Society is full of hypocrisies: on one hand, they tell you to be yourself, but then the media and pop culture tell you to be something else. While you are running circles to be anything, you lose who you are in the process. Thankfully, rising above it all, there are individuals like the Rock-n-Roll band BONES who proverbially give a middle finger to the face of vanity and poison the media spews out.
Initially born and based in London, England, BONES’ two leading ladies, Rosie Bones (vocals) and Carmen Vandenberg (guitar), are ready to take the Rock world by storm with their unique brand of music – a fusion of the raw energy of Classic Rock and Electronic styling, let us call it ‘Future Rock.’ Picking up and relocating to sunny Los Angeles, California, BONES continues to turn heads with singles including “Pretty Waste,” “Beautiful is Boring,” and “Girls Can’t Play Guitars.”
Proud of who they are and what they believe in, BONES brings music with a message, a message that we should all be comfortable in our own skin, men and women alike. Recently we caught up with Rosie to talk about the beginnings of the band, the decision to move to America, the meaning behind her lyrics, plans for the future, plus much more.
CrypticRock.com – BONES has been established a few years now and is really starting to pick up traction in the North American market. What has the ride been like thus far?
Rosie Bones – Wow, the ride has been wild! We started BONES in London, we are from Camden Town. We started BONES, we did it for a year gigging around then we did this collaboration with Jeff Beck. That kind of took us away from doing BONES for a year – we did that and traveled the world doing that. Then we moved to L.A. at the beginning of this year to do the band in America, because we had such a good time over here; we decided to do that and basically restart the band over in America. When we came here, it was basically like starting again. We took a year out to do the Jeff Beck project, so for us, it is like the band is really only a year old again. It’s a whole new terrority!
CrypticRock.com – Pretty exciting, it is like a new beginning for BONES.
Rosie Bones – Exactly! We started the band in London, as said, basically took a year out to tour with Jeff and started again. Everything feels amazing and new. Touring is wonderful and we get to go to these amazing new places we have never seen in America. It’s brilliant!
CrypticRock.com – Very cool. The sound of BONES is rather unique. You unify a variety of styles to create something all your own. What initially inspired the band’s direction?
Rosie Bones – We come from a Rock background: Carmen comes from a Blues background, and I come from a songwriting Rock background. We wanted to take Rock to somewhere kind of new. We thought we could just play in a Rock-n-Roll style but we wanted to put it in a new area; kind of put it a little more relevant to now. Not saying some other bands aren’t, but we wanted to push what Rock is a bit. I think some people associate Rock-n-Roll with old blokes with long hair. We wanted to take Rock into the 21st century, that is where the electronics edge came to it. We very much want to create our own universe. The music has to support that and sound like something you haven’t heard before. We are really conscious of the visuals we do and the music so it all matches up. We call it Future Rock because it is like Rock-n-Roll in the future. (Laughs) The electronic side to it is sort of the more futuristic side, but it is definitely rooted in the Rock-n-Roll spirit.
CrypticRock.com – Well it works well. Bones have a very distinctive sound. Also adding intrigue to BONES is the band’s distinctive lyrical content. As we have heard in songs such as “Pretty Waste,” “Beautiful is Boring,” and “Girls Can’t Play Guitar,” there is a clear message here. What can you tell us about the meaning behind these and other tracks?
Rosie Bones – For what we do, it is very important to us. Musicians as a whole have a platform, an incredible platform to say something, to put some kind of message out there; some people do it, some people don’t, and that is everyone’s prerogative. For us, it is so important to be using this amazing form of art which is music, songwriting, and getting melodies and lyrics in people’s brains. It is so important to us to say something and say things we believe in. It is not to say there aren’t other people who don’t, but for us, it is such an important thing.
As far as the message we are putting out there, it is just things we think about, things in society, or things that have happened. We are not an angry feminist band, but just raising little talking points when they are listening to catchy music; not just singing about having sex with people or falling in and out of love. For us, it is really important that we put something out, for kids especially, that is kind of different from that. For kids and adults, something a little bit different for everyone; something a little more refreshing than the normal kind of stuff.
CrypticRock.com – Absolutely! You do accomplish that. The songs are compelling and the music videos are compelling too. There seems to be an emphasis on society and vanity in society. Understood, your message is not about being an angry feminist, it is more about looking at things clearly and logically. For example, you attack the topic of cosmetic surgery in high fashion. It seems these are things we cannot escape in modern society. What are your thoughts on this shallow societal outlook?
Rosie Bones – I think it’s really unhealthy. People have cosmetic surgery for all sorts of different reasons; sometimes it’s because they are deeply unhappy. I would never say don’t do something and continue being unhappy, but there is this sort of normalization of you having to look a certain way in order to be deemed beautiful; you have to be a certain figure, etc. There is so much more than that these days! It is just so dangerous for kids growing up in that society; it’s so dangerous for adults as well because you continue to feel like you aren’t quite good enough.
For us, it’s people’s quirks, scars, chipped teeth, and burns, those are the things that make people beautiful: that is people living life and having stories to tell. That is so much more beautiful and should be so much more celebrated than having no spots on your skin or having the most perfect figure. That shouldn’t be celebrated: I think it’s really dangerous for people’s self-esteem; I think people have bad self-esteem and bad things happen.
