For Rosie H Sullivan, 2023 is all about living in the present.
And who could blame her?
The 20-year-old singer-songwriter, who grew up on the Isle of Lewis, is living her teenage dream – playing music in front of people who want to hear it.
With a debut headline tour which stopped off in Dundee’s Hunter S Thompson and ended in Glasgow’s iconic King Tut’s earlier this year, Rosie’s dream became her reality.
But the Edinburgh Napier music student, who Clash called a “beautiful, indie-folk wonder”, is still pinching herself.
“It’s extremely surreal that people want to come and see me,” Rosie admits. “It doesn’t feel like a job yet. Maybe it will one day?”
For now, that day seems a long way off. It’s the night before the release of her first EP, 123° East, when we talk and her fluttering excitement is palpable.
She can’t celebrate too hard, she insists, because the following night she’s playing a show, but her stripped-back, reflective sound and wind-blown aesthetic suggest a quieter kind of celebration would be in store either way.
‘I can’t change it now’
“I’ll be very happy that it’s out in the world,” she muses, “but for me, it’s almost like a chapter is closing.
“It feels like yesterday we were in the studio recording it, and now we’ve done it, and we’re releasing. I can’t change it now, so it’s like, ‘Good luck’!”
However, luck seems low down on Rosie’s list of priorities.
When it comes to making music, she comes across as a grafter, a sensitive soul with a sensible approach.
And despite not knowing exactly who is yet – she’s only 20 after all – she’s wise enough to know she doesn’t know.
“For the first EP, I really did want it to be focused on the guitar and vocals, because it’s the first one – you’ve got time to grow and develop and experiment with different things,” she explains.
She and Glasgow-based producer Ross Hamilton worked together on the record, and while she wrote all her own songs, she credits him for capturing the sound “exactly right”.
“It’s always about experience and last year, when we were recording that first EP, I didn’t know really what I was looking for.
“So I think keeping that true to me, just guitar and vocals with bits of production that help to lift those, that was really important.
“But I think now I’ve had that experience, and every day I’m always learning, it’s nice to branch out and try different things.
“Hopefully people can connect with [the record]. From the gigs and speaking to people, I think a lot of them did, which so warms my heart.”
Surprise fanbase found in City of Discovery
In particular, Rosie found Dundee to be a place full of promise for her. Her tour show was her first in the City of Discovery, and she was overwhelmed with the response.
“I didn’t expect so many people to turn up in a place where I’d never played before,” she reveals with genuine modesty.
“I met lots of new people, which was just lovely, and it was such an intimate venue that the audience and I felt like one whole.”
And though she feels most at home on stage, Rosie’s geographical roots shine through prominently in her work.
“I was brought up on the Isle of Lewis and we lived next to a beach for my whole life,” she explains when I ask about what inspires her.
“On the EP cover, that’s a birds-eye view of the map of the coast where we lived. I think growing up in a very outdoorsy family, I’ve always had an admiration for nature and a love of being outside.
“A lot of my inspiration is taken from that, and some of the songs on the EP follow that pattern.”
After a lifetime of island idyll, moving to Edinburgh to pursue her dream has involved an adjustment to the concrete bustle of city life.
“I need to be going for a walk every day and I need to go and like, sit in a tree and breathe, and then I feel calm again,” she laughs.
‘It’s about living in the moment’
But there’s no hint of looking back from the musician. Instead, Rosie’s determined to focus on what’s right in front of her.
She reveals that her song To Live, which concludes her EP, serves as a reminder to herself to live in the present – and she hopes it chimes with others too.
“It’s a song about living in the moment,” she says. “And when I listen to it, it reminds me of how far I’ve come and to be happy with where I am right then.
“I think oftentimes people forget that, and I need that reminder too.” She pauses, thinking on her own words.
“Maybe I’ll have one glass of prosecco to celebrate!”
Cheers to that.
Rosie H Sullivan will play the Mash House in Edinburgh on April 21. Her debut EP, 123° East, is out now.
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