Sloane, Jazz prodigy meets pop eclecticism on 'Too Young To Be Lonely'

Fans of Jazz and film scores alike may recognize the name, Nick Rosen. The LA dwelling musician, songwriter, and music director is no stranger to the industry. However, the name Sloane is a new concept entirely, a concept created by the Jazz prodigy himself to bring a unique sound to the table, a sound you may not expect.

In late October of 2020, Nick Rosen released his newest project, Too Young To Be Lonely, under the stage name Sloane. The six-song project follows Sloane down an alley of dark and lonely lyricism, while the instrumental aspect takes a light and poppy approach. A combination of eclecticism and melancholia bring about a distinctive sound that could feel just as much at home on a lonely night drive as it could at a beach club. Turncoat got ahold of the renaissance man of music himself to talk a bit more about the new projects, inspirations, and aspirations.

Tell me about 'Sloane' and how you've changed with this new project?

This specific project, Sloane, is only about a year old, but with the EP I released last year compared to this year's album, it's different in the sense that this new ep is written just for me. When I got signed last year, my buddies Thomas and Bill had this label SideOneDummy they hit me up to see if I knew any bands that would work for this label, so I sent them this new song I had released called Old hands new face that was a classic break up song. They liked it and decided to buy it, but I had to make up a project, so I put it together, but a lot of the songs I released were originally intended for other artists. Now, the songs I'm releasing, like "down from here," are very personal songs written just for me.

Where did you derive inspiration from for 'Too Young To Be Lonely'?

I'm a pretty intense person. A lot of it was just from my life. Like down from here is about feeling like I'm faking it; everyone thinks I have this cool life, but I feel like I want to die, and I'm in hell. And the last song was about dating some girl, and I kept making up that she was saying "I love you," so I wrote that line, "maybe I just heard you say I love you in my head." The first song was about how I'm so fucking lonely all the time, but I'm too young to be this lonely. They're really just me trying to use these "journal entries" to find a way to make these songs fun because, in the end, they aren't dark and depressing; I got through it, I want it to be fun. Life is heavy, but I want to enjoy it.

Who are your music heroes?

I'm obsessed with Albert Eiler; I have him tattooed on me. He is this free jazz musician. I have him tattooed down my whole right arm. I was obsessed with Avant-garde music and Jazz, I love the freedom of it.

You've been in the industry for a long time; what advice would you want to give aspiring artists?

Sometimes musicians would ask me how to keep maintaining and doing well, and my answer is always to work harder than anyone else. At 2am, I was working at this night club in LA, and that's what got me a lot of things. So at 2am after a gig, somebody would usually go to bed, but I would go home and watch the gig we just did and make notes and work on it. You have to find your freedom through your own discipline. I don't think freedom means lack of restrictions; I think it means strength through restrictions. I am always rigorously disciplining myself throughout my life. Another thing is self-care is so big, artists under this false impression to create value think you have to do these long sessions, or you have to really burn yourself out. Really in order to do that one gig a month that might pay your whole month, you might need to go to the spa a lot, you might have to read a bunch of great books, hang out with your dog, whatever. Having a super full inspired life is so important, period.