Ariel Rose Bloom

Similar artists include: Mazie, Melanie Martinez, Pink Pantheress, Sophie Meiers, UMI, Aurora

Have you ever wondered how it would sound if a fairy wrote and performed a pop song? Look no further than singer-songwriter Posie Pocket.

@posiepocket

A song I wrote for all the escapists out there 🧚🏰🧜‍♀️🧝‍♀️🧌☁️

♬ original sound – Posie Pocket🧚‍♂️ fairy pop🎤

I talked with Posie about growing up in New Hampshire, spirituality, and her unique blend of fairy pop music.

ARIEL: “I discovered your music through a clip of your yet-to-be released song from a live performance posted a few months ago. I was particularly struck by your singing voice—you have such a unique style. How has your vocal style developed and evolved over time?”

POSIE: “That makes me so happy to hear. I definitely struggle with feeling confident in my singing voice. I’ve never had any proper training. I did choir as a kid, but I did not meet their standards, because I don’t sing the way that they wanted me to sing, and at the time I thought that means I’m a bad singer, but now I realized I just didn’t want to be a soprano, singing in my head voice the whole time; I wanted to be down lower—I was an alto, and they just didn’t know.

I remember I would sing so much Christina Aguilera and Adele and these really hard artists to follow—I’d be singing the Burlesque soundtrack, trying to do all of these growls with my voice and doing these really crazy riffs, and then thinking, if I can’t do this, then I’m not a good singer. Because this person is considered a good singer. So I struggled so much with really hard songs—like, Whitney Houston—I’d be belting in my room, and then the next day have a sore throat and have a hard time talking to people.

I’ve since come to more of a place of acceptance. I think Billie Eilish said it best, she said, ‘Who cares if I’m whispering?’ I don’t need to belt to be considered a good singer, I can sing however I want.”

ARIEL: “So true. I love the name Posie Pocket. I know what associations come up for me, but I’d love to know when you chose that name to represent yourself and what your intentions were.”

POSIE: “I was actually Googling ‘fairy names for babies,’ and Posie was on the list. And I thought, oh my gosh, that is so cute.

It’s a bundle of herbs, and people would put this little bundle of herbs in their shirt pockets, because whatever time that song was popular, bathing wasn’t very popular, so people didn’t smell very good. So this little posie would help them smell nice; it almost worked as a little natural perfume. So when you’d go to hug someone, they’d smell the little posie in your shirt, VS your body odor. I thought that was so sweet! I wish that we still used fresh flowers or herbs as perfume these days.

At the time my artist name was just my real name, and I’m really glad I changed it because I think it opened up a whole new facet of my personality and kind of created a new identity of sorts, which has allowed me to express myself in ways I didn’t think I could.”

Listen to Posie Pocket’s most-streamed song “Care” below.

ARIEL: “You’ve said that you write music for ‘your inner child, your higher self, and everyone in between.’ So as a way of honoring your inner child, I’d love to take a bit of time to discuss your upbringing. What kind of environment were you raised in?”

POSIE: “A very, very wholesome, Neverland type of environment. The older I get, the luckier I feel comparing and contrasting childhoods to people that I meet, and realizing how blessed I was to have such a safe bubble. I’m realizing now, children deserve to be naive.

Now, growing up, of course I think it’s my responsibility to know what’s going on in the world and to do something about it, but as a kid, we never watched the news, I never heard about anything beyond the scope of my tiny neighborhood, and everything was so pure there… I grew up in New Hampshire, so there was just all of this lush nature and so much abundance around me that made me feel so safe.

I spent a lot of time being imaginative, and school was a place where I would get scolded for that, which, I remember that being a very confusing transition… Being told I’m not allowed to daydream.

That was my biggest downfall all throughout school—that I was just so busy daydreaming. I was always so excited for school to be over when I could just go fall on my bed, stare at the ceiling, and think about whatever I wanted to think about.”

ARIEL: “Was religion or spirituality a part of your upbringing at all?”

POSIE: “Not really—My mom is an aikido instructor, which is a form of self defense, and it’s a really powerful martial art because of that. It has all of these intricate moves to teach people how to get out of a situation without hurting the other person. So even though it’s very swift and at times powerful and intense, it’s still gentle. Doing the least amount of damage on the person that’s attacking you.

She carried a lot of the spiritual beliefs behind that martial art with her in our home, so we had a lot of Buddhist quotes hanging up. She would carry the beliefs of that culture heavily, and it was really inspiring and important to be around.”

ARIEL: “How has the way you were raised influenced your current beliefs? Is Buddhism something you follow now?”

