Rosie Lowe premieres new single ‘Pharoah’, second album ‘YU’ details & live shows announced

Rosie Lowe releases incredible new single ‘Pharoah’ today, the second preview of new album ‘YU’ (which is out on May 10^th on Wolf Tone). This follows the success of comeback single ‘Birdsong’, which premiered as Annie Mac’s Hottest Record on Radio 1, was A-Listed on 6Music, Nick Grimshaw’s Track of the Week on Radio 1, and saw Lowe make a return to the live stage with a series of sold-out dates. She has now been confirmed to headline London’s Village Underground on October 23^rd, with further album and live plans for ‘YU’ to follow soon (including Gilles Peterson’s new festival ‘We Out Here’ in August).

‘Pharoah’ not only has the feel of a defining moment for RosieLowe musically, but emotionally too: here is a quiet anthem of empowerment and independence, which arrives alongside a stunning video shot in Kiev by Matilda Finn (Jay Rock, Danny Brown). The track began with a sample from Pharoah Saunders’ ‘Memories of Edith Johnson’, before – says Rosie Pharoah’, I dove deep – “armed with a bounce of the song titled ‘in to Ancient Egyptian symbolism. I was moved by the spells from the book of the dead, which set the lyrical structure on which I built. For me, ‘Pharoah’ is about the power we all hold, the power of our minds and how we can only be as big as we allow ourselves to be. The song became a positive mantra to myself and I find myself singing it in my weaker moments.”

Like sumptuous first single ‘Birdsong’, ‘Pharoah was produced alongside Rosie’s chief collaborator on ‘YU’, Dave Okumu (The Invisible, Grace Jones, Jessie Ware). Dave first became aware of ‘Memories of Edith Johnson’ when he was invited to take part in ‘Played Twice’, a night at Brilliant Corners where the audience listens to a record in its entirety before witnessing a live interpretation. “As I inevitably lost myself in the spiritual depths of this music,” he remembers, “I became totally fixated by the expressive, wailing voices on the record. I tried to channel them with my guitar playing, to surrender to a state of meditative freedom. When we went about making a track based on this later on, Rosie responded to the feeling instantly, and we set about permitting ourselves to hear the song that was nascent within that improvisation. She took a long time to emerge and what came out I think is extraordinary. Ro has done it in a way that only she could, following her own distinctive path rather than conforming to the modes of others. And to add icing to the cake, ‘Pharoah’ contains a sample of that live performance from Brilliant Corners which kicked the whole journey off.”  

‘Pharoah’ is another fascinating glimpse into Rosie Lowe’s second album, ‘YU’ – a record that asks bigger questions of how the heart and mind works, and in part finds the power of that chorus through opening up both. It’s a work that casts Lowe – a songwriter, producer, multi-instrumentalist, radio DJ and trainee psychotherapist – as a true polymath, who has gathered an extraordinary cast around her. With guests ranging from Jay Electronica, Jamie Woon, Jamie Lidell, Kwabs and Jordan Rakei to the leading lights across the contemporary jazz and dance scenes (Sam Shephard, Gwilym Gold), at the centre of extraordinarily intimate analysis.

As much as it explores new sounds and stories, ‘YU’ also sees Rosie Lowe look back on her life, and all those things that make ‘YU’. She grew up as one of six kids in rural Devon, havinglearnt the saxophone young (which she still plays and adores) and been exposed to a broad mix of soul, jazz, funk and R&B; influences which come to glorious fruition on her second album, where inspiration ranges from Childish Gambino, Gabrielle Garzon Montano and Erykah Badu to childhood heroes like Ella Fitzgerald or Charlie Parker. Lowe realisedearly on, too, that love was a fragile, difficult thing, her parents splitting up when she was young resulting in living between homes. Time spent at Goldsmiths and later working behind the scenes at big labels reinforced Rosie’s need to operate outside of the regular rules (whether in relationships, or making music). Her debut record, the acclaimed ‘Control’, saw Lowe stride out alone, tackling politics, feminism and the self. ‘YU’, in contrast, “is about other. I wanted to write about my experience of sharing my life with another as a lover, friend and partner.”

Despite its richly classic feel, what’s emerged on ‘YU’ is an album on thoroughly modern, twenty-first-century love: its childhood myths and more pragmatic realities, itsutopiasand difficult weathers. Those moments when you find out how you are, who you are, and if you’re brave enough, you let it all bleed through. On her stunning second album, ‘YU’, Rosie Lowe has just done that – one listen to ‘Pharoah’, and you’ll feel that power too.

October 23 || London || Village Underground

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WATCH the ‘Pharoah’ video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KS7JCkglo7I