media is — or has that kind of changed since 2020 compared to now?
ROSIE: I think most artists feel pressure to create content because it’s the main way of getting yourself out there right now. And I definitely feel it as well. But I really try to think of social media as a tool in my toolbox — it's not the only tool in my toolbox of assets as an artist, but it is a big one. I really try to look at it as instead of something that I have to do that's a pressure in my life … causing me stress, I really [try] to think about it as this way of sharing myself … as a form of expressing who I am.
And whether that gets 2,000 views or a million views, I would hope that someone who needs to see it is seeing it. And since I've started thinking about it like that … It's fun putting myself out there, but it isn't always. But since I've kind of had that mentality of gratitude for the platform, instead of like, “Oh, I have to [do this] every day” … there’s a lot less pressure [now]. It’s become a lot more fun.
LUNA: That's a very smart way of thinking about social media, I like that. I saw you perform both nights at Chelsea Cutler and open for Jake Scott. This is a hard question, but what has been a highlight of your career so far?
ROSIE: I specifically, when it comes to musical achievements and just achievements in my career, I have a really hard time taking a step back and recognizing [that], especially because I have really high standards for myself. I'm such a future-oriented person that when I hit a goal I’m like, “Cool, what's next?” So a moment that hit me recently [where] I was like, “Wow, I'm doing it” was [when] I had this song come out with Celine Dion for a movie. It wasn't that, though. It wasn't the fact that I had a song come out there. She's incredible. So honored. But the moment … I was like, “Wow … I'm making a mark” was when I walked my first red carpet.
My manager said to me, “Hey, you're the first artist I can remember, first young artist ever to walk a red carpet with no makeup and have a completely bare face, and to do it in a completely all-natural way.” I was like, “Okay, that feels really good” because to me that's fulfilling [what] a younger me … wanted to see. When I was looking at social media, when I was looking at people walking on red carpets, it was always… they look so perfect. They have no flaws.
And so to be the first young artist — I don't know the exact statistic, but to be like the first young artist to walk the carpet … makeup-free… That felt like such a big accomplishment, because it goes beyond music. You know, it goes towards what I stand for. And it goes towards … helping younger me and younger versions of me in the world.
LUNA: You kind of segwayed into my next question: Why do you think it’s important to be so honest with your audience?
ROSIE: It all stems from the way I experienced growing up with social media. I got on social media when I was 13, and I just remember immediately deifying these huge artists and these huge influencers, and it just absolutely ruined my self-esteem and my love and appreciation for my body and my face. I wanted a nose job, I wanted to be like 15 pounds lighter, I wanted to have smaller hips, I wanted to have different hands, smaller chests — like, you name it, I wanted to change it.
The fact that I was literally pitting myself against unrealistic beauty standards… They are literally not real, right? They were filtered face[s] to VSCO or Instagram filters, you name it. I didn't get that up there. You know, like, I get it. Now when I see a picture at 23 I'm like, “That’s not real.” How was I supposed to know that? How is anyone supposed to know that's not real? That's not realistic.
And so the reason it's important to me is that if I can help anyone in the younger generations see an actual face … [see] what people's bodies are actually supposed to look like as opposed to some idealized, glamorized person as the beauty standard… I will, I think, [have] made a difference. That's why it's so important.
So much of what I do is for my younger self and younger people because I really want people to see a real face, you know, and then a real personality, real mental health check-ins, and real mental health stories. It’s not … glamorized — nothing about me is glamorized. I think it's very real and realistic. And that's a huge reason why it's important to me.
LUNA: I think that's really beautiful that you're healing your younger self as you go along in your career. Are you working on anything musically right now?
ROSIE: I just wrapped up my second EP, and it’s called 5 Songs For Healing, and it comes out June 23! It’s five songs based on the journey, ups, downs, and the rollercoaster of healing. I’m so excited about it!
LUNA: That's so exciting! What’s your biggest piece of advice for aspiring musicians?
ROSIE: I mean, I stand by this equation that I created … It’s very strange, it sounds very long, but it's H+C, multiplied by P equals S. What that means is Hard work and Consistency, multiplied by Passion (doing what you love within your passion), equals Success. I really stand by that.
I think that there are [obviously] a million other components that are involved, whether it's luck or chance … but at the end of the day, I think if you work hard and you're consistent at it and you come from a place of passion, that's what will give you long-term success.
LUNA: Where do you get the inspiration to write your music?
ROSIE: It's all based on true experiences. I've never once written a song that I didn't relate to at all. I get little inspiration from everywhere so TV shows: Gilmore Girls, The Office; songs: Phoebe Bridgers, Taylor Swift; conversations I hear my brother having, a conversation my mom, my dad, my band members … My songwriting brain is always on. And so I get a little inspiration from everywhere. But the emotional psychological inspiration comes from real-life experience.
LUNA: My last question is, what do you hope audience members gain and take away from listening to your music or seeing you perform live?
ROSIE: I hope each audience member feels a little bit more understood. As I said in the beginning, it's just really important to me [that] the people who hear my music feel a sense of community and feel really, really validated.
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