Changing for the better

ENGLISH singer-songwriter Lucy Rose will show why she’s one of the most respected and influential of the new generation of UK artists when she opens for US piano-pop star Ben Folds in Hobart next week.

Rose moved from Warwickshire to London at age 18, but instead of taking her place at university, she began writing and performing music. In 2012 she released her debut album, Like I Used To. By the time her second album Work It Out — featuring the singles Our Eyes, Like An Arrow, Till the End and

Nebraska — became a top-10 hit in the UK in mid-2015, Rose had featured on songs by English indie band Bombay Bicycle Club, Welsh rockers Manic Street Preachers, acclaimed vocalist Ghostpoet and US rapper Logic; supported Neil Young in Hyde Park; and played at the massive Glastonbury Festival.

But by 2016 Rose was over the music industry, and wondering what the point of it all was.

Inspired by the number of tweets and Spotify streams coming from Latin America, she pitched a deal to her fans

in that region: “If you book me a gig, I’ll come and stay.”

Inundated with offers, Rose spent two months backpacking across Ecuador, Peru, Chile, Argentina, Paraguay, Uruguay, Brazil and Mexico, playing free shows and making a documentary, Something’s Changing, about her experiences.

Something’s Changing also became the name of her third album, a soulful collection of songs, which was inspired by the likes of Al Green and Carole King and was released last July.

“With the last album there was a pressure for the record to sound really modern and contemporary,” Rose says.

“But with this one it was like ‘I want to make a record which sound like all the records I listen to’, whether that was made in the ’60s or ’70s or recently.”

Lucy Rose is now touring Australia supporting Ben Folds. They play two shows at Hobart’s Theatre Royal next week — from 8pm on Tuesday and Wednesday. Tickets are $89, go to www.theatreroyal.com.au or phone 6233 2299 for bookings.