Hey Rome B!, good to have you here! How are you?
Hi! Appreciate it! I’m fine, hope you guys are as well!
So let’s start with a little introduction for those who don’t know you. Tell us something about where do you live, what is your age? Which style(s) of music are you currently producing? Have you always produced it?
I’m Rome B!, a 29 y/o producer and DJ from Landshut, Germany. That’s in the greater Munich area. Most of the time, I’m producing Bass Music in every kind of style and tempo. Trap, Twerk, Dubstep, Future Bass, Moombahton and many other genres.
My roots are in the Hip-Hop game and I always liked Reggae/Dancehall. I fell in love with Bass Music in 2012-2013, after a long break from music. First, producing some bass tracks was just an experimental thing but it caught me forever.
My motto is “f*** genres” though – I do whatever I want, so you can’t pigeonhole Rome B!.
Your last single “Rude Boy” was on #23 in the Hip-Hop/R&B Top 100 and on #9 of the Best New Hip-Hop Charts on Beatport. After that you got airplays on BBC Radio 1, BBC Radio 1xtra, BTRtoday and Noisey Germany. How does it feel to hear your track on the radio?
I don’t even find words for that… It’s a blessing. I mean, there were some moments I heard my tracks on radio stations before, but they were always been played by people I know. My remix of Major Lazer’s “Too Original” was on BBC 1xtra in 2015 in a set by Eskei83, DJ Sherry played my track “Blazin” on his show on Planet Radio in Frankfurt this year, for example.
But it’s way different if you don’t even have an idea of what’s going on (laughs). Noisey on Fritz Radio in Berlin even asked for an exclusive artist mix. I was stoked. The German Vice.com music blog radio show is asking ME for an artist showcase? I couldn’t believe it. The show was on a Friday at 20:30 – more than 60.000 people are listening to Fritz at an average – so you can’t even imagine how excited I was.
Enjoy “Rude Boy” here:
When did you start making music?
Honestly, that’s a difficult question. I started to make German Rap music at the age of 13. I had my first studio session at the age of 15, so I got quite familiar with some workflow that producers have.
After my first steps into the music industry, I wanted to push forward. My love for music was always that big that I recorded music cassettes from a CD player for friends. It was just a question of time to produce “real” mixtapes with transitions. I guess it was at the age of 18, but I couldn’t afford turntables.
So I used a cracked version of Cubase to cut/pitch them transitions. My intention wasn’t to just doing these mixes, though. I wanted to do it officially, legally. I was in contact with every artist I featured on the mix. If I didn’t reach out to the artist, at least I got permission of the management. Some of them I met even before they blew up.
My former live DJ started to produce beats at that time. We sat together, cooking some heat. I had ideas, he killed them. With the contacts I had I started to network. With another one of my best friends we started to build up a team called 840Squad. We even had a release on a sub-label of EMI, that was my first record deal before I even started to produce my own tracks.
After thinking that we finally made it and coming back to earth my partners both moved out of town and I realized that I wasn’t able to do anything without them (laughs).
Long story short, I finally started to produce my own beats, getting familiar to all the producer and engineering stuff in 2012. I released the first bass music tracks in 2014, just for fun. And here I am.
Why did you choose to start over in a whole different genre?
Honestly, when I changed my mind and started to do something different, there was so much hate in our local Hip-Hop scene. I went to the first Dubstep event and realized there was a party without drama. That was my turnover. Getting more and more involved in a different culture, where nobody asks the DJ to play his/her favourite tune, enjoying themselves instead, etc… this led to my personal vibe today.
The local DJ at our home town wouldn’t understand this last line by the way. I was a really annoying person for DJs when I started clubbing. Sorry, Eric! (Laughs)
Is there a story behind your stage name? What does that B! means?
Well… my real name’s Roman. I think the first time I was called Rome was after cracking some cold ones and watching “2 Fast 2 Furious” with them boys. Tyrese Gibson, acting as “Roman Pierce”, had this scene where he said “only my homeboys call me Rome” and whooped Paul Walkers ass. Well, we just had fun.
After that I was calling myself “Yung Rome” – I used this alias to release that mixtapes.
But if you ain’t “yung” anymore you need a more serious stage name. My last name starts with the letter B – so it was quite easy to find that name (laughs).
Today, that B! stands for anything positive that starts with a B!: B!ass, B!eautiful People, B!eer, B!eats, anything else you can imagine. And most of all: B! yourself.
Are you particularly inspired by an (or several) artist(s) when you compose your music?
There are so many inspirations in so many ways. If it comes to producing, my main inspirations are Diplo and Skrillex. But I’m working and talking to so many talented people. All of them are a true inspiration.
Why are you producing music? And more globally, what means “music” to you?
Life. I can’t live without music.
According to you, what is the best way to develop a business in the music industry?
Be realistic. It’s 2017. Don’t think you can make a living if you just want to produce some tracks for your own. Besides, I’m ghost-producing, doing mixing and mastering services, and many other things. Do almost everything you can if you probably want to make a living out of it. Even though, I still have a day job. Never getting insecure.
Can you tell us what will happen to you? Do you have stuff in preparation, future collaborations or personal projects?
Family is everything at the moment. My beautiful daughter was born in the end of July.
But it won’t stop me releasing new music. Honestly, I have so many tracks finished that I could do an album. But me and my team decided to release them one by one.
Currently I’m working on some new official remixes projects and original tracks with rappers you probably might know (laughs).
I’d love to do a little tour though, I want to meet more people that love what I do.
And 840Squad isn’t dead. The team of DJs and producers is growing. I always try to push them to release tracks.
And for the producers out there…
In what Digital Audio Workstation (DAW) are you working? And why that one?
FL Studio 11. I don’t like the 12’s layout. I barely use the internal plugins, though.
In average, how many time do you spend in the studio on a typical day or week?
I really spent most of my spare time at the studio. About 4-8 hours per session. Sometimes, I just spend my whole day there. It really depends on the mood I’m experiencing…
Finally:
Any important people in your Life you wanna mention, thank or talk about?
Damn… that list would be long…
My little beauty Tanisha, my wife Tina. My friends and partners around the world (you know who you are ♥).
You released an official remix of “We’re Not Friends – Spell Book” on Eonity. What can you tell us about that project?
Tyy from WNF always got my back via TrapStyle, the company and blog that was the first one to spread the word when I released Bass tunes. He even brought me in his international team.
Even though he is one of the most busy people I know, he video-called me a few days after my daughter was born. We really are a family at TrapStyle.
As I saw that WNF were giving out the stems to their project, I had to remix it. I’ve sent it out to him 2 days after the stem-release. He and Robert loved it. And there we go!
Thank you very much for your time, Rome B!.
Appreciate the love, my pleasure.
You can enjoy his super dope release with us right here:
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