Caroline Romano – ICYMI – Featured Interview
Caroline is an 18-year-old up and coming pop artist who has opened for Shawn Mendes, Daya, and Why Don’t We. We have previously reviewed her single, “I Still Remember.” It has over 1.7 Million Streams on Spotify, after being featured on Music On The Rox back in May. In honor of this unbelievable achievement, we decided todo an interview with Caroline. Check it out!
Music On The Rox – First, congrats on all your success. It is a pleasure to do this interview with you today. So, lets get started. How did you get your start in the music industry?
Caroline Romano – I knew I wanted to take part in the music industry from a very young age. I remember going to career days in elementary school and not being able to find a single career path that interested me. All I wanted to do was listen to music and play my guitar. I sort of fell into songwriting as an escape from the problems I was facing in school. I was a really shy, anxious little kid, and music was really the only friend I had to comfort me. I started writing my own songs around the age of twelve, and I completely fell in love with the cathartic nature of writing down my feelings and putting them to music. I begged my parents to take me to Nashville for my thirteenth birthday, and that’s when I really fell hard for the music industry. All I had was my acoustic guitar and the handful of songs I’d written in my bedroom, but I played open mic nights at places like The Bluebird Café and other venues around the city. Performing the songs I’d written brought me a sense of peace and joy that I’d never experienced until that point in my life. It was truly a “stars aligned” type of moment. I declared on that first Nashville trip that music was what I wanted to do with the rest of my life. Thankfully, my parents are incredibly supportive, and we started making monthly trips back to the city so I could play shows around town, record music, write with other artists, and just get connected in the business. It’s all somewhat of a wonderful blur from there, but I’ve come a long way since my first trip to Nashville at thirteen. I’m excited to see where the journey goes from here!
Its really cool that your first trip to Nashville was when you were 13. So, What is the story behind your single, “I Still Remember?”
I wrote “I Still Remember” in 2018 with some friends of mine in Nashville. We were hanging out one day, and we fell into a conversation about the first time a relationship leaves a truly lasting mark on your life. It’s the first time you realize that, after all is said and done, you’re going to carry a piece of that person with you forever, no matter how many years go by. You still remember all of the wonderful things about that time, about that person, and you don’t even know why. Therefore, “I Still Remember” was born.
What was it like to collaborate with R3HAB and how has that experience impacted your life?
Working with R3HAB on “I Still Remember” was seriously one of the best experiences of my life. From the minute I first recorded the track back in 2018, I knew it would be perfect for a DJ/remix project. It was an insane moment to hear that R3HAB (one of my favorite artists) would be remixing “I Still Remember.” I’m a firm believer that every track R3HAB touches turns to gold, and I think that was certainly the case with this song as well. He is insanely talented, and it has truly been an honor to get to work with him. The whole experience has changed my life in so many ways. For starters, it’s allowed my music to be heard by an audience 100x larger than ever before. It’s given me my first Top 30 Billboard charting song in the Dance/Mix category. This song has changed my life in a countless amount of big ways, and I am beyond grateful for every bit of this experience.
Speaking of collabs, who is one artist that you would like to work with in the future?
My answer is going to have to be Taylor Swift. She is undeniably a lyrical genius, and I can’t think of another artist whose journey and career I could admire more. She’s my childhood hero, and her music has played a heavy role in the soundtrack to my life. She’s an absolute dream collab.
“I Still Remember,” is your most streamed song on Spotify. It has over 1.7 Million Streams already. It was actually our most visited review on the Nashville Music Reviews site for that month. What does that success mean to you?
These milestones brought on by “I Still Remember” have felt like a wave of cool air after running up a mountain on a hot, sunny day. The success I’ve experienced with this track has felt like a little whisper of “keep pressing on” in my ear. These moments of success are few and far between in this industry, but they are beautifully sweet when they come. At the end of the day, I like to look at these successful milestones as the clues to tell me to keep going, keep working hard, keep chasing these dreams. Right now, I’m looking around and just feeling incredibly grateful for it all. The recent success with this single has made me appreciate all of the hard work it’s taken to get here, as well as the people who have helped me reach my goals even more. I feel incredibly on fire for it all.
This is a crazy time that we are living with, with having to stay sheltered and staying busy. How are you staying busy during this quarantine?
I’ve been writing a lot of new music during this time, and I have to say that the forced self-isolation has really inspired me to be creative and explore new veins of the songwriting process. Outside of music, I’ve used this time to do lots of working out, followed by counter-productive baking. I’ve enjoyed reaching out to friends I haven’t talked with in a while through the phone, and I’m loving the extra time I’ve been able to spend with my family.
Family is super important, so it is really cool that you are getting to spend extra time with them. Do you have any cool projects you are working on since your success with this latest single?
I’m working on a bunch of cool stuff at the moment. I’m really enjoying exploring more of the EDM/Dance side of pop. It wasn’t an area I was very familiar with before this most recent single, but I’m working on writing lots of cool stuff in that vein, as well as many other projects that I can’t share just yet. Lots of cool stuff in the works!
Fans really have a way of influencing music. What is one thing that you would like to tell your fans?
If I could only tell fans one thing, it would simply be the most genuine of thank you’s for listening to the music I create. I’ve spent my whole life writing songs in the pursuit of someone to listen to what I have to say. The fact that you are taking even 3 minutes out of your day to hear my voice come out of a pair of headphones blows me away. You’ve changed my life, and there are no words to describe how grateful I am for you.
That is really awesome. So, sometimes it is tough to make it in the Nashville music scene. What advice do you have for artists trying to make it in the music industry?
I’ll say, it sounds terribly cheesy, but you have to be 100% yourself. It’s the best advice I’ve been given, and it’s reigned incredibly true in my own life and career thus far. The music industry is an ever-changing business. A lot of people will want to change you, your style, your music, or the message you’re trying to portray. Listen to constructive criticism whenever you can get it. The people who will tell you as it is are some of the greatest people you’ll encounter. However, never change who you are. Stay true to the reason you’re making music or getting into the industry in the first place. It will be the biggest thing that makes you unique, and it can be your best asset in becoming successful!
Just wanted to thank Caroline Romano for doing this interview with us. You can stream “I Still Remember,” and follow her on her socials below!