American Indie-Pop Artist Rosie Darling Makes A Global Mark with ‘Coping’ EP

When we ask Rosie Darling how long she’s worked on her debut EP Coping, the Los Angeles-based pop singer is a bit hyperbolic but in the right spirit. “A lot of my friends are like, ‘Oh, you must be so excited, you’ve been working on this EP for a couple years.’ And I’m like, ‘No, actually. It feels like I’ve been working on it my whole life,’” she says over a video call.

Raised in the American east coast in a town near Boston, Darling went to school in North Carolina, spent a summer and explored the music city of Nashville and when she got to Los Angeles for an internship, she began to warm up to the beaches and the city’s culture. “I majored in communications [in North Carolina] and I was interested in video production for a minute but growing up in the age of YouTube, I always wanted to be a singer,” she says. Right from the age of 14, Darling was a singer-songwriter and a recording artist, familiar with the studio and inspired by Taylor Swift.

At 23, she’s not only scored big with vocals on EDM producer OKO’s song “L.A.” (2017) but already earned her own far-reaching hit, “Coping.” A vulnerable tune that walks the line between understated and stirringly emotive. It came out in November as a precursor to the EP. Going on to gain over eight million collective streams (and charting at number five on the India Viral Daily Charts, alongside 14 other Spotify Viral 50 charts), the song was written at a time when Darling says she was “preemptively, mentally prepping myself for the end of a relationship.” She adds, “I make it way more dramatic than it actually is. But then sometimes it is just very dramatic. But ‘Coping’ was really special from the beginning, we sort of had that one really interesting line, and then the rest just completely unfolded on its own.”

Watch the video for “Coping” below. 

While that track was produced by Andy Seltzer and co-written with Justin Gammella, the rest of the six-track EP includes music by artists such as The Wavys and Cooper Holzman, with Darling’s predominantly piano-centric approach going over bittersweet themes about growing. If there’s electronic music elements heard, it probably fits well because Darling is familiar with the space. She’s appreciative about “L.A.” and EDM in general, opining that she might go back to do some more features with producers and DJs. “I went to Coachella a couple years ago, and you see all the big DJs come out to headline, and they always bring their vocalists out and that’s definitely a dream of mine. I can’t imagine what that would be like, maybe on a Zedd song or something like that,” she says.

For now, though, there’s more streams being racked up for Coping and Darling is glad that the music is resonating with people worldwide despite the obvious pandemic-related restrictions on touring and promotions. “I’m kind of still behind this curtain of COVID, you know what I mean? But I’m definitely excited to get out there and actually sing,” she says. The singer gushes about staying up until 1 am to hear her song play on Australian radio Triple J, plus receiving comments from fans in Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and India. She adds, “I feel like, we’re kind of like turning a corner here [in the U.S.]. I’m not sure about any shows right now. But I know that will be the first thing on my mind when we totally get the O.K.”

Stream ‘Coping’ below and on more platforms here.