Shea Rose Comes Back with a New Attitude, Three Years After Turning Down a Major Record Deal
How a year of no’s helped her to find who she really is as a musician .
The Shea Rose of 2013 was known for her soulful rap-meets-rock sound, a big Afro and killer heels. Her stage clothes usually included large shoulders and a leather harness, as if they were her armor equipping her for the tough image-focused industry of music. She performed at events such as the Boston Music Awards and the first annual Outside the Box festival. CoverGirl, the Boston Globe and a cover story in the “Improper Bostonian” painted her as a fearless rising star.
But that fearless, “Rock ‘n Rose” (as she named one of her early singles) was only one side. “There was no record label executive or manager telling me how to produce my music, how to look, how to dress, how to present myself publicly as a recording artist,” said Rose, “but in my mind I definitely had an agenda.”
She knew a powerful “rock-edge” would appeal to the industry, including Virgin Records who offered her a record deal in 2013 based on this image she’d maintained. “My agenda was kind of based off what I felt success to be or how I felt success has been turned around and presented to female artists,” said Rose.
The offer made her rethink the image she was binding herself to and she realized it only grazed the surface of who she could be. “It became an easy decision once I started peeling off the layers,” she said. “I don’t want to have to jump up on stage all the time. I don’t want to have to wear makeup all the time. I don’t want to have to be presentable when I’m trying to be this character or persona that is me, but is only one part of me.”
“My agenda was kind of based off what I felt success to be or how I felt success has been turned around and presented to female artists.”
She turned down the deal, took a break from producing music and stopped projects that didn’t align with her goals. “I had to make the decision, put a value on my time and my effort and my worth, and also value people who had been working with me,” she said.
Rose had gone through the “say yes to everything” phase of her career, taking gigs for 100 dollars and working on songs she wasn’t passionate about. “So I slowly started turning things down after the record label offer,” she said. “That was the big no. That was the first no, and I think the most courageous no. But I have to say, this year I’ve really lived it.”
The following years, she based her career decisions on three criteria. Would it make her happy? Would it point her in the right direction? And did she like working with the people involved? “I didn’t give myself time to think about what I wanted to say,” said Rose. “I recommend everyone take a year to six months to say no, just to anything they don’t want to do.”
Rose’s inner growth became exterior when she abandoned her signature Afro. Many natural hair and Afro blogs would both praise and criticize her. “That made me feel like, ‘Well am I not beautiful if I don’t have this Afro?’” she said. “It just became a very weird object that people got attached to…that made me question my own self-confidence.”
She realized she’d become too dependent on her hair. “It wasn’t that I didn’t have natural Afro, but the pictures that they all showed were ones where I had this Afro on that was added, or Afro wig, or some of my hair on the side pinned up with an extension.”
Though the haircut was spontaneous (inspired by her stylist and Boston fashion designer Joelle Jean Fontaine), her shaved head liberated her from people’s expectations and standards of beauty. “I want to feel beautiful if I have hair or don’t have hair,” she said. “I don’t want hair to be an identifier for me.”
Her three years of growth and reflection have given her a new perspective on success. “I don’t want to make a business out of this change and transformation,” she said. “Just living it authentically is the best way that I can be an impression.”
Now that she’s more open and grounded, Rose believes her voice will resonate even louder than before. “I do feel there’s a place for me still,” she said, “it’s just me owning that place in a real authentic way and then moving forward with it.
As for the future, she isn’t aiming for a deliberated path. “My dream would be to do a one hour show with just me on guitar…and then whatever builds on top of it is like yummy icing and cherries and chocolate chips inside of the cake!”
“I want to feel beautiful if I have hair or don’t have hair. I don’t want hair to be an identifier for me.”
Rose’s personal and professional reinvention culminates in her new EP “Dance This Mess Around,” (which was funded with Kickstarter in 2013) through a series of single releases. Each song has an accompanying album cover that illustrates her transformation, from the tough star with her eyes on success, to a stripped-down confident woman who has found herself.
She’s Got Her Ticket has an exclusive look at the “introspective” photo series, including the raw images without album artwork. Rose just released the fourth single today, titled “Time,” and will release the last two songs after the New Year.
The album confronts her conflicts with identity, whether questioning her career path in “Do I Really Wanna Be (a Rockstar),” or desiring to find herself before falling in love in “Can’t Get No Man.”
“The songs describe the struggle with conformity I think we all go through, but definitely something that I went through when I was on my way to this mainstream success and desire for that,” said Rose.
“I don’t want to make a business out of this change and transformation…just living it authentically is the best way that I can be an impression.”
Her latest release, “Time,” is what she calls the most introspective of the EP. She believes everything falls into place once we look inward. “We’re always racing to get to somewhere and often times the race is outward, especially in the arts because it’s so competitive,” she said.
Next to release on January 6th, “Kennedy Rose” is a bittersweet song of reflection and “letting go of a big dream I had in childhood,” said Rose. “I kind of made a mess of it and it was a lot simpler than I was making it out to be.”
The final song, “Dance This Mess Around,” is an “explosion of freedom” and poses questions about fitting in and what it means to be “cool.” The single will be out on January 20th.
To listen to Shea Rose’s EP “Dance This Mess Around,” visit her website at www.shearose.com and look out for more information about her upcoming 2017 performances in Philadelphia, Washington D.C., New York City and Boston.
Here’s an exclusive look at Rose’s photo series:
ALBUM ARTWORK: Jeff Manning
PHOTOGRAPHY:
Photographer: Joel Benjamin
Production Manager: Tyler Kimball
Creative Direction: Faith Diver | Adela Locsin | Ifeoma Belonwu
Wardrobe Stylist: Joelle Jean Fontaine
Hair: Nancy V. Brown
Make up: Francesca Simon
