Credit: Tnah Louise
At the young age 19, Roméo Testa has already done what many in the music industry could only dream of. His debut EP "The End" was released last October and re-released on Columbia Records on May 5th, not to mention his song "Light It UP" was used by 7Up in their summer commercial campaign.
Get to know Roméo Testa in our exclusive Q&A with him below:
Q) Your debut EP "The End" just came out last month. What was your process for writing and recording the music off of it?
A) I had close to 3 years to write this EP. I went to London twice and probably did around 100 sessions. I'd go in with producers and writers every week just searching for the right songs. I was really involved in all aspects of writing and production, but what was most important to me was the story that the songs were telling. I got signed to Columbia with my song "The End" when I was 15, and I wanted the EP to reflect on the journey up until this year. I wrote about my relationships, my big brother I lost when I was 9, and about leaving home when I turned 18. So my process was just trying to tell the story of my life.
Q) Where/who do you draw inspiration from for your music?
A) Anything and everything. Love, death, home, everything.
Q) What's your favorite part of being in the entertainment industry? Is there anything you would change?
A) My favorite part of being in entertainment is probably the reach and ability to reach people from every corner of the earth via social media. This same great benefit is also its greatest downfall. Back in the day in the days of Zeppelin or even earlier in the days of Muddy Waters, there was an absence of this magnifying glass that is held over people in entertainment. There were unseen moments in artists' lives that they could still keep close to them. Now it’s all cards on the table, and if you're not the one to show them, then 100 other people will find away to.
Q) What's it like for you, as a newer artist, to already have one of your songs ("Light It Up") in a national broadcast campaign for 7Up?
A) It's incredible man, I have been doing this for a while now and have been very fortunate to receive several opportunities that a lot of newer artists don't often get - but this one takes the cake. I remember I had just gotten off my 9 to 5 when the label called with the news. It was unreal, and a tear or two might have been involved.
Q) For people who don't know who Roméo Testa is, what is one thing you would want them to know about you?
A) This is it. I'm a musician because it's the only thing I am good at and is the only thing I could think of that I'd be doing in my life. The reason I do it is to help people cope with day to day life, because even though I haven’t been alive too long, I know what it's like to work tirelessly to pay rent, to lose someone you love, and to have your heart broken, and I want to provide a remedy for it, happy or sad.
Q) What's next? Any plans for a tour?
A) I hope so! Just waiting for the right one to come along. Until then I'll be doing smaller shows with my band and trying to build up my hometown audience in LA.
For more on Roméo Testa, visit his official Tumblr: http://lightit7up.tumblr.com.
J.Lo performing at Jam'n 94.5's Summer Jam on May 30th, 2014. Credit: Benjamin Esakof/Roman's Rap-Up
We recently had the chance to ask Jennifer Lopez questions about her upcoming album, "A.K.A" (out June 17th) and more. Check out what she said below:
Q) In your opinion, how does A.K.A compare to your previous albums? What was your inspiration for songs on the album?
A) Most of my music has been about love and this album is no different. My definition of love has changed over the past few years and this album is a reflection of that. I’ve also always played around with different sounds– everything from pop to hip hop to ballads – and that’s what I also did on this album.
Q) What's your favorite track off of the album?
A) I can’t choose! I love each of them for specific reasons. “Emotions” is one of my favorite songs on the album. It’s a beautiful love [song] that has a lot of soul and R&B undertones.
J.Lo performing at Jam'n 94.5's Summer Jam on May 30th, 2014. Credit: Benjamin Esakof/Roman's Rap-Up
Q)Talking about the First Love video out May 29th, what can fans expect? Have you filmed any other videos for the album?
A) We shot First Love in the desert in the middle of a sandstorm with the model David Gandy. I can honestly say it was one of the most difficult shoots I’ve ever done. It was crazy! But worth it because I think it turned out so great and very sexy. I hope people love it.
Q) What's next after the album? Can we expect an "AKA World Tour"?
A) I’m not sure yet. Right now I’m focused on releasing the album and doing a lot of live performances for my fans to promote the new music.
Fan question: Which was the easiest song to record off of AKA? Hardest?
A) First Love was probably the easiest, because Max Martin and Savan Kotecha came up with a great concept and when they presented it, I immediately wanted to record the song. They’re a great team to work with. I don’t know if I would call it “hard” but I think I went back and forth a lot with “Booty.” I didn’t know if I would want to record a song with that title, but Diplo made a great beat and my son (Max) loved it, so it got me excited and I knew I had to record it for this album.
Hunter Hayes, one of the biggest names in country music, called in today for an exclusive Roman's Rap-Up Interview, talking about his upcoming "We're Not Invisible Tour" (tickets here), his upcoming album "Storyline" and more. Check out the transcript from the interview below!
Credit: Atlantic Records Nashville
Q: So lets just talk about your “We're Not Invisible” Tour for a bit. The tour starts in a few days, what about it are you most looking forward too?
A: I’m actually sitting here in the corner of the arena watching the team build the stage, our arena show for the first time. To say that this has been a dream of mine for a long time doesn't cut it. It just doesn’t do it justice remotely. I mean this is all I have ever wanted to do is just build a show for an arena stage. There is nothing like the energy in an arena. I love theatres, I love clubs, there are awesome parts about all of that, but being in an arena does give you a chance to combine all those worlds together. I’m a big production guy. I like putting on a show and just going crazy with ideas and building something big. In fact, we’ve added a lot to this show that wasn’t originally in the drawing. This show is everything that I wanted it to be for a first arena show. It’s absolutely just coming together beautifully. I’m watching a list of things I wanted to do get checked off… everything is getting checked off. We’ve actually added things to that list. It’s got a lot of weird and cool elements that I’m excited about. It’s going to be fun, It’s going to be fun for me. If it’s fun for us and the band, I want everyone in the room to have just as much fun. I want everybody to just feel good about their time spent with us. And thats the number one goal. I want everyone to enjoy it.
