The Californian pop favourite talks about her vivacious second album, My Lover, its new deluxe version, sharing a stage with Alex Warren, and what’s next for her.
If you were anywhere near TikTok in 2020, chances are you heard Claire Rosinkranz’s “Backyard Boy”. The then-16-year-old’s debut viral hit became the soundtrack to oodles of videos, with around 2.7 million people putting their own spin on the song and its instantly recognisable lyrics: “5, 6, 7, 8 / Dance with me in my backyard, boy / Looking super fine in your corduroy.” What started as a bedroom banger laid the foundations for a career that has since amassed more than two billion streams.
Music, though, has always been at the epicentre of Rosinkranz’s world. Her Icelandic father, a classically trained composer and violinist, works alongside her as her lead producer and engineer. Her mother is a musician. One grandmother is an opera singer, the other is a music educator. It’s a musical lineage that decorates the 22-year-old’s own work, where songwriting, production and instrumentation have always blurred together.
Now, Rosinkranz is nearing the end of the My Lover era, her sophomore album, and its deluxe version, released on 21st August. Gardens have long offered a way to make sense of the messier parts of growing up – a place where roots tangle with weeds, beauty sits alongside decay, and endings make room for something new; on My Lover, that metaphor is used to reflect the cycles, contradictions and joys that come with growing up.
Speaking with Wonderland, the polymath dives into her new deluxe, reflects on her journey, and looks ahead to what’s next.
Listen to My Lover (Deluxe)…
Read the interview…
Why did you decide to call your debut album My Lover?
Through the lens of love, you explore and discover so much about yourself. My Lover is symbolic of many different relationships – not just a significant other. If you try to look at the world through a lens of love – you can engage in the world as an upgraded version of yourself.
My Lover is built around this idea of a garden. At what point did that become the thing that tied everything together?
Before I even started the project, I would often compare life to the imagery of a garden to help process things in my life. It’s a beautiful picture of joy, blossoming, hardship, wilting, roots, and weeds. It’s a great analogy of the human experience.
What does your songwriting process usually look like?
It can happen anywhere. Melodies and lyrics kind of just pop into my head, and if I listen carefully, I can continue to follow them into these beautiful songs.
Where do you usually find inspiration outside of music?
I genuinely can find inspiration in anything – other people, books, a sunset, something I hear in passing, etc.
“Backyard Boy” blew up when you were still really young. Looking back now, what do you think that version of Claire would make of My Lover?
Hopefully, she’d love it!
Why did you decide to release this deluxe version of the album? What do you think the additional songs add to the album’s conceptual essence?
Honestly, they’re just an extension of the music and stories I was writing about in the My Lover project, so I thought, why not release them rather than let them sit in the vault of unreleased music? And I love them!
You recently played Lollapalooza. What was your favourite moment from the weekend, either on stage or behind the scenes?
Playing the show was absolutely the highlight. It also started raining, which, to me, was the cherry on top.
What was it like to open for Alex Warren on tour, and how did you two meet?
It was an amazing experience! Alex and his team are awesome human beings, and I felt so lucky to open up the stage for him each night. We had many, many mutual friends, but we didn’t happen to meet until the beginning of the tour.
Now that the My Lover era is nearing an end, what’s next for you? More touring, more music, or a bit of a break?
I’m already back in the studio almost every day, making music that I am even more excited about. I’m testing out different genres all the time and going back on tour in the fall, as well as playing ACL [Austin City Limits] at both weekends.
