Q Exclusive Premiere: Rose Haze Delivers a Heartfelt Cover of Cocteau Twins' 'Heaven or Las Vegas'

Rose Haze existed before guitarist Ruben Gonzales joined the band, and Rose Haze will go on despite Gonzales’ unexpected passing in January 2024, but while he was part of the band, he made such a profound impact on their music that it can truly be said that he changed Rose Haze forever.

To be more specific, it was the collaboration between Gonzales and Kate Ramsey, founder and vocalist for Rose Haze that proved transformative. As the band’s own biog clarifies, “Together they morphed the formerly progressive rock sound of Rose Haze into what it is today, which lands amidst dream pop, shoegaze, new wave, psych rock, and experimental noise."

Indeed, Gonzales and Ramsey often compared their styles to that of Robin Guthrie and Elizabeth Fraser, the Cocteau Twins’ guitarist and vocalist, respectively... which brings us to “Heaven or Las Vegas,” the Cocteau Twins song that Rose Haze covered before Gonzales’ passing, the final mix of which arrived on the day that Gonzales died.

Rose Haze’s take on this college-rock classic will be released on April 23, but Q is proud to host the online premiere of the cover song, and in addition to providing you with an opportunity to hear it early, we also asked Ramsey to provide her reminiscences of the Cocteau Twins, the origins of her love of the band, and what their music means to her.

"I first deeply connected with Cocteau Twins a little later in my life during a 6-week stay in Crete," she says. "During a summer in Europe, I decided to skip Italy and go straight to Greece, found the cheapest place to stay, and landed at 4am. The owner of the property found me across the street staring into the coastal sunrise. She warmly greeted me with fresh Greek coffee and said, 'You must be Kate.' She took me back to a dirty old abandoned tavern and said, 'Here, you can clean this up and it's yours.' Essentially, I had booked an outdoor bed under an olive tree, but since it was so hot, she encouraged me to move the bed into that crumbling tavern and clean up the whole place for myself.

"It was a very lovely and memorable experience. I would go into the back hall of the tavern and sing Cocteau Twins songs, mostly notably 'Know Who You Are at Every Age,' enjoying the very distinct sound of my voice from the large reverb of the room. I fell completely in love with the music.

"Really, it was Fraser's voice that first captivated me, how she used her voice as more of an instrument or sound device than the teller of a story, you can't often make out what she is saying. Sometimes people will come up to me after a concert and say, 'We can't understand what you were saying.' And I usually just shrug and keep packing up cables, but in my mind I think, 'That's because you're not supposed to.' I also loved the drone and textural styles of the guitars, the tones of the drum machine. The whole sound captivated me. I listened on repeat then, and many times since. I was, like, THIS is what I want to be doing, with a touch of heavy psych.

"At that time, I was swirling through Europe trying to find my musical home as I felt the states didn't seem to 'get my music' then. Cocteau Twins not only gave me inspiration, but made me feel like there was an audience out there who could appreciate my whimsical ethereal sounds. During that time in my life, I felt very alone. Had been traveling alone for months and left behind the backing band I had in the midwest where I grew up. It was there in Greece listening to Cocteau Twins when I envisioned finding a new band with musicians who were naturally drawn to that kind of music. It gave me hope and I began writing songs by the sea. So whimsical!

"My visa ran out and I sobbed. I didn't want to be on the mainland U.S., so I went to Hawaii. It was the most 'foreign' place I could go without a visa. After about 18 months there writing my second album, I felt ready to find the new band I had envisioned. I met Ruben in California right away, it was the most immediate sense of 'destiny being fulfilled' that I had ever felt. It was instant and we hit the ground running hard.

"There are few 'pop' bands that I want to listen to from record to record across time. Cocteau Twins is one of those bands. I also often listen to Fraser's solo works, and Guthrie's too, especially his collaborations with Harold Budd. Outside of Rose Haze, I work as a solo artist very deeply in the ambient experimental space. Those sonic stylings often bleed over into my compositions for Rose Haze."

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