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ROME Wasn't Built In A Day With JEROME REUTER · HEAVY Music Interviews

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: I'm Jerome from the band Rong and I've been going
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: for twenty years with this project, but it's the first
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: time I'll be in Australia in about ten days from now,
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: so I'm very much looking forward to that.
• 0:13
  Speaker 2: Nice thanks for joining us this evening, man.
• 0:16
  Speaker 3: Well, thank you for having me my pleasure.
• 0:18
  Speaker 2: So, as you say, you're headed this way in about
• 0:20
  Speaker 2: ten days for your first ever shows in Australia, starting
• 0:23
  Speaker 2: in Adelaide on August at twenty second, then you hit
• 0:26
  Speaker 2: Melbourne and Brisbane and finishing Sydney on August at thirties.
• 0:29
  Speaker 2: So I guess the big question is, mate, why have
• 0:31
  Speaker 2: you neglected us for so long?
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: Good question, Well, there were a few attempts before, but
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: you know, there was COVID and there was this and that.
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: So finally we got this back on track for this year.
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  Speaker 1: And also because it's our twenty year anniversary, we do
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: a big tour and so we I guess we waited
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: a little bit to make it happen this year as well.
• 0:53
  Speaker 2: Yeah, so being your first time here, bro like, you've
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  Speaker 2: got a lot of fans over here, but they might
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  Speaker 2: not quite know what to expect from your life. So
• 1:00
  Speaker 2: run us through live show what they can expect.
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: Well, this Australian two is going to be a stripped
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: back solo show, so it's just going to be me
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: basically on guitar.
• 1:09
  Speaker 3: So it's not the whole band.
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: It's not the big kaboom of the big thundering drums
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: that were kind of known for.
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  Speaker 3: But it's more of an honest.
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: Direct, intimate kind of approach with me just on guitar,
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: revisiting some of the material I've written in the last
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: several years and yeah, just basically taking it back to
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: the roots.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah. So on the flip side of that point too, bro, like,
• 1:34
  Speaker 2: you got no idea what you expect from us others,
• 1:36
  Speaker 2: what do you expecting from Osi Franz.
• 1:39
  Speaker 3: Oh, I have no expectations whatsoever. Really.
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: I mean, I've never been there for my first time
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: in Australia. I've heard many, many good things about it,
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: but yeah, I'm just very thrilled to even be able
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: to go there. So it's all good.
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  Speaker 2: So when you go somewhere for the first time, like
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  Speaker 2: coming here, like you do research, you ask people that
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  Speaker 2: are being here before what to expect or do you
• 2:01
  Speaker 2: prefer to coming told and just make it up as
• 2:03
  Speaker 2: you go along.
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  Speaker 3: A bit of both.
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  Speaker 1: I mean you kind of do inquire like maybe a
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: bad the venues about what other bands to play with
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: and is the promoter any good or there's sort of
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: that sort of stuff, you know with some colleagues of
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: mine that have been there and work with the same people,
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: and if there's green lights there, if I have the time,
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  Speaker 1: I will try to read up.
• 2:25
  Speaker 3: A bit on the place I'm going to. But yeah,
• 2:28
  Speaker 3: it's right now.
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: I've been quite busy recently, so I'm going in quite cold,
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: to be honest.
• 2:35
  Speaker 2: You'll be fine right out, You'll be fine, I think.
• 2:38
  Speaker 3: So.
• 2:38
  Speaker 2: Yes, you're gonna be short on the back of your
• 2:40
  Speaker 2: most recent album Sibta's Solace, which came out in April. So,
• 2:44
  Speaker 2: how was a reception for that one?
• 2:47
  Speaker 3: I think it was good. I think it was good.
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: I mean it's a bit of an avalanche that we
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: are putting people through throughout this year because we just
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: released another bundle of records to celebrate this anniversary. So
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: the album has been received well, but it came along
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: with the Dublin session that we did, so it's just
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: like a lot of a lot of stuff being thrown
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: at people. And yeah, so this year, it's it's it's
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: all coming out and then you know we're clearing out,
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: yes exactly, get rid of all the baggage.
