IN CONVERSATION WITH KENT'S YOSHE ROSE…
Medway’s Yoshe Rose on her desire to fly the flag for modern British R&B as well as give a tribute to her gospel roots
In breakout single Summer Darling, Rainham’s YOSHE ROSE sonically delivered the sunshine moments and warm feeling that encapsulate the middle months of the year. With YOSHE’s desire to fly the flag for modern British R&B as well as give a tribute to her gospel roots, we are expecting a big 12 months ahead for her heavenly vocals. We caught up with YOSHE to find out more.
For people discovering your music for the first time, how would you describe it?
I would always say I’m under the umbrella of R&B, but it could be Afro R&B, it could be like pop R&B, neo soul, or it could be Christian R&B. The umbrella is always gonna be R&B, but within that they’re just gonna have different facets. So right now we’re working on, like, a Christian RnB song. I don’t think I’m ever going to be ready to say ‘This is just what I do’. I want to showcase the fact that I can make all types of music and enjoy doing it.
Do you have a range of musical influences?
From childhood it would be India Arie, Musiq Soulchild and Angie Stone. But I think in more recent times it’s new-school R&B, so it’s Jaz Karis, Tiana Major9 and Jvck James.
It’s great to be inspired by old school, but I think we need to really recognise that new-school R&B in the UK is really taking it right now. It’s very much in safe hands!
I can see that real songwriting is coming back - people are going back to being honest in their feelings and their intentions and really telling stories. Jaz Karis just dropped a dope first album and it was great. So yeah, it’s kind of great to stand among people that are doing some real music, and especially in this era of, you know, fast-paced and fast-food music. I think it’s great to have some soul food.
So it’s important to be influenced by the modern R&B scene as well as the older stuff.
I think a lot of people are too nostalgic. It’s like they want to make music from the 90s and 2000s and it’s, like, ‘No, you can be inspired by that music, but we’re very much in the 2020s and that’s not going to change’. We need to make it appropriate to the time that we’re in. Especially because we’re British, that’s one thing I really like to highlight. Like I get that it’s great to be influenced by Americans, but we are British and I think we need to fly that flag as high as we possibly can because we have a lot to offer on our side.
It’s been a great couple of months for you, with Summer Darling already having 18k hits on Spotify…
Very, very much so. This year, my objective was really just to solidify myself as an artist and I feel like I’ve done that. I never expected Summer Darling to do what it did in the time it has, but I’m grateful because it’s just a testament to the fact that it’s a vibe. It’s a song that I’m proud of and, even though it does say ‘summer’ and is kind of season-specific, I still pray that it will last the test of time. My prayer is it gets to 20k hits before the end of the year but also just allows more people to discover me and allows them to relive their summer experiences... and then hopefully next summer it has a whole new resurgence and we do it all over again.
Where do you think people are finding your music?
It’s definitely playlisting and radio. I realised Apple Music now does this new thing where it kind of shows you who’s been playing you. There was one time when I had 600 plays on Summer Darling and I realised that a radio station in America had spun me, and I had more than 100 Shazams as well, which was great. I also think SubmitHub is great - I never really liked the idea of paying for playlisting.
With this you’re just submitting your music to a group of playlists and then they decide whether they want to play or not - rather than having to playlist your song because you’ve paid them. I like that authenticity about it.
So are you writing and creating a lot of music at the moment?
Right now I’m just trying to figure out how to market myself. I’m trying to figure out what my niche is. I will release another single before the year is out. The plan was to release an EP, but I just don’t think I’m ready to release the EP. I don’t think I have a solid enough fan base that’s really going to take in an EP. So I think for the rest of the year I’m going to really focus on one or two song releases and focus on the best way to market those and then come out the gate swinging with an EP next year.
Are you a person who has always been interested in music and singing? You know, singing in the mirror as a kid?
Singing in the mirror, singing in church with my mum… I have the typical story of I’m a gospel baby. So I grew up in church and I grew up singing with my mum, and it went from singing with my mum and my mum leading me, to me leading my mom and then leading church choirs and leading school choir. Then it was me branching away from gospel and going into R&B, to now me coming back to gospel. It’s kind of like a full circle.
When did you start writing songs?
I started off writing spoken word and poetry and then naturally that kind of pivoted into writing songs. My only regret when it comes to music is that I didn’t start it sooner. But I think everything happens for a reason because I don’t think I would have had the confidence. But now that I do, and now that I’m wiser, smarter, older, I think I have what I need to navigate the industry and I’m just grateful for that, to be honest.
Are you doing this part-time with other work?
Yeah, I’m using my nine-to-five to fund my music and that’s what I’m going to be for the foreseeable future, but it’s kind of like just treating the music as also a job.
So I’ve basically got two jobs, that’s my mentality, but one job is just way more fun than the other.
Have you got a dream collaboration to get in a studio with and create?
I have a book at home that I wrote about it because there’s so many different people for so many different reasons. But if I was to pick one person, it would be tendai. He is really, really dope. He just released the album The Rain. It’s like 25 minutes long and has 10 songs and is so digestible, so emotive. So I would say in recent times, tendai. But I think my dream collaboration would genuinely be with India Arie.
I definitely want to get into songwriting and collaborations and to songwrite for other artists. So that’s something that in 2025 I’m really hoping to explore.
