Though she may be from out of town, her sound is rooted in something more akin to Sarah Vaughan’s earthiness than Outkast’s outer space. Since the age of seven, the Savannah native has trained in choral and operatic music, which allows her to do the kind of free-range vocal grazing foreign to many young singers. “Black Keys,” from her recently released Spectrum EP sounds like a hip-hop-era Vaughn, with lush vocals floating over jazzy, electro beats. “Her tone was impeccable,” says Bosco, describing her admiration for Vaughan’s ability to convey so much feeling through vocal manipulation. “And that’s what I want my music to portray, the spirit of Sarah. Yet I have my own style.” While Bosco vocally distinguishes herself, certain other-worldly themes admittedly inspired her to fashion her own Funkyolon, the destination she invites listeners to on Spectrum’s intro. “Like Janelle [Monae] has Metropolis and Erykah Badu has the Vortex [tour], this is their world, and I just wanted to create my own,” she says. “When you come to my shows, you’re entering into Funkyolon – that’s the continent leading up to the ‘City of Nowhere.’ It’s just more conceptual if people are more familiar with a place.” Currently majoring in fashion design at Atlanta’s SCAD (Savannah College of Art and Design) she’s also part of the Big Up, a collegiate collective of music and design students who independently produced and packaged Spectrum. It’s an arresting, genre-bending mix: “8-Trak” combines rough soul vocals with a throbbing Caribbean backdrop and jazzy horns. “City of Nowhere” boasts whispery R&B vocals over a laid-back electro-beat. And “Black and White” puts Bosco’s bluesy tone front and center over a sparse, heartbreaking piano. “I’m trying to create my own buzz, my own sound,” Bosco says. “I’m not gonna tell you verbatim what’s going in my life, but if you listen you will actually catch pieces of what’s going on with me and also in me.”| |
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