• 3:22
  Speaker 2: So you've got more than twenty albums to draw from, mate,
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  Speaker 2: So what's your selection process like when it comes to
• 3:28
  Speaker 2: right the settlist? Yea very darts and the dark board, Like,
• 3:31
  Speaker 2: how do you do it?
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: Well, if it's with the band, it kind of dictates
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: itself depending on who's in the band at any given time.
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: Currently we have a new drama, so we're kind of
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: reworking everything and because it's the twenty anniversary, we kind
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: of try to give people a little overview of what
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: we've been doing. But also we have a bit of
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: a much raw sound, going a bit more won't say arrestive,
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: but like there's there's just like a lot of action,
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: let's say. And with the solo bits it's quite the opposite.
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  Speaker 1: I don't really have a set list. I mean, I
• 4:10
  Speaker 1: have a list of long list of songs to fall
• 4:12
  Speaker 1: back on, but I kind of know what I will
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  Speaker 1: start with and what I should end with and in between.
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  Speaker 1: It's really just like reading the room and you know
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  Speaker 1: if it's yeah, So.
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  Speaker 3: I'm not sure yet.
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  Speaker 1: If I take requests, but it's it's kind of yeah,
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: improvised in a way, you know. And these songs are
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: like I'm revisiting some staff and I play versions that
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: were more like the original versions of the song because
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: I write all the material on acoustic guitar first and
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: that's how I start the recording process. But then during
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: that process, it might be that we dropped the guitar altogether,
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: or we add so many other layers that the song
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: just takes on this totally different shape, whereas in the
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: solo bits, I really take it back to the basic
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: form it had originally.
• 5:04
  Speaker 2: It's actually a really cool way to do it, like
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  Speaker 2: because every night you get up on stage, you got
• 5:08
  Speaker 2: a different frame of mind. You know, you've got different
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  Speaker 2: stuff going on in your head. So if you've got
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  Speaker 2: your start and your end and then everything else comes
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  Speaker 2: depending on how you feel, and made for an interesting
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  Speaker 2: set night after night.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah.
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  Speaker 1: I mean, I've got a lot of these slow kind
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: of songs, is ballads and kinde and sometimes.
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  Speaker 3: They go over quite well.
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  Speaker 1: But if it's like a noisy room and people just
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: want to get a little high, fast paced energy or something,
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: then I switch it, you know, So it's really and
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: sometimes it's like such an intimate atmosphere that like the
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: room is very receptive for like the more crooning kind
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  Speaker 1: of balladesque stuff, so then I would do more of that.
• 5:47
  Speaker 3: It really depends.
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  Speaker 2: Your albums are all conceptually base mate, So does that
• 5:53
  Speaker 2: come into play when you do any set lists, Like
• 5:55
  Speaker 2: is it difficult to get a flow on and you
• 5:57
  Speaker 2: set user songs that have come from different conceptual.
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: Not really, because this on every album, even though there's
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  Speaker 1: a concept, there is always the attempt to make it
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: listenable so that you start off with something that you know,
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  Speaker 1: I try to have things on there that people can
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: relate to, even if they haven't read the books or whatever.
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: You know, it's really about the music and taking people
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: on the journey. So when I compile the set list,
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: it's really first of all, especially when I'm playing solo,
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: like is it doable with just the guitar?
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  Speaker 3: Because with the.
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: Whole band, like we do use like a limited amount
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: of like backing tracks to add like the samples that
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: we often use and stuff like that, things you couldn't
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: reproduce live anyway. But with the solo shows, I don't
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: have any sort of backing tracks. I could do this
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: mini karaoke show that people tend to do when they're alone,
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  Speaker 1: but I just really wanted to be super honest. Guitar vocals,
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  Speaker 1: that's it. And then of course there's a whole bunch
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  Speaker 1: of songs that you just cannot play that way because
• 6:59
  Speaker 1: there's ams in there that are just.
• 7:01
  Speaker 3: Too important to the soul of the song.
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  Speaker 1: And if it's not possible on the guitar, then I
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  Speaker 1: just dropped those and I try to, of course have
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  Speaker 1: a little bit of a mix also from what periods
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: there are. But yeah, it's kind of I mean, the
• 7:15
  Speaker 1: sent list right themselves pretty fast, to be honest, because
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: there's a few songs that I know I have to
• 7:20
  Speaker 1: play some things I want to play, you know.
