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)

The Jessie Rose Trip - New Waves @ Breaking More Waves

At the start of 2008 there was a lot of talk about who was going to be “The next Amy Winehouse.” With this talk commentators did not mean which once talented singer was prepared to turn into a farcical mumbling drug taking joke, but a British female soul or blues belter who could cross over into the mainstream. With her big voice, Brit school pedigree, cracking songs and cackling laugh Adele fitted the bill perfectly. And with the success of Adele the door is now open to other similar singers.

Jessie Rose of The Jessie Rose Trip is one such singer. Earning her keep working in a Manchester Casino performing soul and jazz covers by day, by night she’s put a band together that are creating quite a buzz. After teaming up with drummer James Wood the duo decided they need bass and brass to complete their sound. Step forward Sarah Buckley from High Wycombe and Johnny ‘Tiger’ Thomson from Glasgow who responded to an advert placed in the Royal Northern College Of Music. With Jessie writing the songs and the other players adding their own interpretations The Jessie Rose Trip was born.

Since April 2008 the band have begun to develop a building profile, with support from Manchester XFM’s ex Inspiral Carpet Clint Boon and a well received live slot at the 2008 In The City event. The bands songs are a combination of jazzy blues, skanking pop and soul with added piano, trumpet, flugelhorn and ukele. Yes you read that correctly. Flugelhorn and ukele. There’s Forever And A Day which has a lilting summery feel to it and For Love Or Money which has whistling, jazzy bass and Jessie singing “Diddly dum doo” over head bobbing guitar riffage.

There is no Brit school pedigree here, but buckets of raw vocal talent and Jessie’s own fully formed vintage fashion identity. This band almost made it on to our One's To Watch 2009 list for this year, but at the moment it's probably just a little too early for them, and although the musical ability is self evident they still need a killer tune or two. We call them the wow and punch moment. The place in time when a tune comes on the radio and you just have to stop whatever you are doing to listen. The pull the car over moment. Adele had Hometown Glory and Chasing Pavements to propel her into the stars. Once the Jessie Rose Trip have that they too could be nipping through the door that Adele and Winehouse opened.

Catch the band playing live in the video below and see a small interview.


Jessie Rose TV on MUZU.