Your name:
Rosie Rebel.
Where
are you from?
Brooklyn, New York.
Band name:
Typhoid Rosie.
Who else is in your band?
On drums we have the work-horse Phil Wartell, who also
produced our upcoming album Hearts Bleed Goodbye. Hailing from Cincinnati,
Ohio, we have the lady-slaying champion Matt Kursmark on guitar. We also have
the extremely sharp Chris Potter on guitar (who has the nicest haircut I've
ever seen on a dude), and on bass we have the badass of Berkley - Mr. Steve
Capecci. Plus we just imported a lovely Southern Belle from Texas, Miss Leah
Farmer on keys. That's our current live line-up - ready to slay and melt your
face off at upcoming shows. I also have to mention that we had Dean Wartell on
bass and Justin Rothberg on guitar on the upcoming album. We felt really lucky
to have them. Rothberg plays on Broadway these days, and Dean is busy with his
greatest creation raising a son.
How
would you describe yourselves and your music?
The best part about our music is
that we are not trying to sound like anybody else. A writer from 30 Roses
described our sound as "pop hooks with indie grit”. That is about as good
a description as I’ve heard and I'm happy with that. I don't mind making pop
infused music because I want to write songs for everybody. We are all about the
hook. We want every song we make to get inside people's heads, and to move
them, and I wouldn't spend my time writing anything that didn't come pouring
out of my soul.
What
does Typhoid Rosie sound like?
People have said my voice sounds like everything
from Debbie Harry to Jim Morrison. Sometimes I listen to bands and I ask my
husband, "Do I sound like her/him?" and he'll say, "No, and
that's a good thing because your voice is your own”. I think that's a beautiful
thing, because the last thing we need is another 10,000 singers and bands,
copying their sounds from someone else, instead of spending the time to find
the most unique thing about them. Our voices are like the thumbprints of our
souls, they weather all the storms of our lives, every laugh and every tear has
torn into our voices, we're so lucky to be ourselves.
Who
are your main influences musically?
We were introduced to great music at an
early age because our parents were baby boomers, so we grew up listening to Doo
Wop, Motown, and 60's Rock. Phil came from a Beach Boys home, while my mother
was a Beatles fanatic. But when we were old enough to go to shows on our own,
we spent most of our teenage years in the 90s at punk, ska and reggae shows.
And now there is so much more GREAT music out there. Lately, I have been
listening to a lot of Saint Motel, Nicole Atkins, and To Kill a King, and I am
learning about and loving new bands almost every day. I don’t think we sound
anything like the music we listen to. We are only ourselves and when it comes
down to it, we're song writers at heart. So if you ask us who we wish we could
be, musically we look up to people like Phil Spector, Brian Wilson, and George
Harrison, as a lyricist and poet my soul loves Leonard Cohen. A lot of
great music has come and gone, but we don't want to pretend it's 1965.The truth
is, we make our own music for today.
What do you hope
to achieve in music?
I want to use music to reach people in a much deeper way.
I think that's what I wanted with comedy. My favorite comedians weren't just
clowns, they were always the ones who truly had something to say, like Bill
Hicks. They didn't just want to make people laugh, they wanted to change the
World.
What has been
the highlight of your career so far, and why?
I've had many highlights. I'm
kind of new to music, but I've been a performer for a very long time. As a
comedian I've done a lot of cool shit. I made the Queen of England's Royal
Guards laugh and it was in People Magazine. I got booed off Amateur Night At
the Apollo and got chased around the stage by the Sandman. I got to perform on
America’s Got Talent doing my burlesque-comedy act in front of Howard Stern and
Heidi Klum, and got to say to Heidi Klum, "Hey Heidi, how's it feel: Me
being sexy while you have to sit there and watch!"
I was also on Last
Comic Standing and I got to perform comedy all over England as well as at the
Galway Comedy Festival and the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.
