From Riverside, California, the alternative-folk artist and singer-songwriter Eva & The Vagabond Tales release a sweet-sounding and lush single with, "Rose Colored Dreams."
When one feasts their ears on the bright and serene stylings of Eva & The Vagabond Tales, they're bound to feel a whirlwind of emotions that stirs the soul. As she creates emotional, passionate, and lighthearted alt-folk music, Eva & The Vagabond Tales is always one to touch on essential lyrical themes and concepts through each release.
With her latest single, "Rose Colored Dreams," Eva & The Vagabond Tales managed to land the song in the recent comedy special, 'Erica Rhodes: La Vie En Rhodes.' Inspired by the old saying 'a look at life through rose-colored glasses,' Eva & The Vagabond Tales' accompanying music video highlights the phrase as she basks in the desert's beauty while wearing Lennon-esque rose-tinted shades.
Expanding on the single itself, "Rose Colored Dreams" opens with lush ukulele melodies and Eva & The Vagabond Tales' bright and breathy vocal stylings. While the instrumentals slowly develop with help from twangy guitars and a soft harmonica, Eva & The Vagabond Tales lets us into the song's inspirational and heartfelt concept.
As Eva & The Vagabond Tales touches on themes of optimism, she also mentions how life isn't always so freeing and liberating and that we must use our dreams/imagination to make a great escape. As the instrumentals lead us towards the outro alongside Eva & The Vagabond Tales' soothing soprano vocals, the song comes to a sweet ending while leaving listeners with boundless inspiration.
Allow Eva & The Vagabond Tales' recent single, "Rose Colored Dreams," to remind you of life's beauty amid the chaos, and catch the young singer-songwriter in the song's accompanying music video available on YouTube.
Welcome to BuzzMusic, Eva & The Vagabond Tales. We must thank you for creating such a universally relatable single like "Rose Colored Dreams." Was there a particular moment that inspired you to create a single surrounding life's beauty and struggle?
Thank you for having me! Yes, there was definitely a moment that inspired Rose Colored Dreams. I wrote this song in the middle of the pandemic in 2020. Life and work abruptly stopped for many people, leaving a lot of us anxious, frustrated, and lonely. It felt like my music career was over, and I didn’t know when my band and I would have the chance to reunite to perform together again. Plus there were so many tragedies day after day throughout the year, leaving the whole world in pain. I took a trip to Yosemite, thinking it would cure my friends and I. While it helped to be out in nature, the pressure of what was going on in the world around us, and the weight of our personal lives heavily stayed with us. As we were leaving the park, I got a message from comedian Erica Rhodes. She asked me to write a song for her comedy special, which was taped at the Rose Bowl. She told me about the topics she talks about in the special, including not having things, chaos all around, and the idea of La Vie en Rose… looking at life through rose-colored glasses. Instantly, I thought of all the struggles that myself and others around the world were going through, and how sometimes it helps to find a momentary escape in our wild imaginations. I started writing Rose Colored Dreams on the windy road home, passing through a forest of pine trees.
Did you create and record the instrumentals yourself for "Rose Colored Dreams?" Why did you choose to keep the instrumentals so minimal yet so soothing?
I finished writing and arranging the song the day after coming back from Yosemite and started to record it immediately, using the instruments I had in my room. Erica Rhodes wanted a French accordion theme, so I wanted to let the accordion shine and didn’t add too much to distract from it. The song itself didn’t feel like it needed a lot to get the tone and the message across, so I kept it minimal. I sent it to my band, and then a few days later, we met in Yucaipa, CA to record it. It was our first time seeing each other in months. Jacob Pflum recorded all the instruments and played drums on the song. Jasmine Capitulo played accordion, and Alan Arteaga played bass and electric guitar. I recorded and played the acoustic guitars, ukulele, piano, and vocals at home. We kept a safe distance from each other, and we were very fortunate to be able to do this with the pandemic restrictions!
What was your shooting process like for the music video, "Rose Colored Dreams," and how did you manage to capture the song's theme throughout the video's scenes?
As soon as the song was finished, we started filming with Xpander Productions. During that time, fires started all over California. I originally wanted beautiful, green scenery for the video, to show what life looks like through rose-colored glasses. However, because of the fires, we adjusted the view to show an outside perspective of what wearing rose-colored glasses in a world of chaos might look like. In effect, we were taking the advice of the song itself, and happily working with what we had. We went to a then-recently burned location, started shooting, and it just worked. The idea for the video developed as we shot it. Xpander Productions, Jacob Pflum, and I bounced ideas around, and layered more and more textures to the story, as it revealed itself to us. It was a little challenging because we would take a week(s) long breaks without shooting, for Covid safety. In the end, we made a video that takes you into the world of color and reveals how different colors paint different moods and atmospheres in a person’s life. In the video, the main character nonchalantly prances through a heavily burned mountainside, not realizing or seeing any of the struggles and damage around her, all thanks to the rose-colored glasses that cover reality.
For listeners who are just discovering your music now, can you expand on what your music usually delivers and what sort of themes you typically touch on?
With my music, I love delivering honesty and a feeling that isn’t watered down by what’s expected in the commercial industry or bordered by genres and instrumentation. I still use music to express my deepest emotions, and by releasing that music, my biggest goal is to connect to others who might be looking for that certain song to explain those feelings or circumstances in their life that don’t have words attached to them. When people listen to my music, I want them to feel like they are not alone in the things they’re going through, and that there is always somebody in this world that will understand them.