ROMÆO | Single Feature
Exploring imagery, evocative trip-hop, and navigating blank stares
Noah catches up with ROMÆO to discuss her new single All of Now from the forthcoming EP Eternal Recurrence (out Aug 29), along with the making of it, inspirations, and being a part of the art-pop sphere.
I’m been really enjoying listening to your brand new single All of Now. I appreciate how it builds slowly and takes you in different and unexpected directions from down tempo trip-hop to raging drum and bass. Can you tell us how this track came together?
I had been sitting on that trip-hop beat for awhile and playing with different imagery: I wanted to toy with the symmetry of lungs, clam shells, wings. An opaque mirror image resting on a hinge.
I basically sat down one afternoon and the whole thing just poured out - the sectional builds, the beat changes, the lyrics. Even though the track is long there is not really that many different elements. Instead, it continually re-works itself with the same kind of material. I'm really drawn to this idea creatively, to explore all that can be found within a sound, motif, or lyric.
The song goes for over seven minutes, which is a bold statement I think with most radio friendly tracks traditionally being around three-four minutes. Did you always imagine it would be a long one?
I never intended to make such a long track! I usually know when I want a song to end but somehow the more I worked on it, the more it grew.
I wanted to push every idea to its full extent and not feel like I had to restrict myself. The process itself became an exercise in nowness and expansion.
I must admit I feel like there aren’t many artists on my radar that are making trip-hop music these days and it makes me wonder what has inspired you to find your sound?
I have a whole suite of music I listen to that I describe as 'grey weather music'. As soon as the leaves turn I'm tuning in to the angst and melancholy of post-punk, trip-hop, music for longing. In the past I don't think I've been so aesthetically driven in my music, opting for more lyrical and conceptual drive. But I love the world-building that a genre like trip-hop enables, it is immediately very evocative. That being said, the next few releases definitely skirt around different genres and sounds.
Can you tell us about the process of making Eternal Recurrence. Where did you record, with who, and how long did it take?
I made All of Now about a year ago, right before I went travelling for four months. It was hard to step away from, I felt I had just cracked something. I returned to Naarm with a new lust for creation. I basically wrote and produced the rest of the EP over summer.
At the time I was really inspired by Nietzsche's idea of eternal recurrence - if everything happened as it was, continually and forever, would I be satisfied?
I got Monique Sesto onboard to engineer and produce the vocals. Mo is a good friend of mine and it was such a joy and an inspiration to work with her. I've recorded most of my music myself, and so it was really amazing to have someone like Mo there in the room to push me vocally. Her attention to detail and dedication to capturing the energy of the song really elevated the tracks to new heights. On going collaborators Zsa Zsa and Matt Sitas also recorded bass and guitar parts respectively, as well as Jack Hawley on guitar. I then mixed the record and had Charlie Tait on mastering duties.
I am intrigued about your music being defined as Art-Pop, can you tell us the connection with art that relates to your music?
I get a lot of blank stares when I describe my music as art-pop to people. Art-pop is often conceptual and/or thematic. A lot of my work starts as an intentional exercise, lyrically or creatively. I've made music that is directly inspired by visual art (such as my EP BEAUTY) and with this record, using philosophy and the ouroboros as the conceptual world I think relegates it into the art-pop sphere.
Have you always been in Melbourne | Naarm?
I moved down here from Sydney a few years back - best decision of my life. I think you can hear the influence this city has had on my music.
What do you put your energy into outside of music?
Great question! Just as every bro has a podcast, every philosophy girl has a substack. I run a monthly Poetry & Prose night at Mixed Zoning. And I do live sound. Which I know technically counts as music but... if anyone reading this needs a soundie hmu xx
Finally, who are your favourite local Melbourne bands at the moment or who would you like to see interviewed for Tempo
Ah great question! Acts that I love to listen to and who are even better live: Toy Shaw, Kiri, Gaia Scarf, Mr. Industry.
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