By Cliff Notez

Photographer: Joel Benjamin, Album Artwork: Jeff Manning

Shea Rose drops her mind into her heart and shows us why some songs are unfortunately timeless

Sinéad O’Connor originally wrote the song “Black Boys on Mopeds” in 1990 about police brutality in the United Kingdom. The song came as a part of O’Connor’s record I Do Not Want What I Haven’t Got. 7 years before this album was released, in the London Borough of Hackney, the community had begun to urge for public inquiries into unjust policing in the area. Within that time frame, in the entrance of Stoke Newington’s Police Station, Colin Roach, a 21-year-old black British man died  from a gunshot wound. No public inquiry was ever satisfied, but an inquest into the incident was conducted in which the verdict of Roach’s death was ruled a suicide. O’Connor dedicated this debut record to Roach’s family. Just a year before the release of this record, Nicholas Bramble was killed in a road accident after being pursued by police for stealing a moped that he owned. This song was said to have been written for Nicholas Bramble, a 17-year-old black boy who was unjustly pursued by police, causing his accidental death.

Shea Rose is a Boston born singer songwriter and graduate of Berklee College of Music. Since her graduation she has been anything but stagnant. Racking up award Nominations from the Boston Music Awards, including Artist of the year for (R&B/Soul/Urban Contemporary) in 2011 and Artist of the year (Pop/R&B). Her diversity in award nominations is a tell tale of her wide variety of talent, but there is much more to Shea Rose and we get to embark on that long journey with her soon! Almost 3 decades after the initial inspiration, and half way around the world, unfortunately, this Black Boys on Mopeds is still very relevant, and Shea took some time to talk with us about why she decided to shine her light on this song and its subject matter once again. Rose reminds us how music often times offers artists a platform to speak on injustice.

Allston Pudding: Why did this song, by this artist, become your choice of voice on these issues?

Shea Rose: I first heard “Black Boys On Mopeds” about ten years ago while living in Kingston, Jamaica.  I’ve always felt a timeless connection to this song and the message.  I was struck by its relevance then and that was fifteen years after Sinéad O’Connor released the song in 1990.  Here we are 26 years later and the same brutality, corruption, and violence toward black men that Sinéad wrote about is still happening with no fair justice or recourse.

I’ve always found Sinéad O’Connor to be ahead of her time and bold in her voice.  When she made it center stage in the music industry, she decided to use her platform and celebrity to shed light on social injustice and systematic oppression across the globe. Why her?  She took the industry head-on and chose to speak her truth. That takes courage.

AP: What was most present in your mind when recording this record?

SR: “Black Boys On Mopeds” is the very first song that I can say I dropped my mind into my heart and sang from it.  I tried to record the song several times with guitar and voice, similar to the original, and I wasn’t doing it any justice. Producer Simone Scazzocchio suggested I sing the song with no music, no click, just straight through acapella.  I did several takes of the song this way and it allowed me to open up and liberate the story and message of the lyrics. The arrangement and production were added after my vocal performance.

AP: This is a pretty lyrically dense and tense song, and singing acapella must have helped you to really focus on exactly what you were saying. Was there any specific lyric in this song that really stuck with you and why was it important to you?

SR: The lyric of the chorus, “England’s not the mythical land of Madame George and roses/ It’s the home of police who kill black boys on mopeds,” struck me when I first heard the song.  This was, of course, a provocative and true statement about the senseless killing of young black boys and men.  Sinéad O’Connor takes it a step further by explicitly naming political figures and institutions, exposing the system for what it is:  corrupt and hypocritical.  “These are dangerous days, to say what you feel is to dig your own grave. If you were of the world they would love you.”  Such a true and timely statement.  It’s what I feel is the most powerful, potent, and universal lyric in the song.

AP: What’s next on the docket for Shea Rose?

 SR: I’ve spent the last few years working on a project called D.T.M.A. (Dance This Mess Around), which we are releasing over the course of the next few months. During the time frame of creating this album, my career and personal life took a few dramatic turns. I was offered a major record deal and I turned it down. I realized that this project became representative of my struggle to conform in order to get that major record contract, and the freedom I felt turning it down and truly discovering my own identity. This album, similar to my recording of “Black Boys on Mopeds,” was part of my journey towards establishing [to myself] my voice and self-identity as an artist.

AP: Sounds exciting, tell me more! What can we expect from this project?

SR: Well this project won’t be released in the way a traditional album would be, all at once. We’re revealing one track at a time over the next four months, beginning this Friday, October 14th with the single “Do I Really Wanna Be (A Rock Star).” Every song will be accompanied by its own fashion-forward cover art and a video interview that will hopefully give you a bit of insight into my journey and what each song means to me. This album is not just a presentation of a piece of art I have worked on, but very much about the actual work and process that I and all my collaborators went through to make it. We want to expose that process to the public, presenting the process as the art.