Romanie Gives Us An Honest Look Into The Making Of A Debut Album

Romanie possesses a remarkable gift for weaving captivating narratives, drawing her listeners into a realm where clarity emerges from the chaos. Through her introspective musings, she crafts mesmerizing melodies that resonate deeply within our souls. In her most recent release, Are We There Yet?, she delves into the intricate emotion of perpetually feeling inadequate, perpetually yearning for something more. This thought-provoking track sets the stage for her forthcoming debut album, also titled Are We There Yet?, where she fearlessly navigates the labyrinthine complexities and profound depths of the ever-elusive concept of time.

To celebrate the release, Romanie has given us an insight into what it takes to make a debut album and shares her greatest struggles through to greatest success’ on her journey to her imminent debut album.

Oh god, I’m not going to lie – this album has been a long time coming. I feel like there is always so much weight to releasing your debut album so I definitely felt like it had to be a true reflection of who I truly am as a person and an artist. I started writing some of these songs probably during my ‘Little Big Steps’ era, tapping into my honest self and digging deeper than I ever had before in songwriting.

Having gone through an intense couple of years personally, I started writing about things that were happening to me in real time. I was journaling and processing things without embellishing them or trying to be something that I was not. My best friend and bass player once told me that he thought I was very brave, writing about current chaos or the people that were involved in my chaos and then playing some of these songs live, so everyone in my close circle kind of knows what and who my songs are about.

As a cohesive theme for this album, I really wanted to focus on the concept of moving in time, growth and displacement. All the feelings I have been feeling after moving away from Belgium, losing my godfather and a childhood friend whilst being stuck in Australia, getting out of a really big relationship throughout the recording of this batch of songs all added to the chaos of my mind at the time. I am really proud of the result but it was definitely a big journey in getting things done. I remember one day in the studio Gormie and I had been having really big life chats in the car ride to Pakenham and while I was recording vocals for Fortune Teller I got a phone call to say that I got given my permanent residency to stay in Australia. I think you can really hear the euphoria in my voice in the take we put on the record and it’s all these little things that make the album so special to me. Finding my community in Melbourne has been incredible, and it’s mainly throughout writing this album when things started happening and shifting for me.

All the people involved in this album are such special friends and I’m so proud to be writing this. I feel like this music really connected me to a lot of key people in my current life and each time I listen to the songs or play them live with my band I get a little bit emotional. A few months ago we played an unreleased song called Nomadland live with my guitarist Rory and bass player Hugo and I had to hold back so many tears while singing, feeling so at home in Melbourne for the first time in my life. I looked over the the sound engineer Marshall and I saw he was tearing up too, feeling vulnerable and this is the musical connection why every minute of it is worth it.

It’s obviously a very scary thing to put out a debut album and feeling so vulnerable but I am so ready to kickstart this and for the first time in my life call myself a musician. Took me a long time to acknowledge this and learn to be proud of myself but I think I can wholeheartedly say I’m very proud of what we have created and I can’t wait to show the whole album to everyone on October 26th. – Romanie.

 A wonderful intro to what is set to be a wonderful album. Romanie’s new single, Are We There Yet is available now, while her debut album is due for release on October 26th.