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Firerose Rises Into A New Chapter With “Phoenix”

By on October 2, 2026
Photo credit: Chris Applebaum

Firerose has spent the past year speaking increasingly openly about survival, healing and the difficult process of reclaiming a voice that had been diminished. With “Phoenix,” those subjects move directly into her music. The new single, released today alongside a music video directed by Chris Applebaum, turns a deeply personal period into a song about imagining freedom before that freedom has fully arrived.

That distinction gives “Phoenix” much of its meaning. Firerose wrote the song while she was still living through one of the most difficult periods of her life, approaching survival from the perspective of someone trying to picture what might exist on the other side. “I wrote it when I was still in such a difficult season, as a premonition of what it was going to feel like to rise from the ashes,” she explains. “I wanted it to be an inspiring anthem for all survivors, especially abuse survivors, but it’s really for everyone who’s overcome trauma.”

The song makes that idea explicit in its central refrain, “I will rise / Out of these flames.” Yet another lyric carries particular weight for Firerose: “All deception crumbles / Under the weight of truth in time.” She describes singing those words as a visceral experience, connecting them to her belief that truth can endure even when lies initially appear louder and better supported.

The official video gives those themes a deliberately direct visual vocabulary. Applebaum places Firerose within two sharply opposed environments. In one, black-gloved hands reach into tightly composed frames and intrude upon her face, hair and physical space. In another, she is outdoors in sunlight, moving freely through a landscape filled with golden light.

The contrast was designed around what Applebaum describes as “a struggle between darkness and light, despair and hope, destruction and rebirth.” There is an additional detail behind the imagery: the hands seen throughout the darker sequences belong to Applebaum himself. The resulting visual metaphor is intentionally uncomplicated, allowing the shift from confinement to freedom to remain the focus.

Applebaum entered the project after discovering Firerose’s music and seeing her speak publicly about her experiences and advocacy for survivors. He contacted her directly through Instagram and offered to direct her next video. After Firerose sent him “Phoenix,” he says the visual concept appeared almost immediately while he was listening to the song in his car on the 101.

The pairing carries an additional resonance for Firerose because Applebaum’s work had been part of the pop culture she grew up with. His three-decade career includes Rihanna’s “Umbrella,” Miley Cyrus’ “Party in the U.S.A.,” Demi Lovato’s “Heart Attack,” Selena Gomez & The Scene’s “Who Says,” Britney Spears’ “Overprotected” and “I Love Rock ‘n’ Roll,” Paris Hilton’s “Stars Are Blind” and Semisonic’s “Closing Time.” “Umbrella” earned Video of the Year at the 2007 MTV Video Music Awards.

“Phoenix” now opens a larger creative period for Firerose. The singer-songwriter confirmed this week that the track is the first single from a forthcoming album currently expected in early 2027, with additional music planned before its arrival. Her growing podcast, No One Asked Her, has meanwhile created another outlet for conversations surrounding faith, culture, healing, freedom and reclaiming one’s voice.

That makes “Phoenix” an unusually literal beginning. The song documents Firerose looking toward a life she had not reached when she wrote it, while its release arrives after circumstances have changed enough for those words to carry a different meaning. What began as an imagined destination has become the starting point for the next stage of her work.

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