JJ Rosa - New Waves

If we were to time travel to the past and take a roll call of all the artists we’ve written about at an early stage in their career there would be some that have gone on to achieve mainstream attention and / or commercial success such as Ellie Goulding, Mumford & Sons, Florence & The Machine and more recently the likes of Haim and Chvrches. However there are many others that would elicit the question of ‘whatever happened to them?’

Past ‘New Wave’ stars The Jessie Rose Trip is one such band. They came onto our radar in January 2009, we posted about them once and then they fell off it again. In terms of the name you could argue that The Jessie Rose Trip was ahead of its time. After all it wouldn’t be long before the likes of Jessie J and Jessie Ware were doing it for the Jessies.

Which brings us neatly to JJ Rosa who is in fact one Jessica Rose Hancock; yes, her out of The Jessie Rose Trip, with a new identity alongside former Rose Trip sticksman Jimmy Wood and Marky Lewis on bass.

The group have taken the unusual step of making their free to download debut EP a live gig recording, but on just one listen it’s easy to see why. With a ballsy mix of pop, rock and soul JJ Rosa is no half-baked band learning their way; they sound fully formed. We can imagine them sitting right at home on Later… With Jools Holland. There’s big 80’s influenced rock out riffs, classic hot under the collar tunes and Jessica’s flawless vocal, which has a hint of the Paloma Faith’s about it. You can hear Live At The Deaf Institute recorded in her home city of Manchester here. There’s also another song - Cry Out (a demo) - on line which Jessica has explained is about the struggle of getting your opinions heard as an artist but being supported by the ones you love. This one’s less meaty and more electronic based with a softer sheen, the guitars caged in the background. It shows that away from the live EP the band have some versatility as well. It’s an impressive start. Let’s hope it’s not another 4 and a half years before we feature Jessica again.

JJ Rosa - Cry Out (Demo)