Caroline Romano
Interview conducted August 17, 2021
By Dan Locke
You are originally from Mississippi — what was your upbringing like there?
⁃ I had a mostly great childhood growing up in Mississippi. I am from a small town, and there was not a whole lot to do or be exposed to down there, which I would say is both a good and bad thing. I never really fit in as a kid, in school or in my hometown, or anywhere. That was hard, and I dealt with a lot of bullying and feeling like an outsider. However, it is what ended up driving my pursuit of music, so I am grateful for it all now.
How did you first discover music?
⁃ Music has always been my outlet of expression in this world, for as long as I can remember. I have always been naturally shy and introverted, and I would not really talk to anyone besides my parents when I was a kid. My mom used music a lot to try to bring me out of my shell, and it worked. Whether it was listening to a Shania Twain CD in the car on the way to school, or writing songs in my childhood bedroom, music made me fearless. It still does to this day. I guess things that make you feel fearless are addicting because that is what happened with music and me. It is my vice.
How did you start to write music?
⁃ When I was in the sixth and seventh grades, I started a journal. I would write about what happened that day in school, or whatever middle school tragedy was occurring at that moment. I did not have any friends, and I needed something to help me make sense of it all. Writing it down helped me do that. I started putting my journal entries to guitar when I was around 12 and 13 years old, and that is how songwriting started for me.
When did you get your first guitar? Do you still have it?
⁃ Technically, I got my first guitar for Christmas when I was five. It was blue and it had flowers on it. I tried to play that one, but I was five and I never really learned how. I still have that one. I got my first “real” guitar when I was about nine. It was a Yamaha, and my hand could barely fit around the neck of it. I loved it so much though, and it is the guitar I wrote my very first song with. I still have that one too.
What is your guitar of choice now? Year, make and model?
⁃ Ooh, this is a tough one. When it comes to acoustic guitars, which is what I write most of my music with in the beginning, I am a big Taylor fan. I am not too picky on the make, but I love the brightness that Taylors have. I’ve been using them since I was thirteen.
How would you describe your music?
⁃ I would describe my sound as punk music with folk lyrics. Loud and fast and a whole lot of words.
When was your first show? What was the performance like?
⁃ I guess I’d count my first real show as performing at the Mississippi State Fair when I was thirteen. It was just me and my guitar and the handful of songs I had written. It was simple, but it felt like a stadium show to me at the time.
What do you think makes a good songwriter?
⁃ I think my strength as a songwriter comes from the fact that I don’t try to be anything but completely honest in what I write. I don’t try to make anything fit, and I never go at it with a specific sound in mind. I just say what I want to say, and I don’t edit anything. As an individual, I’m well aware that my outlook and perspective on life is different from anyone else’s, but completely ordinary all the same. I’ve found my only option is to tell it like it is and hope that my music finds ears that relate to what I’m trying to say.
What was the title of your first original song? Did you record it?
⁃ The title of my first original song was called “Remember Christmas.” It was a Christmas gift to my mom, and I wrote it when I was twelve. I actually ended up recording and releasing it in 2018, which was really cool.
What is your songwriting process like?
⁃ I can’t say I even know, because it’s different every time. A lot of my songwriting still stems from journaling and poetry I’ve written. I’ll just sit and write when I feel called to do so. Sometimes those words come with a natural melody. I will say that I’m always a words first writer. I think they’re critically undervalued these days, but they’ve always been the most important part to me. Other times, I’ll start writing with a concept in mind before any words or melodies happen. I also do a lot of co-writes, and with those, I try to write based on the preferred methods of whoever I’m writing with.
Tell me about your single and video “PDA of the Mainstream.” What was your experience like shooting the music video?
⁃ “PDA of the Mainstream” is a song I hold incredibly close to my heart. I’m proud of it. I wrote that song at the beginning of quarantine, and it’s the first time I let myself get publicly angry with my music. I was angry at the internet and social media and the people who were letting it all happen. I still am, and you can definitely hear and see it in the song and video. When I’m angry, I laugh, and then I write about it. That’s what happened here. Shooting the video was a lot of fun because I wanted it to feel as insane as the internet feels to me. There’s kittens and confetti and destruction and screaming. That’s how I see applications and the digital age, and I think it definitely came across in the video.
