Rosie and The Goldbug

Dot to Dot Festival - Thekla

Rosie & The Goldbug are a band from deepest, prettiest Cornwall, brought together in 2007 as kindred spirits to bring their audiences powerful and emotive yet huge pop songs.

Fronted by intoxicatingly voiced Rosie Vanier on vocals and keys and backed by the imaginatively named Pixie (bass) and Plums (drums) who make up The Goldbug, their name alone conjures up the imagery of what fairytales are made of. 

Their show at the Dot to Dot festival in Bristol was as interesting as the venue in which they played, which was in fact a ship moored in aptly titled Mud Dock. Rosie worked her stage and audience exuding confidence as she performed songs including the beautiful yet resilient “butterfly” and the electro influenced “Heartbreak”.  Assisted by mesmerising drum playing courtesy of Plums and huge bass lines from Pixie, their fabulously kitsch coordinating outfits complimented them perfectly as a group. 

We got the opportunity to have a quick chat with the group who have been described as sounding like “Kate Bush on Crack” outside the Thekla before they rushed off to Dorchester for the next leg of their mini tour.  Their “Camel Tours” bus had been defaced with the word “toe” written in eyeliner by Rosie,to make it the “camel toe” tour bus. It’s the little things that bring so much entertainment when you’re a band on the road! 

4TR - A lot of people came to the Thekla to watch Rosie & The Goldbug tonight,  how was it for you?

Rosie – I loved it, absolutely loved it! It was so much fun.

Pixie – It was my favourite gig for a while actually.

Plums - Yeah definitely, but I also hurt my hand!

Pixie – [laughing] I always get pleasure from Plums getting pain on stage

4TR – Oh no, what happened?

[Plums shows me her hand with a teeny plaster on it]

Plums – I hurt it on stage with my sticks.  I hit the drums and I peeled some skin off which was nice! 

Rosie - It was a great gig though wasn’t it?  It’s always a challenge when you play for people who don’t know our music, especially because we don’t have a single or an album out yet. 

Plums – Yeah its kind of a bit weird for people who haven’t heard anything we have done before.

Rosie – So just by seeing the band live its absolutely great, especially if they really enjoy it and stick around till the end. 

Plums – it’s a bit like you having to prove yourself to them first and it seemed a lot of people liked us tonight. 

Pixie – But we were lucky also because the venue is a bit of an inspiration as well really isn’t it!

4TR –The Thekla is a cool venue!  Haveyou ever played in a boat before?

Pixie - Never in my life.  Well not music, I’ve played about on a boat before! [laughing]

4TR - So you are currently on tour in the UK?

Rosie - Yeah it’s basically festival tours and lots of gigs like that.  We have a few of our own shows back in Cornwall and we did our own show at the Hoxton Bar and Grill the other day.  That was quite a challenge because again, not many people knew us but it turned out really well and was a good gig.

4TR –It’s notoriously quite a difficult crowd there!  

Rosie - Yeah it is, because they are so cool aren’t they and you have to work so hard but it was great and we really enjoyed it.

4TR –So when are Rosie & The Goldbug going to release a single or an album?

Rosie - We have a single out on the 14^thJuly

Plums - And an album on September the 15^th

Pixie - It’s the 8^th isn’t it? The day after Bestival I think

Rosie - I think the single is out then and the album is out at the end of the month.

4TR - What is the single called?

Rosie – “War of the roses”.  It was the second one we played in the set tonight and we are putting that out on our own label that we have set up called “Lover Records”.  It has been a bit of a journey actually doing that because I didn’t realise how much hard work it was. Its like you hear about bands setting up their own labels all the time, but this has been full on hasn’t!

Pixie – Well it means you have to do everything yourself.

Rosie - And we do! We do absolutely everything, even down to the artwork; we are doing that at the moment.  And we sit down with our manager plotting our tours and stuff like that. Everything is down to us, but its good for us to learn about different aspects.

Plums – It also means we know exactly what’s going on and we are not just being told what to do all the time.

4TR -Is that what drove you establish your own label? 

Rosie - It was really.  I am a bit of a control freak, so itwas nice to make sure I have got 100% control over my art, and our art.  It is, I think, for me a major thing.  I feel like we are doing something quite original.  I think  it would be quite easy for a label to just come along and go “can you be a bit more like this or that” or something along those lines, so it’s nice to be able to just stick with our own thing. 

Pixie – Yeah we can leave it up to the cow god or whatever it is.

Rosie – Hahaha the cow god, what’s that?

Pixie – [making the speech marks actions] you know what I mean, you can’t hear that on there can you?

Plums - You kind of feel like you have earned everything that you get when it happens, because you have been involved in every aspect of the band. 

Rosie - Yeah you do actually.  But the only thing is when it goes wrong its all our fault as well [laughing]

Pixie - Which hurts more than ever.

4TR -Are you appearing at any other festivals this summer?

Pixie – Well we have one in Dorchester tomorrow. 

Rosie – And we are playing at Sound City in Liverpool and also Latitude, the Shambarla festival and Bestival on the BBC Introducing Stage.

Pixie - And back to Cornwall for Beach Breaks.

Rosie – Of course and for the Rip Curl Boardmasters festival.  Our agent is stillgetting us a few at the moment so we are not sure what else we are going to get but it was a bit of a huge achievement to get Bestival and Latitude.

4TR –Absolutely and all of those dates will be a nice little build up to the single release!

Rosie - Yes definitely.  I mean we are not obviously on the mainstage or anything but just to be able to play at those festivals is amazing, just a dream come true.  Like even just doing this little tour is a dream come true.

Pixie - We don’t ever want to go home actually! 

4TR –you guys sound like you are having a great time!

Rosie - It just makes so much sense doing this and doing what we are doing, through performing.  So yeah we love it!

Check out Rosie & the Goldbug

www.myspace.com/rosieandthegoldbug

www.rosieandthegoldbug.com

Single – “War of the Roses” is out on July 14^th on Lover Records available to download on i-tunes.

Interview by Francesca Strange

Megan
Posts: 1

Rosie and the Goldbug
Reply #1 on : Mon June 08, 2009, 13:11:13

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I LOVE this band!!!!
Their music is awsome and can't wait for their 2nd album to come out!!!!!!

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