Diandra Reviews It All- Interviews Roses & Revolutions: Dreams & Music

Playing Mercury Lounge tonight, Roses & Revolutions are ready to tear up the stage, but first they spoke to us about dreams, and how becoming professional musicians altered the dreaminess they found in music. Like most artists, you start out as a fan of music, and let your passion and talent guide you into becoming an artist. Yet, being a professional is a whole other ball game, and I was excited to see how they define gaining peace and producing art as a dynamic duo.

Diandra: What do you consider the “rose” of your life” and the biggest “revolution” that has occurred in your life?

Roses & Revolutions: The “rose” of our lives are our families & close friends. It’s corny, but no matter what, they’re there and support us every step of the way.The biggest “revolution” that has occurred in our life musically, is realizing we don’t need to rely on people as much as we thought. Being self-sufficient is one of the best things you can do for yourself. This mainly applies to us releasing music that is authentic to us. It used to be a big, drawn-out process with writing and producing. The second we bought our own gear (Protools, etc) and learned how to do things ourselves, things became a lot clearer.

Diandra: With your last EP being about facing anxiety and false hope, what have your own taught about how you define peace?

Roses & Revolutions: We find peace and serenity in writing about our anxieties and stresses. Songwriting and performing live is one of the most therapeutic things for us.

Diandra: What do you feel is more important and/or powerful the act of dreaming or the realization of a dream?

Roses & Revolutions: I’m taking this in a literal sense… of physically being asleep and dreaming or lucid dreaming. Lucid dreaming is one of the most powerful feelings. Think about it – you’re in an unconscious state, paralyzed by sleep… and if you’re the kind of person who can stop in the middle of a dream and say “ok, this is a dream” and start controlling your dream? Now, that’s some powerful shit.

Me: I’ve done this!

Diandra: Your songs approach the seeking and breaking and re-seeking of one’s self-identity. Do you feel “artist” is your most important identity or, at least, the one that dominates and influences your other identifiers?

Roses & Revolutions: Yes, if we weren’t creating music, we wouldn’t know who we are. Artist is definitely our dominate identifiers.

Roses and Revolutions – “Dancing In A Daydream” (Live)

Diandra: Being so visual with your music, what are films that you feel embody the aesthetic of your music?

Roses & Revolutions: “Fire Walk With Me”, “Interstellar”, “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly”, “Mullholland Drive”, and “Titanic”

Diandra: You did a lot of illustrations for this EP, how would you describe Daydreaming if it were a fairytale?

Roses & Revolutions: Daydreaming in a fairytale is absolutely like when Dorothy lands in Oz. Everything would be in black and white until the daydream is at it’s peak. It would involve a lot of sunshine, tall grass, the scent of fresh flowers, and the wind blowing in your face.There would probably be a quest that you’d meet a bunch of magical characters along the way, and when the time comes for you to wake up, you just don’t want to leave.

Diandra: What do you feel is the strength and weakness of being a dreamer or living in your head?

Roses & Revolutions: Strength is that you’re definitely an optimistic human with a lot of creativity. It’s really a necessary when you’re in a creative field. You kind of have to be a dreamer to do this. The weakness is that sometimes you DO need to wake up to face reality; in order to progress and change.

Roses and Revolutions – “Noise In My Head” (Live)

Diandra: What is the greatest comfort your dreams have given you, and do you have a recurring dream that has impacted you?

Roses & Revolutions: The greatest comfort dreams can give you is a form of escape. There are times you’re not mentally prepared to handle something, and dreaming gives you that little bit of relief… living in a false world. As far as recurring dreams, I have a lot of dreams that I can fly. Again, it kind of goes back to the lucid dreaming… I do that a lot. Has it impacted me much? Not really, but I think it’s cool!

Diandra: What are the qualities you have to find inspiring to each other?

Matt: I think Alyssa is optimistic, playful and super compassionate and caring.

Alyssa: Matt is one of the hardest workers you will ever meet. He’s ridiculously creative and constantly amazes me with his knowledge of the music world.

Diandra: How do you think your bond as artists protects and prospers you as music lovers that have transferred passion into a profession?

Roses & Revolutions: It’s funny because we went into music because we were huge music lovers and consumed it nonstop. But then, once you start doing it full time for a while, you end up not listening to music the same way you did before. We still listen more than ever, but find ourselves analyzing progressions & production more often than actually just listening for pleasure. It’s kind of a curse.

Roses and Revolutions – “The Pines” (Evan Gartner Remix) [Studio Performance]

Diandra: If you could dedicate a song to Music to describe your love for her, which would it be and why?

Roses & Revolutions: Does it have to be one of our songs? We would like to dedicate “For a Dancer” by Jackson Browne to Music! It’s the most beautiful & sad song ever. If you haven’t heard it, go listen and pay attention to the lyrics!

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