Great to hear the inspiration, process and back stories from Mama Rose for her upcoming video (Sweet Waters – on Feb 19 at noon – check out premiere here!) and album release for Drink More Water.
Mama Rose is a spiritual person, someone who listens to the wisdom of water and that brings a great depth to her music. That depth is the common thread to her new album – as she brings a range of genres from hip hop, to jazz, to folk and I might even say a little undercurrent of hymn with Sweet Waters. Fascinating to hear Mama Rose talk about the album and the focus on water as working with water as a way to balance the masculine energy of do with the feminine energy of receive. She demonstrated the balance in the creation of Flood, a song that began from a free style session with producer Jason Faye and her musical and life partner, TomTom. Amazing to hear about the ability to let go, live in the moment and create something so beautiful.
We talked about Choose, a song with a hip hop sound that calls the listener to action. Calls us all to think about what we can do to make our world better and then do it. Mama Rose listened to the call herself when she realized that the album is coming out on the anniversary (9 years) of the murder of Trayvon Martin. She is leaning into it. She has created a t-shirt with Choose on the front and a line from the song on the back, which she will be selling to benefit Circle of Mothers, part of the Trayvon Martin Foundation, created to bring together mothers and families who have lost children to gun violence. She is collaborating with the Twin Cities Dance Crew, letting them create the video for the song.
We also spoke about a very personal song, Faithful. It retells a difficult time in Mama Rose’s life when she met someone who she connected with on many levels – artistically and more. Unfortunately she was in another relationship at the time but could not look away from a feeling that she should be with the other partner. She spoke with both of them recognizing the difficulty with integrity. She sought answers in polyamory, learned a lot and eventually made the stronger connection to the new partner.
Finally we talked about how to live that balance of do and receive. A great lesson she shared was to recognize that we can only do so much in any single moment – yet know that small actions make a different – for example – Drink More Water!
Mostly Minnesota 