Lucy Rose is a singer/songwriter from Warwickshire, England. Originally, Rose played drums in her school orchestra. When that didn't satisfy her creative ambition, she began playing and writing songs on the piano in her parents' house.
She later bought a guitar and began to write pastoral, folk-inspired pop music. It wasn't until she left home when she was 18 -- after deferring a place at University College of London -- that she shared her material with anybody. Her fragile, emotive songs soon drew comparisons to Laura Marling, with whom she shares influences such as Joni Mitchell and Neil Young.
By 2008, Rose had set about finding other musicians to experiment and perform with. After a while she met Bombay Bicycle Club frontman Jack Steadman and they became friends. Once Steadman heard Rose sing, he asked her to perform vocals on the band's acoustic album Flaws in 2010. Rose also began playing her own shows, and gradually assembled a band for live performances; on-and-off bandmembers included former Razorlight guitarist Björn Ågren, drummer Sam Nadel, and Broadcast 2000 bassist Joe Steer. With only a small budget, Rose shunned traditional recording studios and instead opted for live videos shot by close friend Orestes Mitas, which she posted online. She continued to tour throughout 2011, playing with contemporaries Ben Howard, Daughter, and Pete Roe along with headlining her own shows.
The year 2012 was a busy one for Rose. She played widely during the first half of the year, including a tour of Great Britain and North America with Bombay Bicycle Club and Noah and the Whale, plus the festival circuit during the summer. She also returned to her hometown in the Warwickshire countryside, where she and her bandmates set about recording an album in her family home, the nuclear bunker in the basement, and the local village hall. Signed to Columbia, she released her debut album, Like I Used To, in September 2012. The full-length release featured many of her road-worn tracks such as the hazy "Night Bus" and the lovelorn "First."
While working on material for a second album, she appeared as a guest vocalist on albums by artists such as Manic Street Preachers, rapper Ghostpoet, and (again) Bombay Bicycle Club. In early 2015, her single "Our Eyes" began airing on Radio 1, revealing a poppier sound that incorporated software and keys. Work It Out followed in July of that year, also on Columbia. Meanwhile, she also contributed vocals to Logic's 2015 LP, The Incredible True Story.
Rose reached out to her audience in Latin America and organized a two-month tour in 2016; she traveled with only a guitar and a backpack, playing shows for free and staying with fans, all the while filming her experiences for a mini-documentary. The following year Rose released her third studio album, Something's Changing, which was recorded in Brighton over 17 days with Tim Bidwell (Kate Walsh, Fink). Released by Communion Music and Arts & Crafts, the album featured a number of guest vocalists, including Elena Tonra (Daughter), Marcus Hamblett (Bear's Den), Emma Gatrill (Matthew and the Atlas), and the Staves. January 2019 saw the release of the single "Conversation" ahead of the arrival of the full-length No Words Left, which arrived later that March.
