AJ Rosales
“Phosphene,” which is defined as “a ring or spot of light produced by pressure on the eyeball or direct stimulation of the visual system other than by light,” is the title of the fifth and final single from Chicago singer-songwriter AJ Rosales’s sixth studio album Phasedrift. “Phosphene” and the album proper, which was engineered by Doug McBride at Gravity Studios in Chicago and mastered by Greg Calbi (Lou Reed’s Berlin and David Bowie’s Young Americans) and Steve Fallone (Evermore by Taylor Swift) at Sterling Sound in Edgewater, NJ, will be released on Friday, June 20.
According to Rosales:
“It usually takes me a good while to really understand where a song is going when I’m starting out, but on this one the music came together fairly quickly and the structure formed without me vacillating too much. I think I knew I was on to something, but I wasn’t sure what that something was right away because the tune didn’t have any lyrics at first.”
Of the song’s lyrics, Rosales states:
“I normally reserve lyric writing for after the song is fully structured and works as a thematic composition. I like to work that way because it lets me really dig into and understand what the song is trying to “say” without guessing about it too much. I usually try to let the rhythm and melody of each song guide the lyrics. On this one, a stream of consciousness writing style emerged and I ran with it. It seemed to want rhythmic lyrics to correlate with the rhythms I was playing on the guitar. It also seemed to want alliteration, flow, wordplay and even irony to give it a more lighthearted sensibility. A line like “Tongue in cheek or wry, witty riposte?” is a good example of that.”
As evidenced on “Phosphene,” AJ’s style is not easy to classify; perhaps “progressive acoustic” is the best term. His influences reflect the rhythmic approach of Pete Townshend, the emotive delivery of Cat Stevens, the experimental explorations of Robert Fripp, the expressiveness of Bob Mould, and even the soulfulness of Nick Drake. Ultimately, he delivers his own unique hybrid sound, blending multiple genres into a cohesive and modern sensibility that sounds like “AJ”.
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