1. If I knew absolutely nothing about The Red Romance,
how would you describe the group’s music to me?
-- The Red Romance is New York City indie-pop band
heavily influenced by early 1980s Brit Pop and Motown. The basic idea would
be Pulp meets Booker T and the MGs as introduced to each other by mutual
friends, Scott Walker and Richard Milhuas Nixon.
2. If I were to buy your new self-titled album,
what songs should I pay particular attention to and why?
-- I would check out "Hesitate," which
is like Roxy Music meets Scott Walker, and "Kinda Feel Right," which
our take on danceable, straight-forward Brill Building-era hook.
3. When and where did the band form, and where didthe
name come from? -- Adam, Darren,
and myself got together in early 2006 and started playing clubs in downtown
New York with a bunch of songs I had written while still the bass player
for Ambulance LTD, of which Darren was also the drummer. The name was just
something I thought one day, it sounded good to me and I liked the imagery
of it. Later we found out it was a book of poetry from the 1800s by some
Scottish poet, I think, and it was also a series of old Western movies from
the 1930s....
4.
What was your worst on stage experience? What was your
best?
-- Our worst stage experience probably had to be
playing outside at a festival, it was raining, and the stage crew had
been drinking heavily. It started to rain and thunder and the microphones
were giving us shocks, it was a very Spinal Tap moment. For those young
music fans out there, do yourself and us a favor, go to Netflicks, and
rent This is Spinal Tap. The best time on stage was rocking
the house at Madison Square Gardens when we opened for The Killers, being
a New York band that's unsigned and getting to do that, was top drawer
baby.
5. Do you think that the Internet (whether it be Internet
radio, legal downloading, MySpace, streaming audio, etc.) is a good tool
for musicians or is it a bad thing because it hinders profits?
-- Well, we think it's obviously both. The internet
essentially levels the playing field for all artists because in theory, it
allows equal access to the same potentially limitless audience. Those of
us out here writing, recording, and performing music have a chance to establish
a presence and a platform for fans and artist to connect. But it does devalue
recorded music, which is tough on both artists and the entire industry. The
cat's out of the bag now, and so everyone involved is being forced to thing
differently about how money can be made off music, and hopefully that'll
be a good thing in the end.