CrypticRock.com – That is very true. Not to point fingers and scapegoat, but it seems Hollywood projects this unrealistic look at what a man and woman should look like. Hollywood is also extremely hypocritical in many ways.
Rosie Bones – Yea, absolutely! They build you up to rip you down, don’t they? You then need to lose weight, then you lose too much weight. It’s just this continuous judgment of people. People are very self-aware. We live in L.A., we go out to clubs, and a lot of people don’t even dance because they are focused on what they look like or if someone is going to take a photo of them and someone will have a bad angle of them. I think that is so sad because I think if people could learn to love who they are, everyone would be so much happier in my opinion.
CrypticRock.com – Agreed 100%. With that in mind, let’s talk about the music video for “Beautiful is Boring.” It is a great video that shows a role reversal. You ladies are on stage and instead of girls screaming at the guys on the stage, there are screaming guys in the crowd looking at you! It is a wonderful concept.
Rosie Bones – I had this concept for this music video almost as soon as we started the band. Usually, the bands that we tour with are men, sometimes not, but a lot of the time they are. We would be surrounded by these groupies all this time who were throwing themselves at them. It was such an obvious [thing] that happens so often; it’s been happening since before the dawn of time. Mick Jagger will have sat backstage and gotten a blowjob before he went on stage and there would be all these girls screaming at him.
I thought it would be an interesting comment just to reverse it, to see what it would look like; in a way of a playful commentary on what it would actually look like the other way around. It was a really important video for me to make and it was very special. We are very proud of that video.
CrypticRock.com – It works extremely well. Obviously we have heard bits and pieces of BONES. Octane on SiriusXM has picked up on the band. With that in mind, when can we expect a full-length album?
Rosie Bones – We are working on that now. We are very much of the mindset that we will be putting out a record at some point, but we kind of focus on things month to month – putting out videos, etc. The music video has changed so much, we are not so focused on putting the album out. When it’s time to put the album out, we have enough traction to do that and for it to be the right thing to do, then we will do it.
We are not interested in just dropping an album out and hoping people will listen to it. We want to make sure the world we are creating is really tight and we have gotten enough people to actually care about what we are doing to actually buy this album before doing it. We are very sort of month by month – making more videos, putting songs out, and seeing where that takes us. When the time’s right, we’ll do it.
CrypticRock.com – That is a very intelligent plan of attack. Sadly, people do not buy records as much anymore. When the time is right, it will be exciting to hear an album. Originally from the UK, you are now based in the USA. What has your experience been like thus far?
Rosie Bones – We love America, we have had such an amazing time here. We love London too. Most places have their merits. We love it here, we find the people are supportive, and we find that they are responding really well. We kind of felt our music fit more here in the USA, that is why we came here. What we are doing electronically in Rock-n-Roll, we thought would be a better place for it. We love America, but we love London as well. We are very happy here.
CrypticRock.com – That is good to hear. It certainly is a change: you went from overcast England to sunny Southern California.
Rosie Bones – I know! The weather is the main thing. Waking up every day in L.A. and it’s sunny, it’s so good for creativity. We all live together; and have the studio at home, so we are writing all the time and recording. We just do that every single day – making videos and taking photos. We do all our own artwork, videos, and such, so we are basically producing content continuously. The sun definitely helps you wake up in the morning and feel motivated to do that, rather than the rain. I love London, but it’s cold. (Laughs)
CrypticRock.com – (Laughs) Understandable. It is great to hear the creative juices flowing. What about some live shows, you have select shows lined up but can we expect to see BONES hit the road soon?
Rosie Bones – Yes, 100%! We are literally getting lined up now. The Howard Stern Tribute to David Bowie just came out and we are lining up some other stuff. We are doing SXSW. We are going to be doing a few tour supports, we will also be doing our own shows around SXSW as well. That is all being confirmed at the moment.
CrypticRock.com – It would be great to see BONES tour more. Last question for you, on CrypticRock, we cover music as well as Horror and Sci-Fi films. If you are a fan of those genres, what are some of your favorites?
Rosie Bones – I love Horror and Sci-Fi! I loved the new Star Wars: The Last Jedi (2017), and Star Trek is my new favorite franchise. I loved It (2017), fucking loved it! Carmen didn’t like it; Carmen is really scared of Horror movies so she can’t watch them, and she has to leave the room. (Laughs)
Thank you Jeff Beck for collaborating with Rosie and Carmen. I think Rosie is the most bad ass singer and performer that I’ve seen in a long time. Carmen is a great guitarist but keeps a low profile, I also want to comment on the bass player in Beck’s band. I don’t know her name but she is wonderful also. I’m so happy that there are so many more women succeeding in this formerly male dominated industry
I hope to see “Bones” one day if you tour closer to Indy and was disappointed that you werent with the great Jeff Beck when he played in Noblesville last month. We will have to be content to watch you on “Youtube” for the time being I suppose.
Sincerely,
RuthPeterson
Munci, Indiana