rosecoloredworld Finds the Way Out on “Rock Bottom Has a Basement”
Photo: Heather Koepp
There is a difference between hitting the floor and realizing the floor was never truly the bottom.
For rosecoloredworld’s Rae and Addison, “Rock Bottom Has a Basement” exists within that second realization. The track doesn’t treat a low point as an easy metaphor; it stays in the moment where someone understands they are not just struggling but finally aware of where they have been standing.
It touches on anger, self-awareness, and the search beneath the crash of it all.
“I feel like it was a little bit of both,” Rae says when asked whether they were still in the basement or already climbing out of it while writing the song. “But it was the moment before you can crawl out of a basement. You have to realize you’re in it. You have to have the awareness of how you’re feeling.”
For Rae, that realization didn’t come from a single clear moment. It came after a year filled with pressure, exhaustion, and personal struggles. The kind of season where everything piles up until the body finally acknowledges what the mind has been trying to avoid.
“A lot of last year and going into this year was pretty tough on our mental, emotional, and overall well-being,” she says. “By writing honestly and being vulnerable enough to talk about it, I think that song helped us climb out of it.”
“The ‘let me go, let me go, let me have control’ is like a plea to whatever is running this whole ship,” Addison says. “I’m miserable, let me out of this grip, and you kind of realize that you’re the one holding your own grip and when you realize that, you get to let go.”
That shift is important because “Rock Bottom Has a Basement” does not leave the conflict outside of the body. “You realize you’ve been the gatekeeper of your own shit,” Addison says. “Even in the music video, the whole video we’re trying to outrun this thing. I’m trying to outrun this thing. Then the reveal is myself. You can’t outrun yourself.”
Directed by Matthew Voorhees, the video mirrors that idea without overexplaining it. Rae moves through an abandoned town with something following her, only for the final reveal to bring her face-to-face with herself.
“I really loved the idea that something is following you, but you don’t know what it is,” Rae says. “The reveal at the end, being yourself, felt so powerful because you can’t outrun yourself.”
That sense of self-confrontation isn't limited to just one song. It's part of the bigger world rosecoloredworld is building now. “I feel like the only time to grow, at least in my own human experience, is kind of having a crash and a ‘what the fuck’ moment,” Rae says. “Through creating this new era, we’ve gone through a lot of ‘what the fuck’ moments. A lot of grief, a lot of change, and a lot of moving parts.”
The crash didn't stop the work. It became part of it.
Earlier releases came from Rae and Addison, who mainly built songs in their room. This chapter expands that process. The new material is being recorded with real amps, with Luke Carro playing on the tracks and a stronger focus on making the body of work sound sonically connected.
“We want it to be real,” Rae says. “I feel like in this age where you don’t know what’s real and what’s not, it’s really cool to have something that’s 100% real. People can feel that.”
For Addison, the emotional core of rosecoloredworld hasn't changed, even if the execution has grown. “We still make music the same way,” he says. “The art surrounding it, we definitely have more help with, but emotionally, it’s the same.” The difference is in the finish. The songs are bigger now. More locked in”
Photo: Heather Koepp
Before releasing “Rock Bottom Has a Basement,” rosecoloredworld started playing it on the road. “The biggest test was that we started playing it on the road before we ever released it,” Rae says. “We did it kind of early in the set, and it felt like a turning point. It went from, ‘I don’t know if I know this band,’ to, ‘Wait, I’m moving up to the front,’” she says. “That was a really cool thing to see.”
As the next year unfolds, rosecoloredworld has more singles on the way, festival dates ahead, and a spring tour announcement coming. In January, they will join The Rock Boat with Bowling for Soup, The Struts, DE’WAYNE, and Matt Nathanson before heading back to Atlanta to finish the album.
For now, “Rock Bottom Has a Basement” sets the tone. It is the first look at a chapter built from the low point instead of edited around it. A song about realizing the floor gave way, then deciding that was not where the story had to end.
When Rae thinks about what this era is already teaching them, the answer is simple.
“Trust. Perseverance,” she says. “Believing in yourself, believing in your purpose, believing in the things you love, the people you love, and continuing to trust in it because it’ll take you to where you need to go.”
The basement is not the point. What matters is what happens once you finally know you are in it.
Photo: Heather Koepp