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Singer Rozzi Talks Her Upcoming Album & Experience Working With Adam Levine (Exclusive Q&A)

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Without a doubt, 2018 is going to be the year for Rozzi Crane. Having already released two incredible songs this year, the pop singer will be releasing her first full-length album in the coming months. And she’s no newcomer to the entertainment industry. Since her discovery by Adam Levine in 2009, Crane has worked as background singer, toured with bands including Gavin DeGraw and Owl City and had multiple songs featured in films.

Her Campus spoke with Crane about her musical influences, her work with Adam Levine and her experience studying music in college.

Her Campus: Within the first two months of 2018, you released two beautiful singles, “Uphill Battle” and “Never Over You.” How do these songs compare to the album you’ll be releasing the rest of the year? Is there an overarching message or style you’re trying to weave throughout all of your music?

Rozzi Crane: They definitely represent the vibe of the rest of the music. There are different shades of emotion throughout the album. For example, you haven't heard any of the breakup songs yet, and those get even more personal and more emotional. I would say that the general overarching theme—maybe the surface level theme—is that most of the songs are about falling in love and then having my heart broken. It's pretty much a relationship-focused album, but that's not how I quite would describe it.

To me, the songs really represent me kind of growing up and figuring out who I am it. It feels more like a coming-of-age album to me because so much of my experience in the past couple of years is about getting in touch with who I am and my point-of-view and what I want to say and how I want to say. Yes, a lot of these songs were immediately inspired by heartbreak, but growing up there were of female empowerment songs that were about not needing a man. I feel like these days we don't need that as much. What I need to hear now is "Of course, I don't need a man. That's obvious. But maybe I still want one." It's about me figuring that out and understanding that maybe that's okay—to want a relationship without needing one.

HC: You’ve worked extensively with Adam Levine in the past. Can you tell us about the first time you met him?

RC: The first time he actually had emailed me. I received his email when I was at a college party. He wrote, "I don't have a label, but I'll start one if you'll be the first artist." Then, we spoke on the phone the next day and caught up a little bit. The first time I met him in person was on set at the first season of "The Voice." I was just crazy nervous with my friends from USC. We were just in the trailer. But most of our relationship before that was just texting.

 

2.9.18

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HC: What’s the best piece of advice he ever gave you?

RC: There's a lot of specific performance or songwriting things. I remember with a song called "Half a Man," and I was doing rewrites on it. He was the one who said, "You want your chorus to lift" and gave a melodic idea that led to the chorus being what it is. He also watched me perform as a guest artist on "The Voice." Obviously, I was never a contestant, but I remember him saying to me, "It's great to have plan and moves on stage, but you want it to go naturally. You don't have to do the exact same thing every time. You can be more free." I remember little things like that.

The biggest lessons I took away from it were more from just watching him. He is just a fiery performer, and I learned a lot just from watching him every single night on tour and literally having to keep up with him on stage when I would sing duets with him. I learned how to be energetic, how to be entertaining and how to keep an audience's attention.

HC: Who would you like to collaborate with in the future? Why?

RC: I would love to collaborate with Justin Vernon and Chris Stapleton. They're just two of my favorite songwriters and favorite voices. They're very different from me, and all of us are in different genres, but they're so soulful. I feel like this is probably a crazy thing to say because they're famous Grammy-winning artists, but I feel like we'd click.

HC: What type of music did you grow up listening to? Has it influenced your current style?

RC: I grew up listening to an eclectic mix of music, which is kind of the same as now. I do think all of it has influenced my current sound. I always loved beautiful voices. My mom listened to Eva Cassidy, who I think has seeped into my skin from a young age. She just has a way of singing that's so beautiful. I also always loved country music from a young age. I lost my love of country and now I'm back in love with country. I was obsessed with the Dixie Chicks, and Shania Twain. I also loved The Supremes and Fleetwood Mac, and with my dad I listened to classic rock, like The Beatles and Neil Young. The truth is when I look back at it, they're all really great songwriters and really great lyricists, which would make sense because I love lyrics. It's my favorite part of songwriting.

 

We played "Never Over You" live in Capitol Studios. Link in my bio!

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HC: You attended the Thornton School of Music at University of Southern California. What’s the most valuable lesson you took away from it?

RC: I was in this music program at USC, and I remember this performance class that we all took. Basically, we were put into bands and learned cover songs. I remember the teachers would always talk to the instrumentalists and tell them to play the record exactly the same. If the guitar player was learning a Heart song, they'd have to play the guitar part exactly like the record, but they would never say that to the singers. With the singers for some reason, it's more like "Do you! What's your style? Express yourself."

It's great to have your own sound and your own style, but I remember having a little bit of an a-ha moment when I was 18 or 19: I was like, "Oh! If I learn all the vocals on this record to the degree the guitar players learn the guitar part or the drummers learn the drum parts, then I'll be able to sing whatever I want. If I can sing anything Heart can sing or Jill Scott can sing or Beyonce or Aretha Franklin or whomever, if I can learn their albums —I used to learn live albums note for note to do it exactly like them, so when I was singing my songs, I could have a bunch of options. I guess my biggest lesson is learning how to sing like an instrumentalist learns how to play their instrument.

HC: What advice would you give a young woman who isn’t sure whether studying music in college is the right decision for her?

RC: Well if they're not sure, here's the thing I tell people. If you want to be an artist, you have to really really know in your gut that there's nothing else in your gut that you could be happy doing. It's really hard. It's painful because you're so emotionally connected to your career, and it's such a challenging career. If you could see yourself doing something else and be happy, I would say do something else. If you can be happy doing something else with a more traditional path, go be happy. Being an artist breaks your heart all the time.

For me, there's nothing else I could do. It's just my calling. It's what I was born to do, and I love it too much. All of the hardship is just worth it for me, so I guess I don't know if that's a downer, but I'll say this. If you know that this is what you were born to do and in your gut you it's what's going to make you happiest, then by all means. It is my life and my purpose, and I wouldn't trade it for anything. If you have that feeling—yes—study it!

Check out Rozzi's single "Never Over You" out now & follow @hercampus on twitter for more music news.


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