Claudia Ferme isn't afraid to ask big, thorny, call-me-when-you-find-the-answer questions as Claude. “I’ve been trying to figure out how to live like I should,” the Chicago-based dream-pop purveyor exhales at the top of her new single “Roses,” a characteristically reflective, distilled offering from Ferme. The quest to live like oneself isn’t a new topic for her—this is a singer-songwriter who’s said that her 2021 EP Enactor is “about change and disassociation, about the different faces we put on, and about trying to be honest.”
But “Roses” is less concerned with authenticity than with self-inflicted pain: “Petals and stem stain my teeth red,” Claude sings in the chorus, her voice backed by dreamy synths and percussion courtesy of producer/engineer Michael Mac. “‘Roses’ was inspired by a line in Love in the Time of Cholera where the protagonist starts eating flowers and roses because of how obsessed with someone he is,” Ferme shares. “I think in the novel it’s supposed to symbolize how his obsession became all-consuming but I thought about a rose and the thorns on its stem and how someone eating a rose was a perfect metaphor for how as humans we’re so self-torturous, mentally and emotionally, and very unforgiving of ourselves.”
"Roses" arrives with a darkly tranquil visual directed by Reilly Drew. “In the video, we wanted to show this imagery in a more abstract way while still including actual roses,” Ferme explains. “I made the purple top and gray dress and am wearing other pieces that have peaks and spikes and that play with the making and release of tension to show the back and forth we have with ourselves in certain situations.”
a lot’s gonna change is out August 12 via American Dreams Records. You can pre-order it here.
