Like the Australian Eucalyptus macrocarpa from whence the band takes its name, Rose of the West is a rare and stunning culmination of setting, evolution, and adaptation rooted in an ability to survive — even thrive — in environments that would devastate the less formidable and self-reliant.
Presently composed of singer/frontwoman, lyricist, and guitarist Gina Marie Barrington, synthesist and guitarist Thomas Gilbert, and drummer Dave Power, the group owes its unique sound to a combination of Barrington’s poetry and focus, Gilbert’s ear and architecture, Power’s prolificacy and range, and the musical prowess and production experience of recently departed bassist, Cedric LeMoyne (Remy Zero, Alanis Morissette).
That sound — a blend of dark dream pop, gothic rock, shoegaze, trip hop, and progressive pop that defies strict categorization — is both informed by, and a kind of rebellion against, Barrington’s musical instruction. As the granddaughter of an orchestra director, the artist often found herself immured in piano, flute, and violin lessons governed by dogmatic fundamentals that left little room for experimentation and self-expression. It was a pedagogy against which Barrington railed, and one that inspired her affinity for artists similarly disinclined to play by the rules. Whether that rejection of the handbook manifested in genre-blending, daring lyrical statements, or an unorthodox approach to form and function, it was the emotional impact of the risk — rather than any one particular mode, movement, or mood — to which Barrington was most drawn. That the singer is at once a child of the ‘90s and a true musical polyhistor is evident in Rose of the West’s own distinct and diverse narrative: in it, listeners are as likely to find elements ranging from industrial to ska and punk, to r&b and post-grunge as they are traces of Kate Bush, The Cure, and The English Beat.
Rose of the West found its current form amidst the isolation and tumult of 2020. But despite its recent metamorphosis, the band’s exquisite balance of pathos, place, and perspective is also the consequence of a lifetime’s worth of meaning-making and introspection, kismet and artistic perseverance. In 2018, the band landed a track on Season One of Netflix’s You, before releasing a self-titled debut in 2019 whose hypnotic, cinematic surrealism garnered widespread praise. A number of years in, the band’s infrastructure may have changed, but their sound — composed by Barrington and transformed and amplified by the group into, as Evan Rytlewski wrote in 2019, “music as voluptuous and immersive as Barrington’s voice” — remains as haunting and distinctive as ever.
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