Claude Releases New Single 'roses'

Claude-the Chicago based existential dream pop solo project of Claudia Ferme-today shared "roses", their second and final single off their upcoming debut full-length, a lot's gonna change, produced with Michael Mac (Tenci, Tasha, Devin Shaffer, Mia Joy) and out August 12th, 2022 via American Dreams Records.

The single "roses" arrives alongside a Reilly Drew-directed music video, which premiered via FLOOD Magazine.

On the track, Claude issued the following statement: "'roses' was inspired by a line in Love in the Time of Cholera where the protagonist starts eating flowers and roses because of how obsessed with someone he is. I think in the novel it's supposed to symbolize how his obsession became all-consuming but I thought about a rose and the thorns on its stem and how someone eating a rose was a perfect metaphor for how as humans we're so self-torturous, mentally and emotionally, and very unforgiving of ourselves. In the video, we wanted to show this imagery in a more abstract way while still including actual roses - I made the purple top and gray dress and am wearing other pieces that have peaks and spikes and that play with the making and release of tension to show the back and forth we have with ourselves in certain situations."

Following Claude's Enactor EP from late 2021 (which earned attention from Paste Magazine, Chicago Reader, Vanyaland, Chicago Tribune, American Songwriter, among others), Claude's first full-length has been a long time in the making, with sketches of songs happening as early as 2017. Since then, she's refined her craft - words, melodies, and sound - crystallizing in this collection, buttressed by woozy, lush production from Windy City producer Michael Mac. It's an evocative, relatable assemblage, detailing the peaks and pitfalls of early adult life, all the while maintaining a sense of humor, a bit of hope, and lots of earworms.

Writing a lot's gonna change was straightforward. Where Claude's past music was built on intentionally constructed worlds, lacing social commentary within pop constraints, a lot's gonna change is both introspective and expansive, rooted in real-life experience while crossing new musical territory. Claude relies on intuition to write: "I don't like sitting and thinking, like, today I'm gonna write a song! It has to come naturally." This visceral writing style can be sensed in her music, which is both charged with raw emotion and settled in its urgency.

a lot's gonna change incorporates many modes of pop music, making for a dynamic, invigorating listen. "Pop can encompass a lot," Claude says, "and I like that: song structures that are even and catchy; even if the songs aren't fast-paced, stuff sticks in your mind." On "roses," Claude's winding vocal melody traces the evolution of a perspective change with floral synths and spiky percussion.

She explains: "the way we torture ourselves or are not very kind to ourselves, and how that manifests in certain situations we're in. Going through something and realizing, maybe I'm not the person that I thought I was." Elsewhere, rich arrangements adorn "twenty something" ("I'd rather be hurt by my own doing / than be let down by someone else / At least that's what I tell myself"), "claustrophobia," and "meet me," songs that track anxiety, hope, and emotional distance.

Your twenties are hard. It's the first decade you're expected to be an adult, and often the decade where you first establish your own priorities. It's where you do a whole lot of growth, too, and on a lot's gonna change, this maturation can be witnessed in both the words and sonics. Rarely do growing pains sound so sweet.

a lot's gonna change is out August 12th, 2022 and is available to preorder from American Dreams Records here.

Watch the new music video here: