“When I came to Berklee I didn’t know anything about music,’’ said Rose, who performs at the Middle East Downstairs on Saturday, sitting inside a mostly empty Berklee Rehearsal Center on a cold Monday evening. As an admittedly shy high school student, Rose never played an instrument and didn’t begin singing until joining the chorus of the school’s production of “Hello, Dolly!’’ her senior year. Even her motivation to explore music more seriously came from the desire to avoid a 9-to-5 existence rather than any fervent desire to be a star. “Growing up I just listened to Top 40 or whatever was on the radio. I wasn’t interested in music like that.’’
Her talent for creative writing eventually led to translating her poems into songs, but early efforts at singing with a band of Berklee-based musicians left her frustrated by the gap between their technical skills and her more instinctual approach, and she decided to enroll in 2007, the final year in which applications did not require an accompanying audition. Entering into an elite music school as a virtual novice, she found the adjustment period trying.
“I thought I was going to die my first semester because everybody else had so much knowledge,’’ said Rose, who discovered artists like Joni Mitchell and Jeff Buckley while teaching herself guitar. “I’m not a natural singer in the sense of a Michael Jackson or someone like that. I had to really find my voice. People like Bob Dylan or Tom Waits, who have such distinct voices - it’s not about lungs or about belting or the prettiest embellishment. It’s about the story that you are telling and really owning your voice. That’s when Berklee became a better place for me.’’
