Introducing: Rose Holland

Bristol-based Rose Holland delves into a heady fusion of soul-soaked bass music that seamlessly merges heavy-hitting lows with expansive melodies, all tied together by her unmistakable stacked vocals. Her music captivates with a blend of melancholy and energy, showcasing her versatility as a writer and producer while remaining true to her signature sound.

Having cultivated her craft under the Dutchie moniker since 2017, this year marks a pivotal moment in her musical journey as she embraces a new direction and name. Rose’s debut two-tracker, *Patience/Pressure*, received widespread support from BBC Radio 1, 6Music, Rinse FM, Jazz FM, and more. As of May 2024, she has accepted a monthly residency on SWU FM, where she showcases her productions and broad music collection. Her DJ sets explore everything from garage, acid breaks, and broken beat to soul, jungle, and UK funky, with the potential inclusion of her own live vocals in the future.

1. Rose, you’ve been cultivating your craft under the Dutchie moniker since 2017, but this year marks a pivotal moment in your musical journey with a new direction and name. Can you tell us more about this transition and what inspired it?

When I started Dutchie I had no idea how to release music, anything about visual branding or marketing [not that im anywhere near pro now!] and hadn’t yet formed my ‘signature sound’ so to speak. So I ended up making a bunch of really varied releases that swung drastically between genres that I had grown up around or became interested in - dub to jazz, breaks to more neo-soul type stuff, some uk funky and garage, and my vocals usually ended up mainly on the more downtempo tracks.

As I started DJing more and putting out releases that were becoming slightly more successful, people struggled to anticipate what I was going to turn up and play. I got a lot of ‘are you a reggae DJ’ [the name probably didn’t help, although most people don’t clock that it’s based off my surname Holland haha], or promoters being confused about whether I would play a whole set of neo-soul/ jazz or tearout dubstep. I also didn’t really have a clear visual identity and was flitting between random styles of press shots and artwork.

So after a good few years of dancing around different styles and basically winging it, I wanted to fuse my more developed taste and production into work that was a bit more uniform, not in terms of genre specifically, more taking all my favourite parts of making music [writing and recording vocals, breaks and heavy bass, jazz and blues chords, DUB ECHO!] into releases that feel more fully formed and authentic to me. I’ve always been into photography and also wanted to create a more solid visual identity that I could develop and play around with myself.

For the new approach to really land it felt natural to make a fresh start with a new name that’s more personal to me, and a clear visual and sonic artistic intention from the very beginning. I’ve also launched this with a more solid behind the scenes backing with a publisher and distributor which has been great.

2. Your debut 2-tracker "Patience/Pressure" has received widespread support from major stations like BBC Radio 1 and Jazz FM. How did it feel to get such recognition, and how has it influenced your approach to creating music?

Yesss it felt so nice to get that support on the first release, it’s actually terrifying starting from 0 again and I was super grateful to everyone for the push. I’m lucky that a lot of these relationships were built through previous releases and music work as Dutchie, and people were generally excited about the new project and keen to support it. It hasn’t influenced my music in any kind of stylistic way but definitely gave me a little boost of confidence + helped reassure me that starting a new project wasn’t a bad idea!

3. Your music merges heavy-hitting lows with expansive melodies and your unmistakable stacked vocals, creating a captivating blend of melancholy and energy. Can you walk us through your creative process when producing a new track?

It really depends on the track, and to be honest I haven’t developed a set workflow yet, but there’s basically two main approaches for me.

Patience was originally written just with voice and guitar - it’s nice to be able to slow down or restart as you go, and it gives you a kind of freedom to swerve around and play with ideas in a fun way before you’re in the DAW working to a grid. I usually record a scratch track of the vocals and guitar so I don’t forget what I’ve done [its happened before!] then work out what kind of backing would serve the vocals in the right way, build up the beat etc, then re record the vocals properly with doubles and harmonies etc. Patience went through about 3 versions before it’s final form - it was originally bossa nova eqsue recorded instruments, a lot slower, more vocal sections + lyrics etc, but it was lacking energy and drive, so through the next few versions it got sped up, I wrote more electronic parts instead of live instruments and it turned into this wierd fusion of kind of house but not, breaksy and still soulful. Empty came together super quickly, I wrote the vocals over some nice chords, chucked a break under it and a guide bassline, and that original demo isn’t actually too far off the final version. The other common approach is that I start with the beat first, play around with drums and synths etc and then end up writing the vocals over the already produced track. 

