Belgium-born, Naarm-based singer-songwriter Romanie’s music is as comforting as a cup of chamomile tea. She’s just released her debut album, Are We There Yet?, and across the album’s 12 tracks, Romanie lets bite-sized stories unfurl themselves layer by layer.
On the surface, it’s an extremely easy listen, and Romanie’s voice is gentle while still conveying gravitas. It’s her lyricism that’ll see you return to this album — on ‘Panic Attacks For Breakfast’, she’s candid about mental health, while ‘Anthony’ is a poignant discussion of dementia. She’s insightful without being cynical, often using the songs on the album to process the events that are going on around her.
To mark the release of Are We There Yet?, Junkee chatted with Romanie about trying to catch up on as much celebrity gossip as possible, the unfortunate absence of an ant farm in her life, and binging TV shows. I can’t say I’ve ever felt the need to own an ant farm myself, but as Justin Bieber once said: never say never.
Junkee: A mistake that turned into an opportunity?
I feel like this might be a common theme in my life. I’m incredibly impulsive and will always try to say yes to whatever I can, therefore probably make quite a few mistakes (a day), but things always somehow turn out ok.
Cringe quote you used to live by?
The FOMOs and the YOLOs were pretty big in my dictionary. Maybe still if I have to be honest… Ah well, it’s gotten me to the weirdest places and beautifully awkward situations in my life so far so I’m going to keep YOLOing and avoid getting FOMO.
Worst advice you got and blindly followed?
Be patient, things will come to you. I think you should just do whatever you think is best for you, and follow your gut. It feels so much worse living with regret for not doing anything than having tried things that can open doors. (I obviously didn’t stick with the advice because I’m still impatient as hell.)
The worst failure you’re up for sharing, and what you learned from it?
At the end of high school, me and some friends organised the end-of-year ceremony. We stayed up all night preparing everything and I had committed to also sing a song at the end. Of course, I completely lost my voice from the lack of sleep. I felt so embarrassed in front of my high school friends.
Afterwards, there was an awards ceremony led by the teachers, and I could swear they were describing me during one of the winning announcements. Luckily, I stayed seated until they said someone else’s name, because I would probably have died of embarrassment on the spot twice in a day. I think it taught me to also embrace those kinds of moments though, I find it very funny looking back on cringe moments.
Anything you used to be wrong about?
Wanting to please everyone and be liked by everyone. It’s impossible, and that’s ok.
Embarrassing internet habit?
I’m very out of touch with celebrity gossip, so whenever my friends talk about someone, I have to do my research afterwards, reading the gossip magazines. I’m also easily trapped into internet rabbit holes. So it’s very embarrassing when I forget to delete my search history and [then] during a following professional interaction, I try to Google something and the page “WHAT HAPPENED TO LINDSAY LOHAN?” is right there.
Ideal morning routine versus actual morning routine?
Waking up early, writing my morning pages and setting intentions for the day vs. reaching the daily Instagram time limit and shamelessly ignoring the limit notification button.
Something very off-brand for you?
I binge every TV show that I start watching. I’m usually all for productivity — always either working, writing, performing or hanging out with friends. But when I disappear for days on end, it’s probably because I’m watching Season 4 of Alone while eating a dirty UberEats burger in bed.
I always cancel my Netflix subscription just to put some self-protection in place, but occasionally I get dragged back in. The plus side of this is that TV always brings me a lot of writing inspiration. Who knows, maybe my next album will be about starving on Vancouver Island?
Bad health decision?
Wanting to live 72 hours in a 24-hour day. I definitely go way too hard in life in terms of cramming a million things into one day. Planning a 7am coffee catch-up with a friend and then picking up a late-night bar shift sometimes results in me not sleeping enough, but it’s the way I like to live. Oh, and probably taking up smoking — that’s probably one of my biggest regrets in the past few years.
What do you waste money on?
Too much random shit. I’m the kind of person who’d get an internet ad about an ant farm and suddenly think that I need an ant farm in my life. Side note: I do not own an ant farm (yet) (unfortunately).
Worst procrastination habit?
Apart from the very trendy doomscroll, I also tend to make lists about to-do lists. (hey take me ages to hand write and draw nice schedules for them) to then forget about it forever.
Romanie’s new album Are We There Yet? is out now.
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Illustration credit: Matt Lauricella, @pigeonboyart