Tell me the backstory of your new single, “The Hypothetical.”
⁃ I’m not much for reality, and everyone knows it. I live for the impossible scenarios and romances we make up in our heads. Most of my time is spent in my own version of a hypothetical world. I wrote, “The Hypothetical” with my two friends, Michael and Chuckie Aiello. Michael came in with the idea of letting me write a song about what my version of the hypothetical looks like. So, we dove into my brain and made it a world with bad boys and bright pink cars, and a constant state of psychosis. It sounds like a Machine Gun Kelly and Charli XCX collaboration, and I love it. That’s my hypothetical world.
What is your favorite track you’ve released?
⁃ I’d have to say my favorite track I’ve released so far is “Stream of Consciousness.” That song means a lot to me because it’s exactly what the title says it is. I sat down a few days before my 18th birthday and wrote down every thought and insecurity that popped into my head. Unedited, I put those words to guitar and decided to release it at the last minute. The response I received from people on that song was overwhelming, as I never thought so many people would relate to it. But they did.
Your biggest hit was “I Still Remember (R3HAB Remix) which made it on the Billboard Dance Charts. Were you surprised it became such a hit?
⁃ It will always feel insane to watch anything with my name on it gain popularity or success. I think that’s just the natural response. However, I believed in “I Still Remember” from the moment I wrote it with my friends in 2018. I could feel that it was meant to be something big. Once the opportunity came to have R3HAB on the track, it felt like it all clicked into place. I’ve been a huge fan of R3HAB for years, so I wasn’t at all surprised that the song did as well as it did because he was on it. Everything he touches turns to gold, and I think that was definitely the case with “I Still Remember” as well.
Digital vs. vinyl?
⁃ I love both, and I collect vinyl records. However, I’ll have to say digital.
What song from the past is in your mind right now? Moreover, what is the meaning that song means to you?
⁃ I mean right now I’m thinking of “I Want to Break Free” by Queen because I’m releasing a cover and video of that song today. I am Queen obsessed, and that song, in particular, is such an overt display of showmanship. It’s lights, camera, action, music. It’s Freddie Mercury. It’s the idea of being something bigger than yourself.
If “Video Killed the Radio Star” do you think that the Covid-19 virus has killed live music? Do you feel the Covid-19 virus is going to affect the music business in the future?
⁃ I don’t think it has. I don’t think you can kill live music. At our core, we crave it. You know the feeling if you know it. That feeling in your chest, the live bass of your favorite song. Your voice hoarse from screaming. Live music is where time stands still. It’s the world we go to traveler escape the rest of the world. I don’t think you can kill it. The touring business has definitely been affected by the pandemic, and we’ve seen the toll it’s taken on musicians and fans alike. However, I don’t think you can keep live music down. It’s part of the human experience. You can’t kill it.
What did you do over the past year in lockdown? Did you discover or rediscover any hobbies?
⁃ I wrote a lot of music over lockdown. I went back to my roots, back to writing songs in my childhood bedroom in Mississippi. I learned a lot about what matters to me. I figured out what I want to say with the music I make. I learned how unimportant my phone was, and how important home is. For the first time in a long time, I let myself be.
How do you balance your personal life with your music career?
⁃ I can’t say I do much balancing at all. I often feel like my personal life is nonexistent. I’m all too eager to put it on the back burner. As I said, I am fully addicted to music. I cannot stop thinking about it. It’s come to the point where I know I’ve put it over a lot of things in life that I know I shouldn’t, and I’m working on having a healthier outlook. Thankfully, my friends and loved ones who really know me understand what music means to me. They understand my scattered plans and obsessive desire to work. Lately, I’ve had to tell myself that in order to write good music, I have to have good things to write about. I have to live in order to write about living. So lately, I’ve been trying to set aside time to just live life.
What/where is your happy place?
⁃ I’d say my happy place is more of a feeling than it is a setting. However, there are certain places in more than guaranteed to come across that feeling. It’s on stage. It’s in a crowd. It’s 3 am in the car with my windows down. It’s that feeling where the rest of the world is behind you and heaven is in front of you. Wherever my happy place is, I’ve found that music is always there as well.
Anything you would like to say in closing.
⁃ Thank you so much for having me! I’d say stay tuned for lots of noise. I’ve got a lot to say.
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