Alessi Rose wants to be the next pop girlie

When Alessi Rose was a teenager, the height of embarrassment was to be seen by your mates as ​“pursuing something”. For the Derby-born musician, that meant uploading short clips of herself singing to Instagram. So, she blocked her entire year group from watching her stories.

“I’d seen Gracie Abrams do the same thing, and I loved the way she wrote,” Alessi says, in-between packing for an upcoming holiday to Mexico. ​“At the time, posting my own videos felt so cringe. I had no industry knowledge and didn’t think I could do this beyond it being a hobby.”

Now 21 and based in London, Alessi is glad she made those ​“embarrassing” late night posts. It gave her the confidence to push things further, having grown up as a kid who loved to perform and write poetry, in a family that wasn’t musical in the slightest. During Covid, Alessi taught herself how to produce songs on a cracked version of Logic Pro and began uploading DIY demos to BBC Introducing every week.

“Dean Jackson would play them every Saturday night,” she says, cracking up. ​“Those songs were not mixed and were not good by any means, but big ups to him. I was also on TikTok, going live, playing covers, posting clips. Then someone from a label found me.”

Since then, Alessi’s spirit of perseverance has paid off. She’s just dropped her debut EP rumination as ritual, and will shortly be embarking on a UK tour. With echoes of Olivia Rodrigo and, of course, Gracie Abrams, rumination… features ballads of heartbreak and all-consuming crushes, tunes about the thrill of the chase and failed situationships. The rich tapestry of life in your early twenties, basically.

“The songs feel very fresh,” she continues. ​“I’ve got OCD, which means I get intrusive thoughts and hold onto situations that are in my head. What I’m singing about are things I’ve gone over and over and struggled to let go of, hence the EP’s title.”

With that major milestone done and dusted, Alessi is thrilled to be taking this new project on the road. She’s still pretty green to it all – her first ever live performance was only last November – but she’s looking forward to seeing how all the emotion she’s poured into her songs translates to the stage.

“It’s all well and good existing in an online space, but now, I know those rooms are going to be full of people who actually paid to be there and want to hear my songs. That’s so special.”

What’s a bad habit you wish you could kick?

Biting my nails. That’s why I have acrylics on. And going over things in my brain that I shouldn’t – boys, weird situations where I’ve said something I shouldn’t have, worrying about what people think about me.

Love, like, hate?

I love Sofia Coppola. The Virgin Suicides changed my life. I’m really liking baby crisps at the moment, those veggie stick ones. I look like a giant toddler eating them but I will continue to do so. I hate it when I break one nail, because then I have to rip the rest of them off – the lack of symmetry is too much.

What’s your phone screensaver?

It’s Chappell Roan, because why not? My granddad asked who that was the other day. I was like, get to know. I’m the biggest Chappell stan, I was there before everyone else. I’ve been to two of her shows. I need you all to know this!

Favourite song of all time?

Cloudbusting by Kate Bush. She’s my music icon.

What do you think about when you’re in the shower?

I choreograph dances to, like, Sabrina Carpenter or Tate McRae.

Who would play you in a film about your life?

Kirsten Dunst. She’s done so many things I love. I’d be honoured. I like to to think of myself as aloof like [Kirsten’s The Virgin Suicide​’s character] Lux Lisbon, but realistically I can’t shut the fuck up. So it would probably be someone way louder, but let’s go with Kirsten. Or Winona Ryder.

Do you have any interesting scars?

When I was a kid, my first main hobby was triathlon club because my dad was a triathlete. My first intense crush was on a boy there, and he was about five years older than me – I was about eight, he must’ve been 13. I thought it was destined. On the tennis court, which is where everyone used to meet up, I got on my road bike and thought, you know what will make this boy fall in love with me? If I start cycling in a circle really fast. I was like, yeah, he’s getting hot right now. I fell… Well, toppled, right into my bike chain. For years I’ve had a horrible scar on my thigh as a reminder of how down bad I was that day. He wasn’t impressed.

What’s the most memorable DM you’ve received?

From Brandy Melville being like: if you come sing in our shop in New York we’ll let you pick some clothes out.

What’s your favourite thing about what you do?

I was a fan of Gracie Abrams and Lorde growing up. It’s nice to be seeing people now relate to my music in the same way I related to theirs.

What can artists do to help save the world?

Be more open. When Billie Eilish speaks about the environment, she’s very much like, I still catch flights but I’m trying to be as conscious as possible in other ways. I want to honest and transparent in that way, whether that’s to do with OCD or anything else.