HURTING FOR SUCCESS
Rose Cousins’ beautiful new release Natural Conclusion is heavy on the heartbreak
Listening to the depth of heartbreak expressed on Rose Cousins’ beautiful new album Natural Conclusion, one is compelled to ask if she’s OK.
The singer-songwriter assures me that all is well, but it’s a fair question when you hear the themes of cheating, betrayal, loss and emptiness that characterize songs like White Flag, Grace, Chains and My Friend, to name a few of the gutwrenching new tracks.
It sure sounds like she’s followed up her 2012 breakup album, the Juno-winning We Have Made A Spark, with another breakup album.
“Well, that’s my specialty,” Cousins said in an interview. “I wouldn’t necessarily call it a breakup album, but you know me, I tend to the melancholy.”
Indeed. As for the state of her love life, that’s off limits.
“I won’t answer because I don’t feel it’s important or relevant,” she says. “When you listen to a song, you look for yourself in it so you can experience the emotions fully, so I don’t think the details of my story are important to it. I just think that maybe the things I’m singing about will bring relief or catharsis for other people. It’s hard to be vulnerable enough to connect with another person.”
The person who helped her bring the most out of the new songs was producer Joe Henry, the same American singer-songwriter who worked with U.K. folkie Billy Bragg on their recent train-inspired project Shine a Light. Cousins and Henry first met through friends in Boston, a city the Prince Edward Island-born Cousins considers a second home.
After a successful crowdfunding campaign, she was able to bring Henry and a couple of his L.A. musician pals to Toronto to join her and her Canadian musician pals in the studio. It seems she and Henry share a special connection when it comes to poetry and music.
“I feel the way we experience music is similar,” Cousins says. “Both he and I don’t mind having to listen deeper or read it again and that’s why the pairing on these songs is the right choice. He cares deeply about the integrity of the songs and in the end cares deeply about me as well. We have a beautiful friendship and a wonderful exchange.”
Cousins also challenged herself in the songwriting department by collaborating with other writers. In fact, she took some time off the road to embark on “deliberate” songwriting trips to Los Angeles and Nashville.
“I was never sure I’d be able to do that,” says the dark-haired singer. “Walking into a room to write with someone I don’t know, kinda like a blind date, was always very intimidating to me, but always something I really wanted to do. So I’m excited to be at a point that it’s something I do regularly now.”
She’s also excited to be touring, including shows on both sides of the border, with a full band. Joining her for the Canadian dates, which start on Valentine’s Day in Paris, (Ont.), are Zachariah Hickman on bass, Asa Brosius on pedal/lap steel, Joshua Van Tassel on drums and Dean Drouillard on electric guitar.
“I’ve travelled the majority of my career thus far by myself and the part I love so much about playing is the communion on stage,” Cousins says. “I had never given myself the privilege of travelling with a band and I feel like the experience of the record is fully realized when I play with the band.
“I’m excited to get back on the road and travel across Canada since it’s been a long time since I really brought my music to people. I don’t have the whole map laid out in front of me and I kinda like it like that. But I hope the best for the life of this record and I want to do right by it and get it to as many places as I can.”
I wouldn’t necessarily call it a breakup album, but you know me, I tend to the melancholy.