Philadelphia Globe: How was the music scene in Western Mass?
Anjali Rose: Western Mass’s music scene, as well as Hampshire College, inspired me to get into music. I really fucked with the DIY ethos that a lot of artists lived by in that area in the sense that things were quirky, messy and there was room to learn and express yourself authentically.
It’s only 2 hours from Boston and 3 or 4 hours from New York City, but it’s also a place distinct from most urban areas I know. There’s a lot of hills and nature over there which I found really grounding and inspiring. There were also different house shows set up in people’s basements around Amherst and Northampton, like The Red Cross, Asbestos Farm, or Tube Cats. Those were my favorite places to play.
I still have a lot of love for that place and at times wonder if I will return to live there.
PG: You say “Splendor Never Ends” deals with themes taken from your personal experience of transitioning out of college into the working adult world with expectations to satiate the ideals of your family. Can you elaborate? How do you feel now about your personal journey?
AR: “Splendor Never Ends” sounds like a conversation with a partner that I’m obsessed with and torturing myself over to achieve the “splendor” of our imaginary future in this fake garden of monogamy, marriage, nuclear families and financial stability.
I wrote this with Eli Catlin and Emma Sevine when I was graduating college, going to job interviews, trying to figure out how to manage all the things I wanted to do (which has really just been music and art) and then all the things I thought I should do. The song sort of meshes this chaos of sounds and words to express the rather confusing and exhausting time that period was in my life. However, there’s also a lot of play and fun to that song, we were hoping for it to be one people could dance to!
Now I have embraced that I’m an artist and I am even at the point where I am like, “yeah you can and should learn how to make money off of this so you can spend less time doing other jobs and more time doing this”, but that’s going to take a while though.
I am ironically in a partnership with someone at the moment but was and still express interest in polyamorous lifestyles because I think feeling pushed into monogamy is part of what drives the obsessive nature of the partnerships I was reflecting on while writing the lyrics for “Splendor Never Ends.”