Rose McGowan has joined forces with Kid Bookie for an empowering, genre-blurring new named after her. See the video first on NME below, along with our interview with the duo talk about defying expectations, plans to perform live together, and kickstarting a new chapter.
READ MORE: Five things we learned from our In Conversation video chat with Kid Bookie
Released as the debut single from Kid Bookie’s forthcoming album, ‘Rose McGowan’ marks an intriguing new era for the South East London artist, who has already made a name for himself with his ability to fuse hip-hop, rock and more, and capture a distinctive sense of authenticity in his lyricism.
Capturing themes of individuality, resilience and defiance, the track was written by Kid Bookie – real name Tyronne Buddy-Lee Ike Hill – and named after the actor, author and creative before she agreed to collaborate.
After reaching out on social media to McGowan, who was taking a step back from the public eye and living in the jungle at the time, the two came together in a studio in London, with the best-selling author contributing guest vocals. The end result, they tell NME, is a powerful message of resistance, encouraging people to stand up to social oppression and be loyal to their own path.
“I wanted people to know that they were brave, and that it’s OK to smash things because you make a mess and when it gets cleaned up, it’s better,” McGowan told us. “I wanted this song to feel like freedom.”
“There are so many different levels of control in society now, and people are feeling it,” she added. “I want Bookie’s part to feel like an emotional release, and I want my part to be lifting people up. Also, I want them to realise that it’s a banger of a song too!”
As for Kid Bookie, he said: “I want to help people believe in alchemy with the track. I really wanted Rose on this song because I adore her as a person and as a friend…here she is now! I’d also like people to see this song as the embodiment of non-conformity. People will tell you what they think you should do, but you can’t always listen. You just have to do it for yourself. That’s where you get results.”
Check out the rest of our interview with McGowan and Kid Bookie below, where they also opened up about the impact of artists like David Bowie, their refusal to play it safe, and what they have coming up next.
NME: Hi Kid Bookie and Rose McGowan. Tell us about the inspiration behind the song and the decision to call it ‘Rose McGowan’.
Kid Bookie: “It’s because I’ve grown up with her. I’ve seen her on the TV, I’ve seen her name in the zeitgeist for longer than she has known I’ve existed, but it wasn’t about just seeing her, it felt there was a connection. I was looking at her and her trajectory, and then thinking about who I am as a person, and I think we embody so many different facets as entertainers.
“I know that in music, everyone puts someone’s name as a title song, like you’ve got Central Cee and ‘Doja’, so it can be like buzzwords when you use famous people’s names. But while I’m always against the grain, I was thinking, ‘If I was to ever write a song about somebody or a moment. Who would it be?’ There was no other person who wanted to put forward.”
Kid Bookie. Photo credit Davide Edoardo
What exactly was it about her that jumped out to you?
Bookie: “She’s bold and she’s fierce, but me, I’ve always felt outcast. I’m very different and I have weird -isms and schisms that aren’t what some people would describe as normal. So having a song like ‘Rose McGowan’ and a person like Rose McGowan to draw the inspiration from [felt right]. I know it’s cliché to say, but I always like making moments happen and she’s done that.”
Rose, you came across the song by opening a direct message from Kid Bookie on Instagram, right?
Rose McGowan: “Yeah, but it wasn’t named ‘Rose McGowan’ at the time. When it was sent to me, the file had no name on it! [It came at a time when] I had stopped communicating with the public, my family and most of my friends. I went to the jungle because I didn’t want to hear the world’s noise anymore. I’d had enough. I hadn’t worn shoes in quite a few years by that point, and I was not interested in being part of society. I decided to occasionally check online though, and that’s when I saw his message.
“I don’t know why it was his, of all the messages there, that I checked. But from the start it was really heartfelt and beautiful. We kept communicating from there and I saw this incredibly deep and intellectual side to him, so when he said ‘I made this song’, I decided to come to the land of Brexit. It took about a year all in all.”
Topics like determination, defiance, truthfulness and individuality are at the heart of the song. Rose, what was it like to have a song that embodied all of these things named after you?
