Photo by Jason Siegel
This last year has brought about some pretty big changes for the Denver-based band Rose Quartz. Since a name change and doubling the size of the band from a duo to a four-piece live outfit, they were invited to tour with St. Lucia, open for some big names on the Indie dance circuit like Cut/Copy, participate in Red Bull’s national “Sound Select” artist program, and they released their first official EP Axis of Love. With no time to rest after having just come off their 2015 US spring tour, these guys are moving with no signs of slowing down anytime soon.
Ten year old writer Phoenix Miller of Denver Writes sat down with Rose Quartz’s Alex Anderson to learn a little bit more about what they’ve been up to and where they’re hoping to go!
Phoenix Miller: How did you come up with the band’s name?
Alex Anderson: The band’s name came out because it’s named after the rose quartz stone; it’s the stone of unconditional love. We make music because we love it unconditionally. It just seemed like a good fit. Also, the lead singer’s father is a geologist and it’s one of his favorite stones. So, it had a nice ring to it and kind of fit the reason behind us playing music.
PM: How would you describe your sound?
AA: I usually describe it as electronic Pop music with a Soul influence. How’s that for short and to the point?
PM: Who would you count as major influences on your band?
AA: Major influences would go to all the Pop and Soul gods of yesteryear. David Bowie and the old people like James Brown and Sam Cooke, and then all of the new Pop music that’s going on as well as the Alternative Punk Rock stuff. So, just kind of all over. We take a lot of influence from music of different times and different places, I guess. David Bowie, and Hall & Oates are big ones. The Gap Band is also another big one that we listen to. We’re listening to a lot of old stuff now and trying to make it current.
PM: How did you guys get started playing together?
AA: The singer and I started playing together three of four years ago. We were in two separate projects. We were focusing a lot of effort on two different projects and it seemed like a waste of time when we only were putting fifty-percent of each of our efforts into each other’s project so we just decided to combine them and put one hundred percent of both of our efforts into one project. We met through the music scene in Denver and then I’ve known the other two guys in the band, who just joined about six months ago, since college. We’ve wanted to play music together forever, and finally we were able to make it work.
PM: Where was your first gig together and how did it go?
AA: The first gig of this now four-person band was at the Ogden Theatre where we opened for a band called Cut/Copy. It was huge. There were a lot of people there and we had only been rehearsing for about a month. So, it was very nerve-racking but also exciting to show all of our friends and all of these people this thing that we’ve been working on so hard. We were able to give people a glimpse of what was to come for the next few years, as far as what we’re pushing for.
PM: Did the gig go well?
AA: Yeah, it went really well! There were no train wrecks. We didn’t mess anything up too, too bad, and the people at the show seemed to enjoy themselves. We had a smile when we got off the stage. I think that’s the most important part that we’re always smiling.
PM: Have you been working on any new material lately?
AA: Yes. We are working on a new record. It will be our first full-length record. Everything we have released so far has just been in 3-song segments and so now we’re going to be working on more of like an 8-12 song thing. We just started three weeks ago when we got off of our last tour.
PM: What is your favorite venue in Colorado and why?
AA: Favorite venue to play or favorite venue to go watch music at?
PM: To play.
AA: Favorite place to play that I have played so far? It’s a hard question but I love playing the Bluebird. We always love playing the Bluebird. I’d say it’s our favorite place to play. I’ve been going to the Bluebird Theater since I was probably 13-years-old and the Ogden as well, so it’s just been really cool that we get to play there.
PM: Why did you want more members in your band and how did it change your sound?
AA: We wanted more members in the band because we wanted to have more fun. When it came to just the two of us playing live, there were a lot of reserved feelings and it was just a little bit harder to bring the energy on stage. We didn’t have a live drummer, and live drums add a lot. We decided to add real drums and then a guitar player, and then I decided to play bass to keep my hands busy and have more fun. It’s a lot more fun to look over and see three of your friends smiling then to just see one of your friends smiling.
The energy is a lot higher on stage when you have that many people. It’s really affected the sound in making us sound more like a traditional band. We don’t sound as much like an electronic production anymore. We sound a lot more like the bands we’ve loved forever, so we’re really happy with the change.
PM: What do you like to do when you’re not playing and why?
AA: We love swimming. Swimming is one of the most fun things you can do as far as going to a neighborhood pool and just riding down the slide or jumping in or going to WaterWorld and riding on the slides. I grew up swimming; I was on the swim team. I was a diver. I grew up doing flips off of rocks and stuff, so that’s always been a big part of my life and it’s been a big thing that we all like to do together.
Other than that, we just like to hang out with each other and experience new places. That’s been the fun thing about touring is that we’ve all gone to states and cities that we’ve never been to together, and we’ve gotten to explore and eat great food and hang out.
PM: What is the most outlandish thing that your band would consider putting in their backstage rider?
AA: At one point, I wanted to put a life-size cutout of Michael Jordan in the rider because that would be a good way for me to know whether or not people can tell if it’s my rider. So, yeah, I think we could stick with that one. Either that or a baby pool because we like swimming so much that we’d like to be able to do that in the green room.
PM: What is the most embarrassing experience you’ve had on stage?
AA: Embarrassing moment on stage? Let me think. I don’t know if it’s embarrassing as much as it’s, well, it’s embarrassing. We’ve had some technical issues go on. We use a computer when we play and we rely on the computer heavily. It’s like the fifth member of the band. If the computer doesn’t work correctly then it’s kind of embarrassing.
We were playing in Jacksonville, Florida to a crowd who was not the nicest of crowds to begin with. We started the very last song, and for some reason it just stopped during the intro. We played five seconds of the song and it stopped. So we stopped. We tried to play it again, and it stopped again. So, we just stopped. Our last song was only five seconds long and we left. That was kind of embarrassing because we couldn’t win the situation. There was no way we could get out of it. It was like, “OK, well, that’s the end of it.” We cut our losses on that one. That’s probably the most embarrassing thing so far.
Technical difficulties are really hard and we’ve been reading a lot about bands that use computers and electronics, and it is the downfall of everyone. Everybody has problems, so everybody is on the mission to find a new way of performing and using electronics that won’t lend itself to so much error.
ROSE QUARTZ
Saturday, May 23rd
Champa St. Stage
4:55 – 5:55 PM
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