Earlier this month, Aotearoa's award-winning R&B-infused pop artist Georgia Lines released her debut album, 'The Rose Of Jericho'.
The Breakthrough Artist Of The Year at the 2022 Aotearoa Music Awards (which she followed up last year with a Best Pop Artist nomination alongside Lorde and BENEE), Lines has already opened for international acts George Ezra and Pentatnoix in her homeland.Earlier this year, she showcased at SXSW in America gaining 5-star reviews. 'The Rose Of Jericho' is Georgia's crowning achievement in her short career. Magic, nostalgic charm, musical depth and an incredible vulnerability is encapsulated within the album.
It's an immersive experience; sonically creating a sense of both old and new, through moments of whimsical strings and soaring melodies, piano ballads and sparkling synths, stacked harmonies and hook-laden choruses.
"'The Rose Of Jericho' is a flower that can survive in the desert; it can endure months of dehydration," shares Georgia. "However, when it is put back into water, it comes back to life.
"The name felt like the perfect way to signify my journey, one that I will look back on in 20 years' time and see the collection of songs, 'The Rose Of Jericho', as the time when I wrote an album that helped me heal, process, and brought me back to life.
"I have always felt this deep pull, almost a weight or responsibility as an artist to write from a place of honesty and vulnerability. To create art that comes from a place of depth and meaning, in hope that it would mean something deeply to me, and to those who listen; which is both exciting and absolutely terrifying.
"The past few years have been some of the hardest years of my life. Ones that have been full of grief, loss and pain. As I have allowed myself to sit in those spaces and brave the fears of voicing the pain, I've written this album, which I am deeply proud of."
Here, Georgia shares stories and memories from the writing and recording process of 'The Rose Of Jericho'.
Grow Old Without You
'Grow Old Without You' was written in LA with Leroy Clampitt on my very first writing trip to the US back in 2022 and produced with Nic Manders here in NZ while recording the album in 2023.I had been incredibly inspired by many old Disney movies I had been watching over the last few years. I loved how, at the beginning of most of those films ('Alice In Wonderland', 'Snow White' etc.), there is often a beautiful orchestral opening with the opening credits, which mesmerised me.
Starting the album with this song and having the Disney-inspired strings was an intentional choice, especially knowing the world I wanted this album to live in.
The Letter
'The Letter' was also written on the same trip in November 2022 to the USA, but with Whakaio Taahi and Ricky Manning. I loved the idea of writing a heavily vocal/ piano-focused track that had a huge crescendo as the song came to its close.The original vocal that we captured on the day of writing the track is actually the final vocal that we used on the album. I really felt like the emotion captured on the demo was exactly as it needed to be.
Say You Still
'Say You Still' has been living in my Dropbox folder of song possibilities for the last few years and finally has found its home on the album. I love the nod to Fleetwood Mac and that the dropout in the bridge doesn't happen straight away. The stacked vocals and harmonies in the bridge are one of my favourite parts of that song.Wayside
'Wayside' was the second song written with Leroy Clampitt a few months after our initial session for 'Grow Old...' when I returned to the USA in early 2023. We wrote this on the piano and instantly felt excited by the simplicity of the chorus, feeling it was such a singable hook for people.Distance
When Nic and I began dreaming up what I wanted this album to be and to feel like, one of the things we talked about was the feeling we wanted to create within each song. I imagined sitting inside, looking out a window and watching the rain fall.Every time I hear this song, I think about that conversation and the feeling we created through the different sonic textures of the song. The ocean sound that is threaded throughout the song is actually a sample I recorded on my iPhone months earlier on a sunrise beach walk in my home town, which I love that it lives forever on my album.
