ISABEL LAROSA

Date Signed: February 2022

Label: Slumbo Labs / RCA

Type of Music: Pop

Management: Ron Shapiro and Joe Hegleman - Have Fun Management

Publicity: Amanda Charney, amanda@blackpandapr.com

Amanda Zimmerman - RCA, Amanda.zimmerman@sonymusic.com

Web: isabel-larosa.com

A&R: Jake Ottmann, Sr. Vice-President, RCA Records; Founder, Slumbo Labs

Signed to Slumbo Labs/RCA, Isabel LaRosa learned jazz standards from her father at an early age, and older brother Thomas started on the guitar. Jamming around Annapolis, the sibling duo first began songwriting while Isabel was in elementary school, with Thomas interning at Slumbo Labs in New York after high school. Moving into an engineering position, Thomas began providing sister Isabel with feedback as she began to release singles, and all of Isabel’s music has been written as a duo (with Thomas doing all the production). “Isabel and I have been working on music since she was 7, and I was 11,” he shares. “I don’t think there’s anybody that it feels more natural to work with than Isabel.”

Following three independent releases (“16 Candles,” “Closer,” and “Game Boy,” all in 2021), LaRosa’s music started getting attention online, and she was approached about a record deal. The timing of the offer,

Drummer, keys-man, programmer Jack Ashley said that their wildly eclectic sound stems from their wildly eclectic individual influences.

“Ska-punk has ended up being the kind of central point that everyone agreed on,” Ashley says. “It’s ended up being a melting pot of what everyone likes, and that energy comes through.”

After a few years of DIY effort, the logical next step was a deal and Criminal Records was the right home for these Popes. “I’ve known Maha [aka Princess Maha, A&R] for years,” Ashley says. “We actually originally got in touch because we were looking for somewhere to rehearse in London and she had a studio that was available. Since then, I’ve done various engineering work for her, as well. We’ve just kept in touch over the years, and we’ve always been DIY for the most part, doing as much as we can on our own. It was getting to a point where it was nice to have someone, who’s just really good at what they do, show an interest and come onboard. Help us get to the next level. It was a natural thing.”

The band’s first release for Criminal Records is the “Crashmat” single. Lyrically, “‘Crashmat' is about a descent into madness and how you’re supposed to be able to save yourself from that,” Conner explains. “But really, it’s like the blind leading the blind, especially when you don’t have a good system to help you with the big problems that you keep getting into. It’s about surviving when you’re making things worse for yourself every day. Realizing that it’s only you that can help you get out of the situation.” – Brett Callwood says LaRosa, came down to a combination of online momentum (the numbers were moving), and the sound feeling “right” (her confidence had caught up). She feels that her first RCA single, “Haunted” (from debut EP I’m Watching You), was where things “clicked into place,” and her music started gaining traction on TikTok. 2022’s “I’m Yours” garnered over 150 million streams, with LaRosa sharing that what landed for listeners was “the feeling, and the way the visuals matched that feeling sonically.”

Of Jake Ottman, Sr. Vice-President at RCA (and founder of Slumbo Labs), LaRosa says that Ottman really helped her find who she was artistically by advising her to write about things that mattered to her— and to not just focus on cool lyrics. Ottman is quick to add that LaRosa stood out for him because “she had a vision as a young person, and a clarity that I found really well-formed and beyond her years. She knew exactly what she wanted to sound like and who she wanted to be.”

Following 20 shows supporting Nessa Barrett’s national Young Forever tour, LaRosa’s latest release is five-song EP You Fear The God That Loves You – Andrea Beenham