motel void

MOTEL VOID: You’re based in Phoenix, Arizona. How would you describe the current music scene there? Do you feel that you’re part of it?

NIKO ROSE: I’m probably not really a part of it at all unfortunately lol, never played a show before! Phoenix music scene is wonderful though, tons of super talented people. One of these days hopefully I’ll figure out a live set and get in there one way or another. I think with some of my earlier stuff I maybe didn’t have a lot of confidence in performing or arranging the songs for live shows, but I don’t know I think with what i’m on now it feels like that would be a lot more natural and easy. 2024 maybe!

MOTEL VOID: Could you recommend some of your favorite local venues and artists?

NIKO ROSE: I always like to go see the music sounds records gang – herbert walker, pijama piyama, alex & the moondaze, and zane champion – who just put out a really cool album. They just had a super sick christmas show at crescent ballroom. Pro Teens put out a beautiful album called Dentistry in 2022, Mavs in 6 is a classic. TV messages is great. Pariah Pete has a really cool song called Sunkissed. Venue wise I’m going with Crescent Ballroom, Rebel Lounge and Valley Bar.

MOTEL VOID: You’ve just released two new singles ‘carbon*’ and ‘sleeves’. Will they be part of your new record?

NIKO ROSE: Yeah definitely. carbon is the first song i wrote for the next project and I think it kind of inspired the direction for everything else on the next album, recording style/thematically and all that jazz. Sleeves I wrote like two weeks ago so that one is still pretty fresh in the mix. I have a tendency to make songs and sit on em and stew until i decide to just scrap a whole album. New approach for me is just to put them out there so there’s no going back, so I’d say since it’s out there, it’s on there!

MOTEL VOID: Your single ‘So Light’ from 2019 had a huge success on Spotify, having almost 2 million streams at the moment. Did this streaming success have a significant impact on your career?

NIKO ROSE: Hm I would say it for sure had an impact. I think it’s a bit different because a huge amount of the streams for that song came from algorithmic playlists, or other curator’s playlists and things like that. It kind of makes it this indirect thing where I don’t know if many of the people listening to that song are wanting to hear what’s coming next, especially with what I’m working on now being pretty different from that sound. I do still think though that it was super beneficial in helping me figure out what I want to do with music, and probably ended up bringing in a lot of the people that listen to my stuff now. Definitely am super appreciative of anyone who has listened to that one, was super stoked went it hit a million, felt like I was Drake for a day lmao.

MOTEL VOID: Could you tell us more about the recording and writing process of your songs?

NIKO ROSE: I usually just play around and mumble stuff until a melody starts to stick. I’ll record like 6 minutes of the mumble melody/guitar and kind of start to piece together lyrics that I said in the recording into something coherent. A lot of my favorite songs I’ve written have been almost completely stream of consciousness stuff that ended up making sense – cowboy james and sunburn are two good examples of that where I left in the actual demo recording of just trying stuff out. I feel like when I really sit down and try to write something specific it comes off a little too contrived and I end up forcing the point I was trying to get to, when if it’s partially freestyled sometimes I end up getting there organically. feels a little more special to me that way I guess haha.

MOTEL VOID: Your plans for 2024?

NIKO ROSE: Putting out a lot more music!! I’m like halfway through putting together an album now and I’m really enjoying it. I think putting out honeydoo last year made me feel a lot more interested in releasing just what I like and feel means something to me and I intend on doing that a whole lot more this year. ❤️