Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Occam’s Rose. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Hi Occam’s, thanks for joining us today. Can you talk to us about a project that’s meant a lot to you?

Occam’s Rose recently released the “What Your Demons Said” EP which features three different songs with varying instrumentation and styles. One song in particular, “An Evening In Spring” was written to honor Anastasia’s late friend, Greg, who took his life in May of 2018. The song has a unique structure and the instrumentation builds through the end of the song ending on an isolated vocal note to emulate the intensity of the topic as well as the emotional catharsis that came with this homage. The song also discusses the stigma that led to Greg’s decision and calls out the fear of discussing the topic of suicide which often leads people to feel more isolated in their pain and increases the likelihood it will occur. In addition to her creative path, Anastasia is also a licensed professional counselor and board-certified music therapist which informed the lyricism in “An Evening In Spring” as well.

Occam’s, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

Occam’s Rose is a versatile and eclectic duo that was formed in the summer of 2021 established by artists, songwriters, and composers Anastasia Canfield (Anastasia Rose) and Peter Hirschhorn (Peter Rein Hirschhorn). The two had been collaborating for several months as Peter joined Anastasia for several solo gigs in the first year of the pandemic. Anastasia invited Peter to join her for a recording session and collaborate on original song, “Losing Sleep”, which led to discussions of an official collaboration and creation of a new project which the duo named Occam’s Rose. The name of the duo was derived from the philosophical idea Occam’s Razor which touted the Law of Parsimony — often the answer to complex problems lies in the simplest of solutions. The duo spent many late nights discussing politics, philosophy, social issues, and more and often settled on a simple — but not necessarily easy — answer to many of these concerns. These musings continue to make their way into the duo’s lyricism — even in the satirical songs like “Ballad of the Minotaur”.
While Occam’s Rose was established as a duo, the two are multi-instrumentalists and fill out studio recordings with their vast instrumentation. At times, the duo invites other musicians to join to fill out the sound live similar to the recordings. For almost every song Occam’s Rose performs, there is at least two versions of it — a duo version and a full band version. There might be other versions including various other instrumentation, back-up singers, etc as well.
All in all, Occam’s Rose has many forms, but is never without Anastasia and Peter as the core members.

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

We both had to unlearn the insidious belief that there are a finite number of ways to be successful as musicians. We also had to unlearn that other people’s definition of success does not have to be our own. We are classically-trained and in the classical music world, there can be toxicity, elitism, and stigma. Sadly, we are not immune to this and, thusly, took much of this on as we have defined ourselves as musicians. We are still a young project, but overall, we have been successful in the traditional sense as well as our definitions of success. We play lucrative gigs that help us pay the bills. We have embarked on tours. We have numerous studio recordings. We are glad about all of these things, but we are also proud of the music we make and we appreciate the people who we have met through this project. We have been able to seek and reach catharsis and healing through our music. We have grown closer together because of this project. Occam’s Rose far exceeds what we could ever define as success because it has aligned our worlds in new ways.

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?

We appreciate having a voice. Art transcends words and it is a palatable medium for what we would like to share. Sometimes, it is the only way to share difficult things. Art increases our humanity and we believe people are generally made better by engaging whole-heartedly in art.

Contact Info:

• Website: occamsrose.com
• Instagram: instagram.com/occamsrose
• Facebook: facebook.com/occamsrose
• Twitter: twitter.com/occamsrose
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@occamsrose

Image Credits
Gab Kaplan Chris Tracy Photography