Rozi Plain live at KCRW Studios.
Rozi Plain live at KCRW Studios.
Video directed by Angie Scarpa, all photos by Larry Hirshowitz.

Rozi Plain: KCRW Live from HQ

Intimate performances, fresh sounds, and candid conversations with a view.

Written by Marion Hodges

The term “D.I.Y.” gets thrown around in music a lot these days, but London alt-folk singer-songwriter Rozi Plain is the real thing. Coming up through open-mic nights as a teenager in her hometown of Winchester, she quite literally forged her own sound through the electric guitar she built during a uni-mandated work experience program at a guitar shop. These days, you can still find her posted up at London’s Total Refreshment Centre, a recording studio/venue/cultural hub for the city’s emergent jazz vanguard — that is, when she’s not busy touring with the likes of Paramore, Devendra Banhart, and K.T. Tunstall as a solo artist, or making music as a member of This Is The Kit.  

Community is central to the spirit of Plain’s craft, with a vast range of collaborators — from Hot Chip’s Alexis Taylor to saxophonist Alabaster DePlume — contributing to songs that lull you in and keep you hooked with subtle layers of complexity. Plain’s fifth studio album Prize invites you onto its wavelength with light-touch production and instrumentation (plus plentiful jazz chords) that put her aural and lyrical storytelling front and center. 

Constant through all of this (teen years included) has been her friendship with This Is The Kit’s Kate Stables. To this day, they each play backup in each other’s bands. 

In the spirit of sharing, Plain brought her band — Stables (bass and backing vocals), Lucien Chatin (drums), Michael Hilger (keyboards), and Jordan Blackman (guitar) — to make their U.S. radio debut with KCRW, featuring Prize cuts like “Complicated,” “Agreeing for Two,” and “Spot Thirteen.” Watch to your heart’s content via the video link above. 

More: Cat Power: KCRW Live from HQ

Tracklist

  • Complicated 0:00
  • Spot Thirteen 5:14
  • Conversation 10:20
  • Agreeing for Two 13:06

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Credits:

KCRW Music Director: Anne Litt
Interviewer: Anthony Valadez
Director, Editor, Color: Angie Scarpa
Directors of Photography: Dalton Blanco and Vice Cooler
Camera Operators: Dalton Blanco, Vice Cooler, Angie Scarpa
Recording / Mix Engineer: Katie Gilchrest
Assistant Engineer: Hope Brush
Executive Producer: Ariana Morgenstern
Producer: Anna Chang and Liv Surnow
Digital Producer: Marion Hodges
Digital Editor: Andrea Domanick
Lighting Design: Jason Groman
Art Director: Evan Solano

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