McGowan: “It was a great honour, but I also [loved] what he wrote on his side of it. All of those things he puts forward in his sections embody the times when I felt great rage, great anger [at the] trap of the system. I think a lot of us feel like we want to burn it down, metaphorically sometimes physically.”
“People will likely perceive that I would be full throttle, yelling and angry [on the song], but I’ve moved well beyond that. I worked really hard and it took almost every single thing I had to come back to life physically, emotionally, and spiritually. So [if we were to look at the track] in terms of society, his part of the song is like an emotional release. It’s like when you feel like there is a societal foot on your neck, and you just want to fucking rage it out. But my part, having gotten beyond that stage, is more like, ‘OK, let’s raise up together’.”
Kid Bookie, you’ve talked a lot about people playing it too safe in a music scene founded in rebellion…
Bookie: “In terms of rock n’roll… God, it’s so safe here! I’m around some great people [in the industry], and I stay here because I’m learning from them, But when you look at the people who came through and made rock what it is today, and [compare them to] these artists now who come come through, now it’s more about how rich you are and if you have enough money to go on tour. Most people have the mommy and daddy trust fund and even when rock music is from the streets, it’s very commercialised so you lose what the core of it once was.”
“I’m not saying you don’t get authentic authenticity in rock now, it’s just that the core elements used to be rebellion and ‘Let’s change the world through music and arts’, but now it’s more like, ‘How good is my song for the playlist?’ and ‘How do I get my sound on Radio 1’. That’s great in some ways… but sometimes we need art that moves the needle. That’s where I revel.
“That’s what rock music is for me. I don’t care how I make people feel, as long as I move this needle in cultural ways. I’m not here to be liked. I never was.”
How did Rose McGowan fit into that ideology?
Bookie: “Rose is just pure punk, and that’s rock n’ roll as you come, So having a moment in rock music where Rose is attached to it felt natural. It’s two people that have very don’t-give-a-fuck attitudes, but who really do care [about authenticity in art].”
Kid Bookie and Rose McGowan. Photo credit Davide Edoardo
How does this song fit into the album as a whole? It feels like you’re starting a new chapter…
Bookie: “100 per cent. The album will come back to the headspace of ‘Who am I?’. I’ve been every shade of a man I don’t want to be, so this is about me seeing what I can do to be the man I want to be today. I’m going through this life and growing, and this is what this project encapsulates. Even this song with Rose, it’s about growth. I’ve been everything I don’t want to be, so I now know who I want to be going forward.”
Who have you been listening to who has helped inspire the album?
Bookie: “Right now it’s a composer called Praam, and he’s got a song called ‘æfre’. His compositions are so emotional and so compelling. It’s beyond good or bad, it’s just feeling. When I listen to it, it takes me back to all the ways I felt when I first listened to that song. That’s what I want this project to be. That’s all I’ve ever done when I make music.”
Rose, what kind of music do you listen to now?
McGowan: “When I did [my debut solo album, 2018’s] ‘Planet 9’, I avoided all music except for very long dead composers. It was like that for almost like six years because I didn’t want any outside sounds in my head. Later, I realised I had lost touch with what was happening musically entirely… but then I went to live in the jungle, so it didn’t matter!
“Who am I listening to now though? I like Molchat Doma. I like how it has this great vibe to it, but then if you actually look at some of the lyrics, it’s it can be about suicide with a bedpan in a hospital… but it sounds cheerful with a Belarus accent! I love that twist.
“I’m forever always listening to Cocteau Twins too, and I did something that I really like lately. For the anniversary of David Bowie’s birthday, I laid down on the floor and listened to the whole ‘Blackstar’ album. At that time when the songs came out [in 2016], I didn’t really get deeply into it. But [now I see that it is] someone writing about their impending ascension to the other realms. It is deeply moving and beautiful.”
Have you always been a fan of David Bowie?
