Interview: Roseblud Talks About the Song "Fluorescent", From His Debut Album "Mood Ring"
Salute to you on the release of your song "Fluorescent", which is featured on your debut album "Mood Ring". What inspired you to create the song and how did you connect with its producer Elujay?
Well when I first met the girl who inspired this album, I had just discovered Elujay’s music and really vibed with it. So I introduced it to her as well the day we met and one of his songs just kind of became “our” song.
I always kind of joked that I’d make a song with him for her one day, and so a year later when I was making my album telling our story, I figured I’d take a chance hitting him up on Instagram, sharing my story and making that song with him. Things fell into place and he got to become a part of the story he helped create. It was an awesome feeling.
If you could select any artist to be on a remix to "Fluorescent", who would it be, and why?
If I could somehow get Smino on the remix that would be my #1 pick. No one else is really doing it like Smino, and he’s just so versatile; he’s energetic when he needs to be, smooth as fuck and just such a dope artist overall. I know the vibe he would bring to the song would be fire.
Tell us about the overall theme of the "Mood Ring" album and how you came up with its concept.
“Mood Ring” is a direct narrative of my time with my toxic ex. She had a girlfriend when we got involved and there were just so many red flags I should’ve acknowledged and left earlier, but I didn’t have the self-love to do that.
“Mood Ring” is about the journey of me finding that self-love and strength to leave someone I loved but was hurting me.
When you are working on new music, what are some things/people/places that inspire your creativity? Also, what do you look for in the production that you choose to write to?
I like to take inspiration from things that have happened in my life. I think the best music is authentic music, and you can’t really connect with people writing about things you’ve never experienced or have any true connection to. So I like write about feelings, cause we all have them, and we’ve all experienced desire, pain, and loneliness, so I want people to be able to hear themselves in the music as well.
For production I don’t feel like I’m too constrained to conventional genre boundaries and I just look for sounds that can better evoke the feeling I’m looking for in whatever song I’m making.
“Mood Ring” was very cinematic, so in making the tracks I worked very closely with my producers to add a lot of sounds like the cello, and upright double bass to add suspense in certain areas and really evoke dramatic feelings. I never chose beats, every song on that album was one I sat down and collaborated with my executive producer John to create.
How/when did you get started writing music? And what do you remember about your first song?
I got into writing poetry when I was 14, but didn’t get into music until I was 15 and my uncle and young cousin died the day after Christmas.
As a child, these were the first real close deaths I’d ever experienced and I turned to music as a way to both cope and honor them. The rose in Roseblud is an acronym for Rise Over Society’s Expectations, and I try to use it as a reminder to be better and do better than what this country expects of a young black man.
With the "Mood Ring" album now released, what are some of your goals musically for this year?
At first I thought I wanted to take a break and just do whatever I wanted aimlessly, releasing “Mood Ring” also felt like releasing the burden of that old relationship, but I’ve realized I do still want to focus my energy on some specific musical projects I’m gonna release later this year.
On the first one I’m leaning more on the side of r&b and neo-soul, but I’m also definitely feeling like I want to release a straight up rap album later this year, and produce most of it myself.