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  Speaker 2: It's I'm speaking of it at the concept face of
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  Speaker 2: your albums, like you do a lot of research. You're
• 7:32
  Speaker 2: very meticulous in them. They're well thought out, they will
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  Speaker 2: researched in detail. But how much time do you actually
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  Speaker 2: spend at the research phase of each album?
• 7:42
  Speaker 3: Oh, that's it's always a bit different.
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: I mean, I wrote this album a passage through Rhodijah,
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  Speaker 1: and there I didn't know anything about anything relating to
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: that topic, which is why I was like, I don't know.
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  Speaker 1: I came across it and I thought, oh, I don't
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  Speaker 1: know anything about this, but this seems very interesting. So
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  Speaker 1: that took many years from the first time I had
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  Speaker 1: the idea to do that until the release and I
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: actually started recording songs. This was like in two thousand
• 8:10
  Speaker 1: and seven or eight, but it was only released in
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  Speaker 1: twenty fourteen because it took all that time for me
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  Speaker 1: not just to read up on stuff and you know,
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  Speaker 1: consider myself enough of an authority on the subject matter
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  Speaker 1: to even attempt this, but it took quite a bit
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  Speaker 1: of time to find the right voice to be honest
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  Speaker 1: about this thing and you know where you're coming from
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  Speaker 1: and what you want to transport, and so that took
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  Speaker 1: quite a bit of time. And in the meantime, I
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: always working on other things, So I always have a
• 8:41
  Speaker 1: few things on hold or like that I'm still working
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: on but it's not quite there yet. But there's always
• 8:49
  Speaker 1: like a current album that's in the making more than
• 8:52
  Speaker 1: other things. So it's really hard to pin down. Like
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  Speaker 1: sometimes I write an album and it's really done, all
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  Speaker 1: the songwriting and all the new it's done like within
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: a week, because it's just been been a good week.
• 9:04
  Speaker 2: You know.
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  Speaker 3: But other times it takes forever.
• 9:08
  Speaker 1: It seems like forever anyway, So there's no clear formula there.
• 9:13
  Speaker 2: And then where does the esprision come from with these concepts.
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  Speaker 3: It's usually through reading.
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  Speaker 1: I come across something, or I'll come across a line
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  Speaker 1: somewhere and I think that that should be a song,
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  Speaker 1: you know, and then I, you know, I play around
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  Speaker 1: on the guitar, and then sometimes just things fall into place.
• 9:32
  Speaker 3: You have this line in your head still, or I.
• 9:34
  Speaker 1: Got all like a bunch of notebooks filled with random
• 9:38
  Speaker 1: stuff and you kind of flip through those pages and
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  Speaker 1: something screams out at you, knowing it's like, okay, this
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  Speaker 1: this one wants to be done with these chords that
• 9:47
  Speaker 1: I just played. And that's how it all comes together.
• 9:50
  Speaker 3: And then you add all the concepts and ideas to it.
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  Speaker 1: But there's always this initial spark that is not really controlled.
• 9:59
  Speaker 1: It's just happens, and then you squeeze it a little
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: bit into the.
• 10:03
  Speaker 3: Direction you want to go on the album.
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: And then there's the whole other thing with about like
• 10:08
  Speaker 1: what's the instrumentation? Is there any sort of theme to
• 10:13
  Speaker 1: what instruments I use? And mostly it's about me and
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: like my friend Tom with whom I work in the studio,
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: that we kind of limit ourselves specifically too, because you
• 10:25
  Speaker 1: can do anything in the studio, you know, especially these
• 10:28
  Speaker 1: days with technology, you can do whatever you want. So
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: what we try to do is like limit the scope
• 10:33
  Speaker 1: and just like go through all the synth sounds for example,
• 10:37
  Speaker 1: and just say, okay, we're only allowed to use these ten,
• 10:40
  Speaker 1: you know, and then you kind of always fall back
• 10:42
  Speaker 1: on those otherwise, you know. Yeah, It's it's really hard
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: to because you would never get it finished.
• 10:47
  Speaker 3: You know.