I will say that my partner Joe (AKA Joe Sonar, used to go by Kreed) has been instrumental in helping me shape these releases and the Rose Holland sound. I’ve been taking my tracks to him and we finish them together - some need more work than others, but it’s really helped get some kind of consistency between the releases, and he’s just a sick producer who has great ideas that really enhance my songwriting and also keeps me out of the pit of self doubt and creative block! When you’re producing, writing vocals, recording yourself, trying to mix yourself, your brain can get a bit scrambled and you lose perspective, so it’s really helpful to have a second opinion and to be able to take turns on the buttons so you can sit back and actually listen and think about where to go next.

4. As of May 2024, you’ve accepted a monthly residency on SWU FM. What can listeners expect from your shows, and how does this residency allow you to explore and showcase your broad music collection?

It’s actually been so liberating DJing on radio where you don’t have the pressure of a dancefloor to match up to - the first show I really indulged and played loads of songs that would never make it into my live DJ sets - like Hak Baker, WILLOW, Juan SC - all amazing music, just a bit too chilled or not DJ friendly enough for the dancefloor. I’ve been digging into tunes from my youth that are super nostalgic, and going on regular hunts for new bangers - namely broken beat, garage, acidy bass stuff, breaks, chill electronica, some 140 [hate that term - dubstep and stuff, you get it!]. I’m also doing a monthly ‘Tuesday Time Out’ where I find a nice ambient track to break up the haste a bit and encourage everyone to take a few minutes out of their day to relax and unwind [before I play more bangers ha ha]. It’s a really enjoyable process and also really nice to be able to push some really cool music from so many different artists.

5. Your DJ sets span a wide range of genres, from garage and acid breaks to soul, jungle, and UK funky. How do you manage to seamlessly blend these diverse styles, and what draws you to such a varied musical palette?

Proper prior preparation! ha ha. I am pretty into planning my sets, which is important when mixing different styles - some drum patterns just don’t work together and sound like a clang even if they’re in time which can be brutal in front of a crowd. I love lots of different music and am also super impatient - so switching it up and jumping around stylistically keeps it fun and engaging for me, and really the range of styles I play are pretty compatible with eachother even if they vary in genre. 

I grew up listening to a lot of different music - playing instruments with my dad (jazz and classical mostly) and discovering electronic music in the era of the original Gorillaz and Squarepusher etc, moving out of home and getting big into hip hop and jungle, moving to bristol and becoming obsessed with dub and echoes, and now veering more into acidy breaksy territory. So I think my varied musical background has left me in a place where I’m just not really interested in sticking to one specific genre or style, and more into playing around with drawing different elements of my taste together.

6. Looking ahead, do you have any plans to incorporate live vocals into your DJ sets, and what other new directions or projects are you excited to explore in the coming year?

I’m a self professed ‘closet vocalist’ haha, so I haven’t really done much live singing, but it’s definitely something I want to work on in future - I am wary of coming across as mainly a vocalist, cos I’m really a producer and DJ at heart, so I think for the first year or so I’ll just DJ and put music out, but yeah eventually I really want to sing on my DJ sets, with some practice and confidence building!

I’ve got a bunch of music I’m working on at the moment and aim to put out a few more tracks this year, I’m really trying to keep up the momentum with musical output for this first stretch. I’m also really enjoying creating the videos for my releases - I’ve developed a fun projected silhouette approach which has been turning out pretty cool, so definitely going to continue exploring and developing the visual side of things, and I’m also looking into doing some collabs with other producers and labels etc, so I’ll keep you posted on that!