POSIE: “Yeah, definitely. I think that the idea that we become what we think is very powerful. And I think that among all religions, that is the common theme: belief. If I believe in this higher power or if I pray to this entity, I believe that something good is going to happen to me.

And I think what’s really beautiful today, in joining all of those religions, is that it’s really you. It’s you and your ability to believe. So no matter who it is that you look up to, if you believe in your heart that something good is going to happen to you, and you change that dialogue within yourself—that’s really your heart that’s pushing that energy out into the universe. It’s the idea that if I believe in this energy, I can harness it and I can utilize it for my own good. And I think it’s really important to allow people to believe in magic, in whatever way that means to them.”

ARIEL: “Beautiful. Do you like astrology?”

POSIE: “Oh, yeah. Astrology and the idea that we’re connected to the stars feels like a religion to me. It makes me feel so seen and heard that there’s something watching over me. I have two planets in Virgo—Sun and Moon are both in Virgo, and then I’m a rising Scorpio. I also have Jupiter in Virgo, so that sign weighs heavily on me, and not always in the best ways.”

ARIEL: “Seems like it could be helpful for pursuing something… Virgos seem pretty organized and driven.”

POSIE: “Yeah, that’s true, very organized. But sometimes, as an artist, you don’t want to be organized. Most of the greats were chaotic, messy people. I also don’t want to be paralyzed by perfectionism, and that is something that’s been so hard for me to break through because I get so much analysis paralysis—just overthinking everything. And I need to just release things, and then keep going. Release things, keep going. Look forward, not back.”

ARIEL: “What was the first original track you released, and what was your experience like when releasing original music for the first time?”

POSIE: “I released a song in 2018 called Take Me Home. I was about to graduate college and I was feeling so homesick, and felt so disconnected, and I wrote this little acoustic song. It was the first legitimate song I’d ever even written, so the fact that I released it was a pretty big deal. And I remember the response being really beautiful.

The people in my life at that time made me feel like it was really special and worthy of being shared. Which, it’s hard to find friends that are that encouraging with an art form in LA, where everyone is very… kind of lost in their own world and their own craft. So to have people in my life at that time that were really rooting for me and being cheerleaders for me was crucial for my willingness to share stuff with the world. I’m really thankful for those people, because that is what pushed me to do it and to continue.”

ARIEL: “Is there one song in your catalog that you feel best represents you as an artist?”

POSIE: “Probably Castle in the Clouds. The epitome of that song is just hope and trust. I think that I want all of my music to encompass some form of self-love. It is so empowering to write music about something so positive. It feels so good—to write, to sing, to say, to talk about. And there’s definitely negative energies swirling inside of me that I think could create some really interesting songs. But I do fear how I might magnify the negativity by translating it into a song, and I would rather magnify the joyous emotions in my body.”

Watch the music video for “Castle in The Clouds” below.

ARIEL: “I’ve had your song ‘Peace>Pleasure’ on repeat lately. On your SoundCloud, you said it’s about letting go. Can you expand on that a bit?”

POSIE: “I was actually questioning whether or not music was something I should be pursuing when I wrote that song… I was feeling pretty defeated, and I remember thinking, even if nothing ever comes of my music in the form of recognition on a large scale or financial success or whatever that really means, if I never feel this sense of fulfillment, will I still make music, and will I still be okay with this expression as it is now?

Coming to that realization that even if nobody heard it and nobody cared, it feels so good to create and to share something—with myself, even!—to remind myself of what I’ve been through and what I’m thinking and feeling, and to release my scope of my little life in the form of a song. That feels so peaceful… to find a sense of peace and understanding with who I am and how I want to express myself, VS the pleasure of, ‘I’m making so much money doing this,’ or have hundreds of thousands of followers— that form of pleasure, satisfaction feeling. Which I’m sure is extremely validating for a lot of people, but to be able to feel happy and content without that is really important to me as an artist.

So there’s parts of that song where I’m saying, ‘maybe in my next life,’ oh well. It doesn’t matter! I’m content finding a sense of peace in knowing that this is something that I want to create for myself.”

I finished my talk with Posie feeling a sense of immense gratitude, and her sage advice echoing in my head…

“If I never write, how will I share this? … If I never try, how would I know? If I never slip, then you won’t know—I’m new to this. Maybe I could be perfect for this…” – Posie Pocket, Peace>Pleasure

Even if no one reads these words, I’m still glad I wrote them.

Posie’s latest song “Friend in My Head” oozes with hyperpop danceability. And like a great deal of her other releases, the track serves as a sort of musical affirmation. With lyrics like, “I’ve got a safe place to pretend that I’m okay just as I am,” the listener is reminded of how peaceful self acceptance can be.

Preview Posie Pocket’s most recent track below, then listen in full on Spotify or Apple Music.