But with music it's
all beautiful and brand new to me. So every single moment is a highlight. Every
time I'm at band practice, I'm just so happy to be making music with such
talented people. Every time someone writes to me and says, "Rosie I love
your music!" Every time I haven't listened to our music in a while, and I
put it on and I'm so proud of this record we made. Every time someone writes to
me and says,"Rosie, I broke up with someone, and your song helped me
through it." And every time someone like you writes to us, and says
"Rosie we'd love to feature your band." Each one of these steps means
a great deal to me, because we're at a stage where we can be grateful for every
fan, it's not over-whelming just yet. But it's growing -- I see Typhoid Rosie
grow everyday. I try to write back to each and every DJ who plays our song,
everyone who writes about our music, and everyone who loves our music, it
honestly means so much to me. I will never forget the people who helped us
along the way. I heard Louis C.K. won't take pictures with his fans. In a way,
I get it, because I never want to bother celebrities, I feel like maybe it's an
invasion of his privacy, but the other part of me will never understand why a
performer wouldn't take a picture with their fan. They're your patrons. They
love you. Why don't you just do comedy in your living room without a camera if
you wanted to be alone? I don't want to sing in my living room. I wrote these
songs and I want to share them with the world!
And what’s the
moment you want to forget?
I'd love to forget what it was like to see my mother
die. That was the worst thing I've ever seen, and felt. It tore me in half.
Death is so strange. The second her soul left I didn't even recognize her face.
I want to forget the sounds of my grown brothers wailing for our mother. I want
to remember the sound of my mother's laugh, her smile, and what it felt like to
hug her without the incredible longing, pain, and sadness that I feel now when
I think of her. I want to remember her and smile, but there's really no way to
grieve. But I wrote her some of the most beautiful music to say we didn't make
it all up. I was here, and she was here. But this moment is so defining, how
could I ever wish away my fate? I don't second guess my creator, I guess that's
the one thing my mom taught. We were all put here for a reason, and I'd like to
believe that.
If you had to
pick just one of your songs to represent your music, what would it be and why?
I'd pick the title track for the upcoming album, “Hearts Bleed Goodbye”,
because the song came from the source of my deepest wound. I know that out of
pain and tragedy comes some of the world's greatest works of art. When I made
it, it came from the most vulnerable and sincere place. I was lucky to see the
Taj Mahal in person after my mother died. It was only through my greatest loss
that I could truly understand why someone would build the most beautiful tomb
in the world. Every year, pilgrims of love from all around the world look to
see just how much this man loved this woman. But it wasn't only him that took
part, it was also the artisans who built. Honestly, my songs are nothing
without my band, they all had a hand in crafting our album Hearts Bleed
Goodbye. Mortality is the one wound that all of mankind shares, and we will all
play a part in it. The sooner you understand that, the quicker we'll all start
living the lives we were meant to live. If you knew what the people in your
life were worth, and what little time we really have, we wouldn't waste a
second in the wrong places.
Where can we
listen to it?
Also on Spotify,
Amazon, and iTunes.
Where can we
find out more about your music?
We communicate a lot through social media. So
it would be great if you could tune in from home, or at the office. We can
really use your downloads, likes, listens, follows, and shares. I usually try
to make it fun for everyone. I crack a couple jokes, post some goods songs, and
take award winning photos. I wish I could stand at the door of the internet and
hand out free lollipops like they do at the bank. Once they can substitute real
life for glowing boxes, I'm on it.
Anything else
you’d like to say about your music that I forgot to ask?
Personally, I
think if you can, you should spend $1 and buy that song you really like from
that band you love, cause it cost that band a year of their lives and a lot of
time and money to write, rehearse, record, promote, and release that song.
Every time you stream your favorite song for free, Spotify and Pandora get
paid, while the bands are cut a check for .00000007 cents. Could you imagine
getting a check for a year of your life that amounted to a fraction of a penny?
Support your local Typhoid Rosie, there's probably thousands of bands out there
just like us that you never heard of. Lastly, I am always so grateful to people
who run blogs like this, that get the word out, every fan means the world to
us. Thank you!
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