Q: I’m guessing you'll be playing stuff from “Storyline”?
A: You guessed right-in fact probably more than I’m supposed to, to be honest. We’re going to do at least 6 or 7 [songs] if all goes well. We’re doing almost half the record! I didn’t want to do a show [only] full of new material. I want to play stuff from the original album that the fans made such a huge success. But, at the same time I know I’ve been getting a lot of requests from the fans to sing some new stuff and quite frankly I don’t want to wait any longer! I want to play some new stuff. It’s going to be good!
Q: How does performing for an arena show compare to performing and premiering your new single “Invisible” live on The Grammys?
A: How does it compare? That was the ultimate way to introduce a song, I will say that. Incredibly nerve-racking. But, just an awesome opportunity. It’s definitely a short list of single-premieres that the Grammy Awards have done, and I’m pretty stoked to be a part of that list. That was a big opportunity for the song in such a big way. It means a lot to me especially with that song because obviously that song means a lot to me, I’m very personally attached to the song, as I am connected to every song on the record but especially that song. It’s a big deal, I don’t take it lightly that it happened- it definitely happened. I’m excited now to play it on our stage and sing it with our fans!
Q: Last week you just announced that you are going to attempt to break the world record for most amount of concerts played in 24 hours in partnership with ConAgra. How did this come to be?
A: Well, I was a part of the last [successful] attempt to break the record. They did 8 shows in 24 hours. I was part of a show at 5 in the morning which was insane. It was fun, there was just something fun about a band traveling and doing what they love. It says a lot about how much they love to make music. It sounded like so much fun to me. Actually, on my way home from that gig I looked at the map, did some logistical thinking, texted my managers and said “I know you think I'm crazy, but I think we can do 9 [shows], if not 10 [shows].” I said “If we do it in the right area, we can abide by the rules of the record, (every city has to be a certain distance from the last city all that good stuff, every show has to be a certain amount of time), I think we can do it”. Ever since then (it’s been like 2 years) the team has been working behind the scenes, without me even knowing, on the logistics to make it happen and next thing I knew they were like “Here’s how we think we can do it. If you’re onboard, lets do it”. I’m really excited that we have real meaning to this, now with getting to partner with [ConAgra] and getting to do something really special with them in such a big way. Bringing awareness to a fantastic campaign, but even more so bringing hope and bringing an easy way to help to the world. Here is something that we can all be a part of. It’s going to be fun and hopefully we can change some statistics through this whole attempt you know? I’m excited about the whole thing. It’s come together in such a beautiful way. There’s a lot of people that have worked together to make it happen and I’m ready for it.
Q: Will those shows be acoustic?
A: There’s going to be some acoustic shows, some full band shows, some solo shows even. I’m just going to go up and play a couple songs so I can give the band a break. We’ll do a couple shows solo acoustic too, a little of everything. Lots of coffee.
Q: What can fans expect from “Storyline”?
A: One of my favorite things about the first record is that I had a couple of close friends of mine describe it as a page from the notebook, a page from the journal… a series of journals is what I like to call it. Thats what you hope for when you write for a record. You want to make the most honest record you can. I feel like this record is a really honest record that goes deep into topics I’ve never really covered before, “Invisible” being one of the most shining examples of that. I’m really proud of how personal this record gets, you always want that. In writing a record on the road you don’t want to settle for just another song. You want to try something new. Musically, it really goes deep into a lot of my influences, early influences especially, which I’m really excited about. “Wildcard”, the second song we released from the record, says a lot about what I grew up listening to and what I love and I think this whole record actually does that. It [has] a lot of early influences and a lot guitar influences. This has been big experiment, this record. It just gets more transparent as we go.
Q: I think a common misconception in the music industry is that artists don't always write their own music and such. Can you just talk about your process of writing and how "Storyline" came to be?
A: There was one song I wrote before “Invisible” that almost ended up on the record. I wrote it, we recorded it, last minute it’s off the record. I took a lot of time off of writing after writing the first record because I wrote so much, I didn’t want to continue writing just for the sake of continuing to write. If I was going to write I wanted it to mean something. The first record is full of songs that are really personal because of that, and I didn’t want to just keep writing and have to chose songs that really didn’t mean a whole lot. So I was careful to give myself time away from writing. And then, when I started writing again it was really personal. I was just stoked to get back in with songwriters that I’ve been really luck to get to work with, kind of a family of songwriters. It just kind of became a new adventure just writing for this record, a new series of discoveries. I’m excited for you to hear it, I’m excited to hear it all the way through. We’re still not done with it!
Q: When will it be finished?
A: You never really finish with a record I don’t think. You kind of just have a deadline that you have to meet. You do everything you can up until that deadline. Somebody has to walk up to you and say “you’re done, you can’t do anything else”, otherwise you’ll just keep working on it.
Q: Favorite Country Collaboration?
A: Keith Urban and Miranda Lambert's latest ("We Were Us").
Q: Country Artist that inspires you?
A: Garth Brooks
Huge shoutout to Hunter for talking with us today!
We were backstage at the opening night of 2 Chainz' "2 Good to be T.R.U" tour to talk to Pusha T about his past year in music, what he has planned for this year, and more! Check out the interview above.
Special thanks to Island Def Jam Records and Pusha T's Management Team
