Following on from the huge success of her recently unveiled single ‘Co-op’, which was premiered by BBC 6Music and has just landed on their B-list, not to mention marking her first release on Lucy Rose’s Real Kind Records, emerging singer and songwriter Bess Atwell is back once again to share her beautifully rich new offering ‘Time Comes in Roses’.
Much like her work to date, ‘Time Comes in Roses’ sees her take the conventional acoustic / singer-songwriter aesthetic and transform it into something far more enticing throughout. Adding just a touch of atmosphere around her sensational voice, her latest swoon is a wonderfully warm and inviting return that sees her grow further into her heartfelt and passionate guise.
Speaking about the new song, she said, “I spent the first lockdown living back with my parents. I was privileged to be in the countryside with access to a garden, but it was also very challenging as someone who has a complicated relationship with their family. I kept to myself as much as possible, in the garden and out walking. As someone who has previously avoided self-sufficiency it was a time of personal growth and learning how to deal with my anxiety alone.
“As the weather started to shift into summer, I remember being struck by how defiantly the seasons ignored the disruption of the pandemic. It felt like summer hadn’t been told it was now uninvited, and I found its arrival comforting and sad all at once.
“It feels disingenuous to say that I didn’t think anyone would ever hear this song, but I made a conscious decision to write it just for me, ignoring my usual rules around what is “too self-indulgent” or honest. It’s a reflection on quite an ugly side of me, which is liberating. It feels like the most vulnerable, and yet exciting, release of my career so far.
I wanted to film a sparse live performance of the song, rather than a music video. It’s a unique stream of consciousness that I felt lends itself to a performance, rather than trying to contextualise it visually. I didn’t realise that it was quite so important to me to keep the performance very personal until my guitarist offered to sing backing vocals and I instantly declined!”
There is comfort in the familiar. Yet it is precisely when we are most comfortable that we begin to ask questions. Artist Bess Atwell is full of questions: on life, death, love, loss… and how things that at first seem mundane become profound when looked at in a different light.
Her music focuses heavily on Atwell’s own experiences yet has a universal appeal demonstrated already by the support from the BBCs 6Music, and millions of streams of Atwell’s earlier, self-released, singles.