Rosina Bullen dusts off some painful personal mementos in her poignant new single Inside A Box — showcasing today on Tinnitist.
The second preview of the U.K.-born, Brooklyn-based singer-songwriter’s upcoming sophomore EP Trip To Tikal, this tender, nostalgic piano ballad takes a slow, sad waltz down memory lane. Set to the simple strains of a music-box melody, the lonely Bullen examines romantic moments from her past with sorrow and regret. Intimate and moving, Inside A Box an ode for anyone who wishes they could turn back the clock and retrace their steps to a simpler, happier time.
“Growing up I was a very sensitive kid and I never really felt like I fitted in,” Bullen says. “But the one place I always felt at home was when I was sitting at the piano writing songs. Back in the U.K. at my parents’ place I have a wooden chest which is stuffed full of lots of sentimental things that I have collected over the years… I have lots of letters and photos in there including old Valentine’s cards as well as T-shirts and memorabilia from concerts I’ve been too! It’s very full now and I occasionally love to sit and look through them all when I am feeling sentimental.
“On one such an auspicious day I got the inspiration while looking through my memory box to write a song about it which is where we ended up with this song. I found my old music box inside my memory chest which had a little dancer that spun around when you would wind the box up and it played Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake. I loved this music box so much and it sadly doesn’t work anymore but I still have it in there! This was where the idea for the piano riff came from as I wanted to echo that music box sound of the dancer twirling round and round.”
On Trip to Tikal, Bullen is writing her musical memoir one song at a time. She draws inspiration from the confessional songwriting of Elliott Smith and Phoebe Bridgers, the tight pop of Fleetwood Mac and Kate Bush, and the forward-thinking sonic worlds of Big Thief and Talk Talk as she shares tales from her own life. “The thing that inspires me to write,” she explains, “is when something happens. Every song is linked to some specific event in my life.”
Throughout the EP, Rosina demonstrates she has the craft to draw universal themes from autobiographical storytelling. “I felt very oversensitive as a kid and found the world pretty overwhelming,” she explains. “The way I made sense of the emotions was sitting at the piano and writing it into a song.”
Rosina is joined on Trip To Tikal by her band, which includes Nick Pennington on guitar, Rasmus Sorensen on keyboards, Mathias Jensen on bass and Angus Mason on drums — all friends who met while studying at the Manhattan School of Music. The ensemble worked with producer Hector Castillo (Philip Glass, David Bowie, John Legend), who guided and elevated the process. “Hector made us think about the absolute essentials of the songs,” Rosina recounts. “How can I build it up? What’s the story? He had us talk about what the song is about as a band.”
Through each song, the ensemble’s tight, dynamic interplay supports Rosina’s shining vocal, amplifying the emotional content of the songwriter’s stories. Due in May, Trip To Tikal makes it clear Bullen is a masterful songwriter, a nuanced, emotional vocalist, and that she has more stories to tell.
Check out Inside A Box above, hear more from Rosina Bullen below, and find her on her website, Instagram, Facebook and TikTok.