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  Speaker 1: I have a lot of friends who, Yeah, I have
• 10:50
  Speaker 1: a lot of friends who labor on for years and
• 10:54
  Speaker 1: years and years on the album. By the time they
• 10:55
  Speaker 1: kind of at some point, it's kind of good. Technology
• 10:58
  Speaker 1: has moved forward so much.
• 11:00
  Speaker 3: They kind of want.
• 11:02
  Speaker 2: Yeah, so that all the concepts that you've explored, I guess, like,
• 11:08
  Speaker 2: which one is the closest see your heart? Which one
• 11:10
  Speaker 2: is given me the most enjoyment?
• 11:12
  Speaker 3: The next one, the next one?
• 11:14
  Speaker 2: Beautiful answer.
• 11:17
  Speaker 1: And it's really true because I'm living always in the
• 11:21
  Speaker 1: next album, like either I'm looking for what it should
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: be or I'm gourging myself on the literature or it's
• 11:29
  Speaker 1: it's always you're.
• 11:30
  Speaker 3: Onto the next canvas. Whatever's done is done.
• 11:33
  Speaker 1: And of course, I, you know, only close a piece
• 11:36
  Speaker 1: when I'm really happy with it and I want to
• 11:38
  Speaker 1: release it, even though I'm releasing quite a bit.
• 11:41
  Speaker 3: That there is quality control, you know, also for.
• 11:45
  Speaker 1: Other people involved, you know that, you know, I seek
• 11:48
  Speaker 1: their opinion, like this isn't good, but yeah, usually the
• 11:53
  Speaker 1: best album is yet to come.
• 11:55
  Speaker 2: That's a good That's a good one to me. No,
• 11:58
  Speaker 2: normally I'm sort of I'll just I asked this question,
• 12:00
  Speaker 2: so it sounds like it's for the benef of other people.
• 12:03
  Speaker 2: But I'll be quite honest with you. After reading through
• 12:05
  Speaker 2: the press releases and bios of yours, it sounds fascinating
• 12:09
  Speaker 2: what you do, But I still don't really have an
• 12:11
  Speaker 2: exact idea of what it is that you do. So
• 12:13
  Speaker 2: can you can you sort of run us through not
• 12:16
  Speaker 2: exactly what it is?
• 12:18
  Speaker 3: Can't help you, You can't help me.
• 12:23
  Speaker 1: I mean, it's all based in this post punk culture
• 12:26
  Speaker 1: of this dark way focused stuff, plus the whole original
• 12:30
  Speaker 1: industrial bands all of that, but that's like the subculture
• 12:36
  Speaker 1: it originated from. But me personally, I've been very much
• 12:40
  Speaker 1: inspired by these songwriters like the classic names like Tom
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: Waits and The Cave and Johnny Cash and most important
• 12:49
  Speaker 1: to me, Land Cohen, like these guys who would just
• 12:54
  Speaker 1: toil away all the lyrics for ages and and have
• 12:58
  Speaker 1: this whole poetic persona that fascinated me. Even as a
• 13:03
  Speaker 1: young kid, when I was in even understanding one word
• 13:06
  Speaker 1: of English, I could sense that there's a little bit
• 13:09
  Speaker 1: more going on there than just your average pop song
• 13:12
  Speaker 1: or whatever. And that's sort of like the culture along
• 13:15
  Speaker 1: with the more European chanson and stuff like that. Jacques
• 13:19
  Speaker 1: Bred to mention just one of my all time favorites.
• 13:23
  Speaker 1: So that's that whole tradition that is mixed in with
• 13:28
  Speaker 1: whatever remnants of rock and rolls.
• 13:32
  Speaker 3: Yeah, this whole post punk let's say, yeah, very cool.
• 13:37
  Speaker 2: Well, if anyone wants to export further for themselves, Rome
• 13:41
  Speaker 2: will be out here in August for the twenty second
• 13:43
  Speaker 2: in Adelaide and Melbourne, Brisbane and Sydney, so head out
• 13:46
  Speaker 2: and have a look for yourself. I think I might
• 13:47
  Speaker 2: come to the Brisbane show. It sounds like it'd be
• 13:49
  Speaker 2: a good night.
• 13:51
  Speaker 3: Thank you so much for having us.
• 13:53
  Speaker 1: I'm very much looking forward to it.