Alternative pop artist Annika Rose releases her new single “CALL ME,” in partnership with Broke Records, listen HERE. The track opens her forthcoming EP READ ALL ABOUT IT, with a song about choosing independence over the possibility of love, and wondering whether the friendship caught between the two can survive.
The single arrives alongside the fourth edition of The Bond St. Bulletin, the newspaper she writes, prints, and distributes herself. Through each issue, she expands the story behind her music and transforms a digital release into a physical object fans can hold onto. Rose has distributed more than 5,000 copies across previous editions, staging newspaper drops in cities throughout the country on release days. Beginning today, the latest issue will also be stocked at select independent bookstores and record stores across Los Angeles.
Written by Annika Rose and the same collaborators behind her internet hit “I’M GOOD. I’M GREAT,” Austin Ward (Tom Morello, Stella Lefty, Wrabel), and J Tyler Johnson (Half Alive), also produced by Ward and Johnson, “CALL ME” moves between restraint and release, pairing sparse, confessional verses with a chorus that opens into something warmer. Blending alternative pop, indie pop, and pop rock, the song captures the emotional tension between protecting your own space and still wishing a certain person would reach out.
“For the first time in years, I was discovering who I was when I wasn’t being defined by another human,” Rose says. “I cared about this person deeply, but I knew I wasn’t ready for another relationship—and I wasn’t willing to risk losing one of the most important friendships in my life by forcing something that wasn’t right with shaky hands. This song isn’t about wanting someone back. It’s about wishing you could skip over the awkwardness and uncertainty that follows and just hear their voice again—to know that person is still anchored next to you despite the prospect of romance. Sometimes choosing yourself can be just as painful as choosing someone else, and ‘CALL ME’ lives in that liminal space between protecting your autonomy and trying not to lose someone you love.”
Rose wrote “CALL ME” during a period of newfound independence after leaving a long-term relationship and beginning to rediscover who she was outside of an intimate partnership. When she and one of her closest friends acknowledged an additional, romantic layer to their connection, she was forced to consider whether pursuing it was worth risking the friendship she already valued so deeply.
To celebrate the release, Rose will host a press conference and intimate acoustic performance in Los Angeles on Tuesday, August 4 at 12:00 p.m. PDT at 1058 S. Fairfax Ave. She will give a short address on why she is putting music back into print, take questions from the press at a podium, sign copies of The Bond St. Bulletin, and perform four unreleased songs from her upcoming EP. Presented without a traditional stage, the performance will place attendees inside the world of the record and offer the first public preview of music from READ ALL ABOUT IT. Media can RSVP to charlie@lewislinepr.com
