Interview With ROMES

Now that your first European and U.S. tours have wrapped, how are you feeling looking back on the whole experience?

It was a wild ride. Since we started this project five years ago, we had only played about a dozen shows. Then we released SONIC TRASH and played 40 shows over the last two months. It’s a weird feeling getting home and making the adjustment out of tour mode, but we’re excited to get back in the studio now and see what comes next.

What stands out most when you think about the tour as a whole?

It’s crazy what can happen going the DIY route. We don’t have a label or traditional booking agent, so everything over the past few months has happened very organically from us posting our creative process online. First, ROLA Music discovered us and reached out to book the European dates, and then the US tour as direct support came about from Des Rocs shooting us a DM on Instagram. We love being independent and all of the freedom that comes with it, so to get these opportunities without all the bureaucracy is something we don’t take for granted. It was amazing to be able to make connections with so many new people all over Europe and North America because of it.

Was there a specific moment on tour that really stayed with you?

London was special because it was the first show of the tour to sell out. Everyone was packed in the room like sardines. And then Salzburg was a wild one because the hazers broke early in the set and wouldn’t shut off, so two songs in, the smoke on stage was so thick I couldn’t even see my drumsticks in front of me. With all the strobes, it kind of felt like playing in the middle of a thunderstorm.

MS Stubnitz in Hamburg was also an insane experience. The venue is in the hull of a giant ship. Surprisingly, it was one of the best sounding rooms of the tour - subs under the floors, top-notch PA, etc. Load-in was an absolute bitch, but well worth it! We had to push our gear across a plank from land onto the boat. We remember thinking - one little slip up and there goes a rack full of gear down to the bottom of the river.

What was the biggest surprise from this run of shows?

That we made it through what we called “The Gauntlet” - a string of 6 shows with no days off. The sixth show on that European leg was the Hamburg show, where we had to load the gear through multiple flights of narrow stairs all throughout the ship. It’s crazy because the adrenaline and everything from the shows mask how tired you really are, but now, when we look back on videos, we look so worn down the day after that run. I think we aged a few years over those six days.

What did it mean to see fans showing up so strongly in so many different cities?

It blew our minds. Being our first headline tour and first time in Europe, we didn’t really have any expectations. Then the shows started selling out one by one, and everyone was coming out to party. We’re so grateful for the love Europe showed us. We definitely hope to get back there ASAP.

How did performing songs from SONIC TRASH live change your connection to the record?

We always want to make the live experience different from the record, so we mashed up a lot of the SONIC TRASH songs with each other while also remixing and incorporating some of our faves from Beastie Boys, Chemical Brothers, Daft Punk, SebastiAn, etc. It kept things fresh for us while also creating a new world for the audience. DJs do it all the time - why can’t a live band?

Did fans react to any songs in ways you didn’t expect?

The energy people brought really validated how we felt about the record - melding the worlds of electronic, punk, and rock. Seeing crowds dancing one minute and forming mosh pits 30 seconds later was wild. Lots of people at the shows would tell us how crazy it was that two guys could make such a wall of sound live. A large part of that is our awesome FOH Paul Vroom, and also through our integration of gear - for example, we might use the drum kit to trigger the synths and lights while splitting the bass guitar signal and processing it in different ways, so there’s this live interaction and direct relationship between instruments and visuals which helps us achieve more as just a duo.

How did “DISSOLVER” land with crowds during the tour?

A lot of people were singing along to that one. Like a lot of the songs, we reworked certain sections for live. We completely remixed the bridge, which seemed to go down big.

Which songs were your favorite to perform live?

It changed every night! For whatever reason, certain songs hit harder with certain crowds. There’s definitely a give-and-take relationship between us and the audience, so their energy always feeds into our experience on stage.

Did performing this music every night spark any new ideas for what comes next?

It was the most fun we’ve had performing live. We won’t know what the next record is going to sound like until we start making some noise again in our studio, but we know that it’ll likely keep the same level of energy and intensity. Even though, as brothers, we’ve been making music together for years, we’ve really rediscovered a love for the entire music creation process over the last few months. We’re excited to see where that journey takes us next.

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Watch the videos to “DISSOLVER”, “GLASS EYED IDOLS”, “ANOTHER DAY”, “the dread”, “ROCK N ROLL IS A SLEEP.”