McGowan: “I’ve had three regular jobs in my life. My first one was at a funeral home moving bodies, and a second one was at an archival movie theatre. I remember them playing The Man Who Fell To Earth, so I got to see it on a full screen. After that, I was hunting for that perfect tangerine shade of hair he had.
“There are certain people, these celestial beings, who are just here for a bit to spread some magic dust. I always connected with the feeling of alienness and otherness [he had], but also he was funny and charming and beautiful in his style… sometimes there are people that are the very best that the world has to offer.”
What’s next in the pipeline for you, Rose?
McGowan: “I’ve been toying with the idea of making an album with lullabies for animals. It will be exactly as what it sounds like, actual lullabies to put your animal to sleep.
“When I was writing my book [2018’s Brave], I noticed that I couldn’t write with music that had words because it’d interrupt my thinking. But I met this lady who taught in a primary school and would get her kids to go to sleep by playing them calming music for kittens from YouTube! I started listening to it and I was able to write to it, but it was all AI. I was like ‘I think I can do better than that’, so I started playing with these different tones and testing it on my friend’s cats and dogs, and it made them all calm down! It actually worked on their kids too…”
Rose McGowan. Photo credit Davide Edoardo
That’s quite a niche route!
McGowan: “Well, when I made ‘Planet 9’, it was during a period when there was like a bunch of people trying to kill me, quite literally, for shaking their system. So I had to put it out and I didn’t really do much press for it. I just stuck it out in case I died.
“It was all me. I hired these really amazing people that were at the top of their game, because I knew they could make these sounds I was hearing in my head. For this next [solo project], though, I want to do a really paired down, simple, gentle thing. That’s my mood right now… but who knows, half an hour later I might want to scream and freak it out. That’s the cool part about being creative and human. Maybe I’ll be doing a death metal collaboration and also lullabies for animals!”
Can we expect to see you two on stage together playing the new song?
McGowan: “Yes. I remember I once sat on the side of the stage when people were singing a song called ‘Coma White’ that was by my ex-fiance, Marilyn Manson. It was at Big Day Out in Australia and there were 350,000 people in the audience, which was hard for my brain to comprehend because those lyrics were my life story. So that was a really unique experience, but I was on the side of the stage for that one.
“Now with [the thought of going on stage with] this one… I do not like the idea of going out there and being in front of people, I’m powerfully terrified of it, but that means I’m absolutely going to do it and going to smash it. There’s no other choice. I’ve seen Bookie on stage and how he brings that energy, and the audience returning that energy is definitely a rare experience. I wanna be a part of that for sure.”
Bookie: “I really wanted her to do it. In this world, there’s no point you being anywhere else other than out here on these fucking streets doing you. When I saw Rose on stage with Ice Nine Kills last month, I was saying ‘This is what you need to be doing. This is what you need!’”
McGowan: “He’s my biggest cheerleader, and he said something recently that really switched something in my brain. I went through some death experience stuff over the last five years, and I had to really remember who I was because I quite literally forgot at one point. And when I said to him ‘I’m remembering who I am, finally’, he went ‘No. You need to embody who you are’. He was correct, and that was the final step.”
So we’ve got new collaborations, a new potential solo project, plans for appearances at live shows. Rose, does it feel like music is your true calling?
Mcgowan: “Well I don’t like doing just one thing. I know people are generally more successful when they do one thing and hammer at it really hard, but for me, people are like ‘Oh, you wrote a top five New York Times bestselling book, so you’re gonna write another one, right?’ No. ‘Well you directed a movie [2014’s Dawn] that was nominated for a grand jury prize at Sundance… are you going to do that again?’ No.
“That being said, the thing that actually feels the most native and natural to me is music. It’s the thing that I get the most from, energetically, and what I express myself best with.”
Kid Bookie’s single ‘Rose McGowan Ft. Rose McGowan’ is out now, more details about his new album will be shared at a later date. Visit here for upcoming UK tour dates.
The post Rose McGowan and Kid Bookie tell us about their freeing new collab: “This song is the embodiment of non-conformity” appeared first on NME.
