COMING UP ROSES - Over Your Head

Combining guitar-driven alternative rock with catchy melodies, Coming Up Roses are a London-based quartet inspired by the sounds of post-punk and shoegaze. With three EPs already under their belt, the group recently signed to INH Records and will release their debut album, ‘How Did We Fall So Far?’, on 20th June.

‘Over Your Head’ is the third single from the album to be issued ahead of its release. “It’s about the struggles of perfectionism and focusing so much on being what is considered the perfect person that you neglect yourself,” the band explain. “It questions what happens when you don’t meet your own impossible expectations, although there is also an undertone to the song of showing empathy and kindness to those who struggle to be kind to themselves.”

Musically, the song has a more anthemic feel to it than its two predecessors, ‘I’m In Bed’ and ‘Tired’, both of which were evidence of a recent harder-edged approach to the band's sound that is also on display elsewhere on the new album.

Coming Up Roses are fronted by singer/bassist Emily Sera, who relocated from Singapore to the UK in late 2022 together with guitarist Darius Oon so they could pursue their dream of being in a band as a full-time career. They subsequently met and joined forces with guitarist Charlie Wilson and drummer Caleb Blake.

Discussing the central themes of the upcoming album, Emily states that “we drew a lot on our personal emotional journey of our move to the UK and the record touches on things that people might not necessarily want to show the world. Although not everyone can relate to uprooting their lives, most people can relate to introspective struggles and the repercussions of things that keep them awake at night.”

In regard to its songs, she continues: “it’s guitar-driven alt-rock with pop sensibilities, kind of like if Paramore had more shoegaze and dreampop influences. We’re also a lot more focused on the storytelling element of our music.” Darius adds: “we wanted to write a record that people can sing along to, but also mosh and cry to. It is definitely a shift towards our more ‘rock’ sound that we’ve hinted at previously, while there is also a bit more of an open, grandiose feeling on certain songs. We also had the album title for a while; it's about questioning how you could let yourself fall to a point that you feel like you don’t recognise yourself, but also seeks to reflect on how society can reject those feelings by ignoring them.”

COMING UP ROSES
Influenced by the likes of Wolf Alice, The Joy Formidable and Paramore, along with the vocal production of Ethel Cain and the guitar sound of Deafheaven and DIIV, Coming Up Roses also take inspiration from the vibrant sounds of the burgeoning South East Asian indie scene, blending all this with other British influences.

Directly confronting the uncomfortable to find solace, the multiculturally informed songs presented by the group detail universal themes such as loss, struggles with mental health and personal aspirations. With a sound that is distinctly familiar yet with an appealingly elusive quality that also recalls the likes of The Sundays, Lush and The Cranberries, they have released three EPs to date: ‘Waters’ (2019), ‘Everything Is’ (2021), and ‘Coming Up Roses’ (2024). Their long-awaited debut album will be released via INH Records in late June 2025.