ROMP is a fresh, starry eyed group of beings hailing from a series of interstellar home worlds and joining forces to bring their brand new cosmic power to the New Brunswick music scene. With their debut EP “Sorry, Not Sorry” available on Bandcamp, ROMP combines elements of surf/indie rock, femme punk, and more. The tracklist consists of just four songs, but ROMP manages to explore a surprising range of genres while reaching for their own unique sound. I sat down with the members of ROMP (Madison Klarer on vocals and keys, Lucas Dalakian on guitar, Mitch Gollub on drums, and Luke Bamford on bass) and asked them a few questions about their music and their experience as a new band trying to gain their footing:
Rutgers Review: So I guess my first question is how did you guys get started? I know the three of you, [Madison, Lucas, and Mitch] were I guess the first, right?
Lucas Dalakian: You know actually Devin [a friend] was also our first bass player.
Mitch Gollub: He kind of brought us all together too…he was like, “Hey, these musicians are cool, you wanna jam?” and then we just came together.
RR: So you guys came together knowing you were going to be a band?
LD: Yeah it’s really unique about it because we were band mates before we were even friends so that’s pretty cool because we actually would hate each other kind of *laughter*, but then we’ve become good friends since then but it was kind of unique because usually bands form of groups of friends who want to jam.
Madison Klarer: We were like “oh we should just play together” because Devin said he played drums and I knew Lucas and then we were like “let’s try it” and then we decided to keep trying it every day for all summer.
RR: How did you guys decide you needed a set bassist, because I know you used someone else for your album, or how did you just go about the process of getting [a bassist]?
LD: Well it’s been ebbs and flows so far. We had Devin then he had to step down because of some personal stuff, and then we had Jenny fill in and she was great but-
MK: Yeah she’s on the album, she also did back up vocals but she wanted to pursue a singing career so she stepped down as well and then Luke stepped in to fill their spot.
LD: And then Luke is our official permanent bassist now…he brings a lot to the band because he’s into a lot cooler music than we are…and he’s really good at bass.
MK: And he’s handsome.
RR: I know you [Madison] do the lyrics, right? How do you do the song writing process…are you like a lyrics first band or a lyrics second band?
MK: It changes with each song. Sometimes I’ll be in a very emotional or upset state and I’ll write in my journal and then I’ll turn what’s in my journal into lyrics, or sometimes I’ll be in the shower, like the other day I was listening to Jawbreaker in the shower and I had to turn off the music right away ‘cause I started coming up with this melody and then I ran out of the shower and wrote words to it, so it changes for every song.
LD: Yeah while it’s different for every song, we are definitely all about having Madison write melodies and lyrics before we write the music because for us we’ve been playing for a long time, so it’s easy for us to come up with chords and stuff, but the really important part is supporting the lyrics and supporting the melodies. A lot of bands will write cool chord progressions and then try and write the melody over it and it kind of is boring in that way because the melody was never the main focus so we really like doing it that way.
RR: Which of the four songs that you have on your EP, if you had to pick one, would represent where you think your sound is going to go? Because you have a few different sounds on there, I noticed, because you’re just trying to find out your sound.
MK: I think every song we write is its own story and that’s hard to compare, like we just wrote a shoegaze song that we played tonight that’s not like anything we have on the EP, but we love doing it so we’re going to keep doing it, so each song is its own work and we’re not trying to pigeon it into a genre you know?
*Man interrupts interview*
Man: Hey guys, I just had to say, fantastic job.
Everyone: Thanks, thank you, thanks dude.
*Man exits room*
MK: And I feel like even when we do have a lot of different voices in our songs, even if we do try to go out of the genre, we always have the same voice altogether no matter how we write the song, it always has the ROMP voice in it, whether we like it or not so it’s not really like we have to try and be ROMP, we just are.
LD: Yeah, as a young band we’re always facing that challenge too like we said, things are sounding different and it’ll become more focused as we go but right now we really don’t know what’s next.
RR: Which, of those four, or even of the ones that you’re recently writing would you say is your favorite?
LD: It’s weird because there’s two “favorite” categories: you have the song that you like playing the most which for me is uh- Actually I’d say “Miss You” is my favorite, to play and to listen to.
MK: I like “Miss You”, but it almost gives me an aneurism when I sing it.
MG: ‘Cause you’re doing it right.
MK: I think my favorite song is “Departure from Venus” which is the shoegaze song.
RR: What do you guys feel like is the plan for the future? I know you’re doing a lot of shows right now, but for the future, what are you guys thinking about doing?
LD: Alright, I’ll give you our short term goals and our long term goals. Our short term goals are: play every basement in New Brunswick, we have cassettes releasing that was kind of a goal that we’re going for and it’s happening now which is awesome. And then we’re going on tour in January; that’s like a goal that we’re still developing.
Luke Bamford: It’s still coming together.
LD: And then for long term goals, we want to have vinyl come out hopefully this spring, we’re hoping.
MK: Our plan is to go back into the studio and hopefully that can be pressed on vinyl.
LD: And then another long term goal is to take down the Illuminati and Kanye West. That’s the long term though, you know.
RR: One last question, I know you guys have been playing around the venues recently, has their been a favorite show or a favorite venue that you’ve done yet?
LD: I actually really liked this show tonight, I felt like we were our tightest tonight, but probably our favorite home spot is the Banana Stand, our best friends run that and they do everything for us and-
MK: And they’re really handsome and really nice, we love ‘em. It’s all about the looks.
MG: And Nick’s butt.
MK: And Nick’s butt, what a cute tush.
If you want to check out ROMP, their EP “Sorry, Not Sorry” is available on bandcamp and iTunes, or you can find it in physical form, as well as other merch, at any of their future appearances in New Brunswick basements. If you don’t know how to find out about those, ask a punk or like them on Facebook.
Article by Sam Shopp
Photos by James Appio