Rose Betts

If your 20s are a blitz of drunken nights and bad decisions, your 30s are a chance to reflect, learn, and (hopefully) laugh. Celtic-pop visionary Rose Betts mines new life chapters with humor and heart on her captivating and infectious sophomore album, There Is No Ship. Drawing from her Irish heritage (Rose's grandparents were Irish immigrants), the English-born, LA-based singer/songwriter re-imagines traditional Celtic melodies and rhythms for contemporary pop fans. Across There Is No Ship, Rose captures an unbridled spirit while layering in artful and tasteful alt-pop tones. Rose sets herself apart as an artist in today's age by producing and writing all of her own work. She is a multi-hyphenate talent, excelling in production, lyrical architecture, and playing multiple instruments. Rose's multifaceted approach to music production not only showcases her talent but also highlights her as that rare 100% writer, cut from the same cloth as Sting, Sara Mclaughlan or Billy Joel. Notably, in 2021, acclaimed director Zack Snyder enlisted her to perform and produce the Flash's theme song for his 'Directors Cut' of Justice League, propelling her into the epicenter of the DC fandom. Following her 2022 debut album, White Orchids, and another high-profile collaboration with Zack Snyder on two of the theme songs for Rebel Moon, There Is No Ship began to take shape in early 2023 when Rose rented a cabin near Lake Arrowhead in Crestline, California. "I had the intention of seeing what would happen if I leaned into my Irish side and the musical world I'd been absorbing since I was a baby but mostly took for granted," Rose says. "It was almost like an experiment. And the songs just kind of came. It was really wonderful. I went on a few trips and always came back with four to five new songs each time." Recording in Los Angeles and Nashville, Rose tapped producer Mark to help hone the sound of There Is No Ship, whose title references J.R.R. Tolkien's epic fantasy series The Lord of the Rings. "There's a line that the elven character Arwen says when she’s made the decision to stay behind, renounce her immortality, and live a human life so that she can be with the man she loves," Rose says. "It's a simple line: 'There is no ship that can bear me hence.' The way I chose to interpret the line for this project is that there are some things that you cannot be taken away from. There are some things about yourself that you can never change. Where you grew up, the bones of the city that formed you, your country, and your heritage. For me, the power of these things has come into sharp focus since moving away from them. England will always be my homeland, my heart will always belong there." Rose and Mark's remarkable collaboration takes center stage on the moving processional ballad "Take This Body Home," which quotes the traditional Irish blessing: "May the road rise up to meet you, may the wind be always at your back." Initially written to eulogize her late grandfather, "Take This Body Home" is a compassionate ode to a complicated familial relationship."Death is full of unfinished business and things unsaid," Rose says. "This song became my expression of that. It's lived with me for a few years. It was so emotional to record, I felt the presence of all the people I loved in the studio. I really struggled to get through those first vocal takes. But the reality, and I feel the responsibility, of being a songwriter is that you have to go into those places so that the listener can follow. We have to try to be the guides for the listener's emotional journey, self-reflection, and discovery by laying down the paving stones for them to follow." Meanwhile, on the galloping "Come Away," Rose observes the passage of time, how it's affected her, and how her path has diverged from old friends. "It's interesting how we feel like we have to have our lives together in our 30s. It takes a lot of courage to step outside of that and be like, 'No, I don't want to own a house. No, I don't want to have kids.' What the world expects is a heavy weight to bear. We're all so different, and we all want different things, but it's so easy to fall into trapdoors trying to fulfill the norm. I think the job of an artist is to fight against all of those trap doors — or at least examine them as they come along." The rousing pub anthem "Doodles" is similarly reflective, as Rose lists out "the doodles I'd undo," aka 20-something nights filled with rental car accidents, stolen kisses, and unsaid truths. "There comes a point in your late 20’s, early 30s where you start to look back a bit more and, if you're in a lighter mood, you can very clearly see the mistakes and laugh at them. The things that have gone wrong that you wish had gone a different way, that you can't undo. The reality, of course, is that life is full of these things. It's not a row of neat little bows tied perfectly along the way," Rose says. "What I love about Irish music is that it's always treading on the bittersweet — sorrow and joy co-exist and are often simultaneous. Even though 'Doodles' is a flippant, fun song, it's also about how drinking has two sides: you're covering up something, maybe drowning something out, but you're also letting something loose. Mistakes are similarly double-sided events. Often, the lesson they teach is worth the error, often not, and sometimes we enter into doomed situations intentionally, sometimes we kind of like the mess. I know I’ve done that a few times." While "Doodles" and "Come Away" look back, the urgent, Kate Bush-inspired "Running" sprints forward, with Rose mulling over her new life, far from home, in Los Angeles. "During my songwriting retreat, I would spend the morning writing and then go for a walk to let things settle. On one such walk, this line—' my feet have wandered off without me'—came into my head. I liked the idea that your feet could have this little personality, going, 'Where are you going? You're leaving your homeland? What the hell are you doing?' I suppose there's a part of me that's still questioning what I'm doing here, how I managed to end up so far from home, and what the future holds. Later, Rose's vocal trill stuns on the waltzing "Alderidge Creek," which layers in strings, crisp acoustic guitar, and a rich harmonized choral backdrop to tell a story about two lovers slipping away to be alone, just for one day. "'Alderidge Creek' feels like a song I didn't write; it feels like a song that just was ready for me to catch," says Rose, who wrote the melody and lyrics during a visit to Huntington Botanical Gardens. "It's inspired by those rare and precious days that are more golden than others — those stolen days, where everything is just a little bit more magical." Finally, the fiddle-accompanied jig "You Never Looked Back" cleverly skewers the maze-like experience of online dating while genuinely asking what could have been. "You wonder sometimes about things that didn't go right—what could have happened if you'd made different decisions," Rose says. "I've lived my fair share of dating ups and downs, and they can be pretty painful, but also feel humanly essential to experience. It's more of a winky, playful song than one of bitterness, and it's an ode to people who really want to find someone and are willing to put their hearts on the line even when the bruises keep coming." As Rose celebrates her Celtic heritage with poignant emotion, examines her past, and ultimately embraces a new life chapter, There Is No Ship proves that home, friends, and family are but one song away.