Ears Wide Open: Rodes Rollins

0
Rodes Rollins
Rodes Rollins

Bicoastal singer Rodes Rollins grew up in Boulder, Colo., spent time living in Buenos Aires and Mexico City and conceived her first single, “Young & Thriving,” on a summer’s night in Los Angeles. Rollins’ dreamy vocals have the sound of a cassette tape left in the sun too long, or the filmic feel of a vision seen through shimmering heat waves — appropos for her second single, the spaghetti Western-flavored “Wes Come Back,” imagined around a New Mexico desert campfire and released last week. Both will appear on her debut EP, “Young Adult,” which the singer says “centers around the formative experiences of my youth.” Produced by Alex Goose (Kevin Gates, Weezer) and featuring Stella Mozgawa on drums, “Young & Thriving” captured the fancy of pop fans when it arrived late last year. The new single, with Matthew Compton of Electric Guest playing drums, is a paean to Rollins’ young love. “For a long time, during our adolescent years, our lives were very much intertwined,” Rollins says of Wes. “I think that’s why it’s so easy for me to write songs about him. There’s a lot of raw and real material for me to talk draw upon. I don’t feel that way about all of my songs. But when I write about him, I feel like I’m genuinely telling a story.”

||| Stream: “Wes Come Back” and “Young & Thriving”