JUNO Award-winner Rose Cousins has released a video for “The Fraud,” the song she says provides the central theme to her upcoming album Bravado. Performed live at Prince Edward Island’s Confederation Centre of the Arts with the Atlantic String Machine, Cousins’ powerful performance epitomizes what it takes to put yourself out there and open yourself to vulnerability.
“’The Fraud’ [is] the true seed for this whole record,” says Cousins.
The seed Cousins describes is an untethered, unfiltered rawness necessary for life. It’s complicated, often defying the laws of physics by occupying time places simultaneously, and unapologetic about it. Most of all, it is authentic.
The song, and the album by extension, explores the disassociation created by a world that would rather engage through social media than socially. It’s we can effectively hide from the world, isolating ourselves, arguably to our own detriment, and how that effects those around us well.
“The idea of shooting it in an empty theatre as a live performance was the only way I could think to really capture it’s turbulent vulnerability. I immediately thought of The Confederation Centre of the Arts (home to Anne of Green Gables), where I will be playing my PEI release show in March, and the amazing Atlantic String Machine quintet. Strings highlight so much emotion. Filmmaker Shehab Illyas created a really moving video I’m so pleased with.”
Rose Cousins’ Bravado is due out February 21, 2020 via Outside Music.
Tour Dates:
03.05.20 – Toronto, ON – Danforth Music Hall ^
03.06.20 – Ottawa, ON – NAC Babs Asper Theatre ^
03.19.20 – Halifax, NS – Rebecca Cohn Auditorium ^
03.20.20 – Fredericton, NB – Wilmot United Church ^
03.21.20 – Charlottetown, PEI – Confederation Centre of the Arts ^
* with Patty Griffin
^ with John Paul White