I figure its best to start a new web mag with a brand new band, and Romero’s debut single is a certified smoker. Something tells me members Dave and Lana didn’t expect to get hit up for an interview this early into their “careers” but thankfully they were up for it.
Crunchy Magazine: How did you settle on the name Romero? Are you big Night of the Living Dead Fans or..?
Dave: We really struggled for a while to decide on a name… we wanted something that could eventually have it’s own meaning, like a surname rather than an adjective + noun. I’m a massive fan of George A. Romero and had floated Romero at some point, no one was too keen until I created a powerpoint presentation that explained how it was the perfect name. The fact that it’s the name of the hearse in GTA was a strong selling point. I did a full on TED talk and at the end we all hugged.
Nice, Wasn’t expecting a GTA reference. What’s the verdict on having your music be in a video game? I think video games have served as the gateway to underground music for a lot of young people.
Dave: Oh yeah big respect to whoever compiled the soundtracks to San Andreas and Tony Hawks Underground! Those turned me onto so much interesting stuff when I was a kid and encouraged me to explore different genres. I would love to hear Romero on GTA!
Your debut single recently came out and had a lot of worldwide internet punk hype surrounding it (does anything else matter in life?). Are we to believe these are your first songs as a band? And how long have you been a group?
Lana: The horse has well and truly bolted and we couldn’t be happier really.. We’ve been a band for about a year and a half now! They’re not our first songs, just the first to be released. Coincidentally these two songs were the last that we wrote about a month or so before going into the studio.. and we’re so lucky that Cool Death came into the picture because we didn’t have much of a plan in place for after recording.
Are there any more unreleased songs from that recording session?
Lana: We recorded six songs during the session. Two of them we have scrapped, and the other two will most likely be on the upcoming album.. possibly with a little tweaking. At this point in time we have 11 songs for the record.
What do you guys do when you’re not doin Romero? Jobs / Hobbies / Other bands?
Dave: At the moment most of us are still working but we spend a lot of time writing for Romero and other projects – Ferg and I play in EYESORES, Lana performs with a Blues Brothers band and song writes in her spare time, and Adam has his own solo thing called Boredwalk. Adam and Murry both have a concerning obsession with NHL too.
How big is Hockey in Australia? I’ve been to a couple Kings games and the fans are the best part in my opinion. Whats the typical Australian hockey fan like?
Dave: Haha well the only two fans I know are Adam and Murry and those guys suck!! Nah, it does seem like a friendly environment as opposed to other sports. But I’m not too sure how big it is here… The NHL games look very fun and I know those guys would kill to see a Sharks v Rangers game one day.
The lyrics to “Honey” are some of the best I’ve read in a while, and the vocal cadence is so fucking rad. Lana, were you singing the lines “Bang heads, last night I got home thinking something that you said” before the guitar parts for this song was written?
Lana: Haha wow thanks so much! It’s funny you mention those lyrics because they were really the last piece of the puzzle for me.. the boys had the chorus down, and I was adamant that I didn’t want a ‘huge’ chorus vocally… it’s so easy to get swept up into thinking that the chorus has to be big.
Who is the song “Honey” about and what really happened at the discotheque?
Lana: I really don’t know what happened!!? That’s the problem you see… drinking. to be honest I had a lot of unused lyrics from late nights that I threw into the Honeypot (pun intended). The song is about chicks and nightlife really…. I just wanted to sing stuff that sounded good, and I REALLY wanted to have the word discotheque in a song because it’s a sickkkk word… we don’t say discotheque in Australia. It’s just a good ol’ club ain’t it?
Discotheque is indeed a sick word. So it seems like the song is kind of a blurry mashed up memoir to going out and partying around at night?
Lana: Yeah it’s definitely a mashed up memoir because the lyrics aren’t exactly narrative. The girl in the red dress is real but what I’m implying in the chorus is that usually we would ‘bang heads’ or I’d be ‘at her neck’ or that we would be an unlikely duo.. instead this time I took a part of her home with me.
How do you know the label Cool Death? How did they come to release your music?
Dave: It was an instagram thing where they saw us playing live through a friend and then asked us to play Maggotfest which was huge for us. Pretty much after that show we organized the 7” with them. Ferg also already knew Bradford through his brother from long ago. We couldn’t really ask for a better release considering how young we are as a band so massive thanks to them.
Maggotfest seems like an amazing time, is that something that you guys had attended before being asked to play? Greatest Maggotfest set you’ve witnessed?
Dave: Ferg was a devotee of Maggotfest but the rest of us were fresh meat! I’m eternally disappointed in myself that I didn’t catch Royal Headache headline or the time they brought out Hank Wood, Dawn of Humans and Crazy Spirit. But I can vouch for R.M.F.C. – they were my favs at the last one.
Both songs on the debut single seem to have an upbeat vibe, would you say you’re a generally positive band?
Dave: Definitely as a band we stay positive because we all love making music, but I would say we are more melancholic – our music sounds happy but its not about happy shit.
I really appreciated that your single came with a sticker. What band has the best stickers in the Melbourne punk scene?
Dave: Yeah those screen-printed stickers came out really nice thanks to Troppo Print studio. Brad Pot (RIP) are sticker kings of Melbourne for sure though, they’re all over every urinal – Adam even saw their stickers while on holiday in the US.
What’s next for Romero?
Lana: Well we’re in the midst of writing the last few songs for an album which we are hoping to have out by the end of the year.. fingers crossed.
Dave: We’re so stoked with how much love we’ve received internationally, so we really want to organize overseas tours ASAP.
All photos courtesy of Kaitlyn Hickey.
Check out Romero and other bands on Cool Death Records here.
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