Madison Rose is a 21-year-old artist currently based in Albuquerque, N.M. Rose sings, song-writes, produces music, plays several instruments and works as a music teacher and vocal coach. Rose’s ambition and work ethic are evident in her art, and you can hear it in the soft stripped-down indie rock sound of her music.
Rose is a queer artist and uses she/they pronouns. “I do consider myself a queer artist in that I don’t solely identify as a woman,” they said. They feel that having a more expansive gender identity has influenced their music greatly by allowing them to be open to new feelings and ideas. “I think it’s allowed me to experience a lot more feelings, honestly. I’ve been around so many more new groups of people and have been able to share stories and experiences with them that I would’ve never been able to had I not found that place in myself,” they said.
“Gently – Demo,” released in 2024, has reached over 200,000 streams on Spotify. Rose credits the massive success of their first single to her social media outreach. promotion led the song to be streamed by listeners worldwide, even across the world in Australia. Rose’s second single “Kitchen Scissors,” which was two years in the making, was released on Spotify in late April.
Following the success of their first two singles, Rose feels empowered to start finding their own distinct and creative sound. “My new music that’s going to be coming out now is still in that indie rock genre, but I’m definitely starting to dip my toes into a hyper-funk sound as well and finding a good mix between those,” they said. They’re excited to display their new sound in their next project, a full-length album titled “The Life Cycle of a Clown.”
“The Life Cycle of a Clown” is a very special project to Rose. She describes this ambitious project as a concept album, which was partially inspired by “Preacher’s Daughter,” a critically acclaimed concept album by Ethel Cain. A concept album is a cohesive unit of storytelling through music. “It’s going to be a full-length album that is a story about a party clown going through the ups and downs of life, and dealing with a lot of mental health issues,” said Rose, “The character’s a reflection of myself, as somebody that has dealt with so many mental health issues as a child to now. I think that the burden that’s placed on a lot of people, especially in America, to always perform and always be at your best no matter how you might be feeling is very, very real.”
Rose plans to do the instrumentation and production for the album entirely herself. “I’m excited to introduce a multimedia element to it as well,” she said. The multimedia element of the album will include videos, art and more.
Rose currently works as a music teacher and vocal coach for children. Rose’s love of music began when they developed a passion for theater in kindergarten. She was trained in classical vocal technique and used her skills to perform opera, community theater and high school theater. “Now I use that, and I coach children to give them a good starting place to start developing vocal technique onward,” she said.
Rose had the opportunity to play her first headlining show at the venue where she used to perform community theater. “We performed at a space that’s very special to me,” she said, “I got the greatest honor to play with one of my really good friends, Kai Warrior, who’s another amazing, amazing indie artist.” Their show sold out completely and Rose recalls it as a great experience. “It was so special; everybody sang along and we had the best time. That kind of solidified in me that like, this is what I want to do,” she said.
