Precious Pepala on heartbreak, healing and finding her voice
The alt-pop artist talks all things ‘Rosey’.
Photo: Press
Sheffield-born alt-pop artist Precious Pepala recently returned with her latest EP Rosey: a cinematic exploration of modern romance, obsession and emotional self-destruction. Led by the EP’s title character, Rosey tells the story of a toxic relationship that spirals towards tragedy. Ahead of its release, Pepala sat down with us to discuss the inspiration behind the project, navigating authenticity, and the lessons she’s learned throughout her career so far.
You’ve described your latest EP as a continuous narrative that ends in a dramatic, fatal conclusion. What drew you to telling a story like that?
I’ve always been drawn to the idea of writing songs with a twist and having that lyric, that concept that makes someone go, ‘Oh, this is different. This is cool.’ I’d never dived into the world of writing love songs before, and I didn’t want to just write a love song that sounded like any other love song, so I decided to add my own twist on it.
The EP’s protagonist, Rosey, ignores red flags and dives headfirst into things without thinking. How much of that is rooted in real life?
I think a lot of it is rooted in real life, to be honest. I like to think of myself as quite mature, quite smart and emotionally intelligent, but I do make silly choices sometimes. I also have a lot of friends that I’ll talk to about their love lives, and I’m like, ‘What are you doing?’ I see Rosey in everyone. Dating culture right now is just so toxic. There’s red flags everywhere, so I just think Rosey’s a bit of everyone.
Is there a track on Rosey that feels particularly cathartic for you?
Love Bombs is the one that I feel really cuts deep for me emotionally. A lot of my music starts at a personal place, but then I’ll look outward and make it as universally relatable as possible. With Love Bombs, that kind of went out the window and I was just like, ‘This is for me’. I wrote it about a very early experience in the music industry, but wrote it in a way where it feels like it’s about a relationship.
How did your early experiences in the music industry shape you as an artist?
It helped me to realise the kind of people I don’t want to be around, and that I do need to stand on what I think makes the most sense for me and not let outside opinions infiltrate what I do. I have a lot of regrets from certain choices I made creatively early on because I had a lot of people in my ear. But I also have to give myself grace because I was 16 and I didn’t know any better.
Do you think learning to trust yourself has been a big part of that as well?
Yeah, I think it’s trusting myself more, but also because I very much just want to be friends with everyone, I have to remember it’s business at the end of the day. I’ve had people who I thought were going to be with me until the very end of my career, and it went really sour. People show their true colours when it comes to those tough conversations. I’ve had to learn to trust myself, trust my family, my friends, my manager, and keep my inner circle tight-knit.
If you could fast-forward and see yourself having achieved everything you could possibly dream of, what kind of artist would you want to be?
I would want to be an artist that’s able to tour all over the world. I love performing. I’d love to be able to come off stage after doing a two-hour set and be like, ‘I nailed that, the crowd really connected with it, I had the best time, and I have no regrets’.
Rosey is out now.
You can also find this interview in print. Order Issue 2 of The Indie Scene Magazine here.