THORNS AND ROSES – An EP Rooted in Truths and Emotion
By Tosin Clegg
From the title, Thorns and Roses it suggests a blend of pain and beauty but as we know pain is part of life, and you really can’t separate the concept of love from the concept of life itself. When anyone stops experiencing love, when they stop giving themselves to that experience, they begin to separate themselves from life. The worth of life is always found in love and its expressions.
On this EP, prolific musical act, Kenneth Right wanted to balance the many emotions and experiences that shaped this EP which needed a title that reflects exactly that. And sometimes on a journey of love, you have to wear a crown of thorns. That’s where the pain and the beauty live together which birthed Thorns and Roses.
The 13 minutes long project settled into four tracks opened with ‘Say My Name’ which unravelled more like a call for need and consciousness. That subtly introduces the thorn described in the title but lyrically the exploration matched the title and gave a drive into the EP concretely.
The second track, ‘6 Months,’ was the most challenging and the most emotional to create, Kenneth Right discloses. Shedding more light on what birthed this track he further explains that, “Primarily because I had to embrace the realities of relationships, drawing from my own experiences and what I’ve witnessed as one of the greatest tests any relationship faces. After the first phase, the butterflies, the excitement, all of those beautiful early moments, comes the phase of commitment. That’s the phase where you’ve gotten to know the person, you’ve seen their worst, or at least their not-so-good parts. It’s where love has to transcend beyond just what you have in common, to embracing every shade of who they are, the good, the bad, and the ugly, and still choosing them. That’s something our humanity will always wrestle with, and honestly, it’s something I’ve wrestled with too.”
‘6 Months’ is really about being steadfast and faithful to your partner even when it feels incredibly hard, because that is the true choice of love. The commitment to remain a constant through every stage, every evolution, every version of that person. And honestly that’s what makes it one of the greatest tests of any lasting relationship.
Embedded with messages the EP core goal as detailed in the two other songs on the project, You And I as well as Do Re Mi starts with understanding that love is a full experience. A lot of people get caught in the bubble of wanting it to be a fairy tale, but fairy tales only exist in movies. Life is far more dynamic than that. The unexpected happens, and the one thing you are always in control of is your response to whatever comes your way. The true joy of any relationship is found in consistency through seasons. When you’re able to be consistent, you gain stability, and that matters because life itself is deeply unstable. It will present you with unexpected choices and circumstances you never saw coming. But being strong in your belief, strong in your choice, strong in love, that’s really the foundation of it. To be able to say, I didn’t see this coming, but regardless of what comes, I will still stand, because this is a choice I made, and it’s rooted in love which is the true test.
But what people need to take away from this project is that love is not just for the good times, but it’s also not a horror story. You will have beautiful moments, and life will also happen. But the beauty of being in love is that you have your partner through all of it. And having that, having someone constant, should be a consolation even through life’s greatest troubles and trials. That’s what Thorns and Roses is really about.
