Rosie H Sullivan
As she releases her latest EP In My Nature, Scottish singer-songwriter Rosie H Sullivan tells us about growing up as a young musician in the Outer Hebrides, how studying music at university has changed her work and releasing two records in a year.
When did you know you wanted to be a musician?
Since I was very young I’ve always been really creative and into music - I grew up listening to my dad’s music, like Bob Dylan, Kate Bush, Joan Armatrading, and I felt really inspired and found a love through that. My auntie is a singer-songwriter as well, and when I was younger I wanted to be like her. I spent a lot of time being creative, and writing and playing things - it was never a kind of conscious decision overnight, it was just something that happened, so I feel very lucky to be in a situation where I’m doing something I love as a job. When I was about 14 I did some recording on the island where I lived, the Isle Of Lewis in the Outer Hebrides - it wasn’t anything amazing, but at the time I just loved doing it. I think the first time I seriously thought about doing this as a career was when I released my first single So It Is a couple of years back - that song went out and sort of brought me some good things.
Is there much of a music scene on the Isle Of Lewis?
Yeah, there definitely is - it’s very kind of Scottish traditional folk music, so when I was younger that was what I’d play, as that was the culture and the tradition. My first instrument I learnt to play was the fiddle, then the guitar, then I moved on to singing. But I really liked that, and I think I still draw inspiration from the kind of music I was surrounded by growing up. When I first started writing songs I was writing stuff that was more folk, pop, then traditional Scottish music, and that was when I realised that there wasn’t a huge scene for what I was doing.
Do you speak Gaelic?
A little bit. I learnt it in school, but haven’t spoken it a lot at all!
Where are you based now?
A few years ago I moved with my parents to Aberdeenshire, and now I’m living in Edinburgh as I’m studying music at uni here. Because I’m doing a lot musically at the minute being in central Scotland really helps with connections and things. Obviously Edinburgh is very different to being from a small, rural place, so that creeps into my music in a lot of ways as well. When I released So It Is we’d only recently moved to Aberdeenshire, and I was taking a gap year before going to uni as it was still lockdown, so I spent a lot of that time writing and exploring this new place, out in nature. About a month after I moved to Edinburgh I got a message from Nettwerk Music Group, who I’m now working with, and after a few months I signed my first record deal!
How are you managing to balance being a professional musician with studying?
When I’m not in uni, like over the summer, it’s such a change of pace and I can really focus on my music, do more shows and write more. When I start back for a new year and the work really ramps up, finding that balance can be quite hard - earlier this year, January to May, I was in the studio recording the EP that’s now coming out, but also trying to do uni and finish my second year. So it’s a difficult balance - I’m in my third year now, and can do a fourth, but I think if I’m going to continue with my music like I’m doing now I need to leave after my third to really focus on it.
Have you found that studying music has changed you as a musician at all?
I usually like to think of my music and what I do at uni as separate things, but there is a lot of kind of intertwining that goes on, and there’s so much that I’ve learnt that I’m applying to the stuff I do outside uni now. I think it’s definitely been a helpful thing.
In My Nature is your second EP - how long has it been in the works?
All the songs on the EP have been sort of in motion for the last few years, it was just a choice of picking which songs would go on it, which is one of the hardest things! We started recording it last November, so it’s nice that it’s coming out this November. My first EP came out earlier this year, at the beginning of the year - releasing two in a year is a lot of work!
Were both written at the same time?
Sort of. The first EP was more of a linear thing, all of it was written around the time I moved away from the island, and that was what the record was about. This one is quite different - some of the songs I’ve written super recently, another of them I first wrote when I was 17 and kind of put in a cupboard, then took it back out and reworked it. Being a musician is an ever-evolving cycle I think - as you keep writing and you go through life you learn things and grow, and I always allow myself for those changes to happen. I wanted to keep the first EP very stripped-back - it’s mainly just guitar and vocals, very kind of organic in that way, and I wanted those songs to come out in the exact way that I’d written them. With this one I’ve been more open to experimentation - we’ve got some more instrumentation on the songs and I’ve been drawing more from my influences.
Who are your influences?
I have so, so many! Growing up Joni Mitchell was one I listened to in the house a lot. More recently Laura Marling, Phoebe Bridgers, The Staves, Big Thief.
Are you playing live for the EP release?
I’ve just been on a tour - we’ve been to Inverness, Edinburgh, Brighton and London. It was exciting to get out there and get some new songs out!
Words: Scott Bates
First two photos: Marc Sharp