Continuing a beloved summer tradition in LA, KCRW returns to Grand Performances to host a special iteration of KCRW’s Summer Nights. Come spend the night under the twinkling stars and city lights with the smoke-filled ballads of Baby Rose, electronic pop explorations with Angélica Garcia, and DJ sets from KCRW DJ Francesca Harding.
Free w/ RSVP on Eventbrite
LOCATION, PARKING & FAQ click here
Baby Rose
Baby Rose makes healing music for the aimless and heartbroken. The
Grammy-nominated singer/songwriter and producer’s uniquely rich
voice naturally lends itself to her powerful, smoke-filled ballads
lamenting lost loves and broken futures. “I make music to help myself
get through things,” she says. The piercing honesty and vulnerability
she brings to her lyrics in turn helps others process their feelings and
find a place of healing. For Rose, it’s a journey that’s still ongoing. “If
I’m going to leave anything behind, it’s going to be getting people back
to themselves,” she says. “As I get back to myself, it’s a constant reset:
Remember who you are, remember who you want to be.”
You can hear the impact of this approach in Baby Rose’s upcoming
second album, Through and Through. Take the hypnotic “Fight Club.”
Over the track’s simmering baseline and crashing cymbals, she
declares, “I don’t need no one else to show me the way.” She describes
the song as a “breaking of the shell. It encourages me to just go for it
and not care about what anyone else thinks.” Therein lies Baby Rose’s
strength: a determination to live, love, and create on her own terms.
“I’m not just a singer with a unique voice,” she says. “I’m somebody
that has something to say.”
In the years since releasing her last album, To Myself, Rose has been
painstakingly piecing together its sequel. Started almost immediately
after its release, her new body of work finds her in a state of musical
and personal transition. It’s a subtle merging of new sounds—stirring
rock, upbeat r&b, psychedelic funk, pop, and soulful ballads—, all
mastered through analog tape to make the music feel warmer and
all-encompassing. It’s also a journey inward as she battles past fear
and self-doubt to finally discover—and love—who she is, where she is.
Finishing an album with such peace and firm resolution is a first for
Rose, but she makes it clear: She’s nowhere near done writing her
story.
“I think as long as I’m being raw and trying to push past my comfort
zone, it will feel rewarding,” she says. “I don’t want to be the type that
doesn’t take risks because I’m afraid. I have to trust that as long as the
music is honest and innovative, it'll be timeless."
Angélica Garcia - Gemelo
In 2020, the singer, songwriter, and pop auteur Angélica Garcia was sitting before an altar that she constructed in her bedroom, as part of the process of her vibrant, prismatic third album, Gemelo. The altar was the culmination of Garcia’s new inquiry into ancestral veneration: looking into the past to inform the present with familial knowledge, helping distinguish her intuition from her conditioning. As a 29-year-old woman raised by an Episcopal priest father in a traditional Latino family structure, she had devoted her recent years to a process of monumental deconstruction of religion, spirit, heritage, and womanhood, confronting grief and healing.
Francesca Harding
Francesca Harding has been working in the music industry as a radio host, DJ and most recently as a music supervisor for over a decade. From DJing internationally to working in the sync and licensing world, Francesca has provided the musical backdrop for a variety of projects alongside the best and brightest in the business.
Working in the film and TV advertising space, Francesca has found campaign music for studios like Pixar, Netflix and Spectrum. She has music supervision and coordinator credits for several long-form projects, as well, including the web series Take Creative Control, Kings of Napa (OWN), Five Feet Apart (CBS Films), and Rim of the World (Netflix).
As a radio host, her mixes have been featured on Los Angeles’ Pacifica Radio, Jay Z’s blog Life and Times, Seattle’s 90.3FM KEXP and Worldwide FM. As a DJ, Francesca has curated content for fashion brands, art publications and music festivals, including the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival, and Chicago's Unisono. She has had the pleasure of spinning for crowds in the UK, Mexico City, Colombia, the Bahamas and South Korea and has played opening sets for artists such as The Weeknd and Ariana Grande.
