Serena Rose blurs the line between song and landscape on new single ‘Wild One’

Serena Rose doesn’t just write songs — she builds worlds.

On her latest single Wild One, the Australian artist leans fully into her cinematic instincts, crafting a track that feels less like a traditional release and more like stepping into a place. Written in the Byron Bay hinterland and shaped by drifting guitars, silence and space, the track captures a moment rather than a narrative — a quiet immersion in nature, memory and mood.

Drawing on her background in film scoring, Rose continues to carve out a distinctive lane between psychedelic songwriting and atmospheric composition. Comparisons to Mazzy Star and Radiohead feel apt, but Wild One is less about influence and more about intention — prioritising texture, restraint and emotional detail over structure or immediacy.

Written in a single burst and left largely untouched, the track embodies her instinct-led approach, where the first feeling is often the most important. The result is something hazy, transportive and deeply personal — music that doesn’t describe a landscape so much as exist within it. Below, Serena Rose talks about instinct, environment and why sound often says more than words.

“Wild One” feels less like a song and more like a place — when you were writing it, were you thinking visually first or sonically?

At the time that the song was first unravelled, I was playing around with my friend's reverb pedal on my guitar. It was a new tone and texture for me and there's something special about playing with new sound like that, that almost cracks open new spaces. So I was very much feeling into the textures and then feeling how what I was playing, very much represented the visual world around me and how I felt amongst it. Where I felt so at peace and in tune with myself, in my secluded cabin in the Byron Bay hinterlands of Australia, surrounded by gently flowing creeks and forest. I started to very much visualise the mystical water and creeks as a key element that represented the song.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WW5MzvHwrzA

Your background in film scoring is really present in how you use space and restraint — how does that mindset differ from traditional songwriting for you?

I feel like the mindset I enter when creating music is very much atmospherically focused, as opposed to narrative and lyrically focused. It's more about the feeling than what I'm saying. I suppose I just create my music how it feels right to create and how it feels like a true expression of mine. For me, I've always felt like sound holds more context and emotion than words. Whether there is strong instrumentation or silent space, it's all impactful and valid. I also enjoy and value the silence, space and rawness amongst life, so it makes sense that these elements are recognisable in what I create.

The track was written in a single burst — how important is instinct in your process, and do you tend to preserve that first feeling rather than refine it?

It's very important for me to preserve that first feeling, as it's the most true and organic source of the song. In that first single burst, I tend to unravel and create most elements of the song, then really only try to expand from that space if I feel I can drop into that atmosphere again. I try to revisit it as little as possible, as I am aware that everytime I do, my internal and external influences are always going to be slightly different.

There’s a strong connection to the natural world in your work — do you see your music as documenting those environments, or existing within them?

I see my music as existing within those environments and embedding into them, drawing in textures and feelings from amongst those spaces. Therefore listening to the music allows people to be a part of that space, as opposed to observing it.

Your sound sits between psychedelic music and cinematic composition — do you feel part of a scene, or are you intentionally building something more self-contained?

In Australia and amongst the online world, I am very much a part of the psychedelic rock, stoner rock/doom scenes. My music has also featured in films and theatre, so I feel I have a presence in a few different spaces. In saying that, my music as a whole does feel like it's own world. Which has just naturally unveiled as what it is, without it trying to be anything in particular.