SC Unplugged: Jack Romero on releasing ‘unapologetic queer music’

Singer Jack Romero is a junior in Thornton’s pop vocal program. Originally from Illinois, Romero grew up around music at the School of Rock. Romero’s music is a mix of “heavyish rock meets that kind of punky indie soft.” Through his music, Romero aims to be an “unfiltered queer spokesperson” as he tells stories of queer love. His emotional storytelling picks up influence from the likes of Jeff Buckley. His recent song, “Daisies,” tells a queer take on the classic Romeo & Juliet.

Annenberg Media spoke with Romero to learn more about his inspirations and creative processes while working on “Daisies.”

SC Unplugged graphic by Steven Vargas.

Full transcript has been edited for clarity.

[Musical Interlude: “Daisies” by Jack Romero]

Romero: My name is Jack Romero. I am a junior in the pop vocal program. I am originally from Chicago, Illinois. Well, actually, Naperville. But then I went to school, high school, in the city in Chicago. I went to Chicago Academy for the Arts. But then. Yeah, So then I came out here.

[Musical Interlude: “Daisies” by Jack Romero]

Romero: My role in music. I mean, as a creator, I try to be like an unfiltered, queer spokesperson. I feel that’s kind of my purpose when it comes to my music and not writing queer stories and create music in a way where it’s, I guess, like formulated or in a way that’s about the negative aspects of queer love or even just specificities about queer love, but more just like love in general, and just using like same sex pronouns, you know what I mean? It’s kind of like taking that like ‘love is love’ type of - that like iconic phrase in a more and like the most literal sense as possible. However, “Daisies,” which we’re going to talk about, that’s probably about the most specific as I get when it comes to queer storytelling. But as an artist, I try and focus on just like queer normalization through and through.

[Musical Interlude: “Daisies” by Jack Romero]

Romero: So I went to this kindergarten called Crème de la Crème, and they had a lot of extracurricular stuff. It was just a wack preschool. And I loved it. On top of tennis and other extracurriculars they had, they had piano lessons. And her name was like Ms. Suzie. And I remembered my parents signed me up for that. And I have a vivid memory from when I was a kid - the first thing we do in every one of our lessons is play each note of the piano all the way through, like all 88 keys. I still don’t know why, but just a vivid memory that I have. And then after that, I started working with another classical piano teacher. But at a more serious level, when I, you know, serious as in like not preschool. And then her name was Juanita Nash. And so I studied classical piano until I was around like ten or 11. And then at the end of me playing classical piano, it kind of overlapped a little bit with the start of playing like rock and pop music. I joined this program called School of Rock, and in their Rock 101 which is like for beginners and all that stuff, and then kind of just fell in love with, you know, like pop and rock and performance then. And so I solely just played guitar and then I started playing bass. And then fast forward a couple years and I wanted to start singing. And I remember my dad told the head at School of Rock that I wanna start singing and be like, ‘Oh, he sings like a bird, like a vulture.” It was so bad. It was like a bad dad joke. But yeah, so then they signed me up and I started singing. ‘House of the Rising Sun’ was the first song ever sang on stage, and the rest is history.

[Musical Interlude: “Daisies” by Jack Romero]

Romero: The first song I ever worked on was - well, there’s two. So there’s one that’s kind of fake and one that’s definitely real. The kind of fake one was at School of Rock. They had a songwriting camp. And so I did that and I wrote a song called I think it’s just like the most generic, ‘I Miss You.’ And it was about my great grandfather. It was a whole thing. But my first actual song that I released and published as an artist was called ‘There Is My Baby,’ and it was written about my first girlfriend, not anymore obviously, my first girlfriend, Hannah, And it was just a very casual love song, kind of, you know, very pop-y. I wrote it on a ukulele. Kind of cringe, but it’s okay. And yeah, that was the first thing I worked on. It’s still out. That was the one song from my first couple of EP’s that I actually left up on Spotify and all the streaming platforms because I just feel like it’s just such an anchor to my music and I just felt too awful erasing that. But everything else I had to let go of, unfortunately.

[Musical Interlude: “Daisies” by Jack Romero]

Romero: My first single that I released as a fully out gay man, which very gay title, called “Two Boys in Love,” that was kind of a premature love song to this guy that I was dating. Actually, during COVID, we met in let’s see, right at the start of 2020. And we talked for a while and then we started dating and all that. And then right after we kind of made things official, like the day that we made things official, I sat down and wrote that song. And so that’s kind of where that inspiration takes from. But stories like “Daisies” does take a little bit of personal experience with a lot of abstract queer experience or normal queer experiences such as, you know, like the questioning and all that stuff. And what I mean, it’s kind of like a mixture of both. Especially with “Daisies,” is I grew up in a not too accepting area. My parents were not accepting when I first came out. Now they’re fantastic, like the most accepting people in the entire world. But when I first came out, that was just not the case. And that kind of fueled the fire into “Daisies” and a lot of other, you know, just queer experiences where people kind of deal with this similar stuff. So that’s kind of what I try to go with my music. Because though I think music should be personal, I also think it’s important that other people can relate and love it just as music and put themselves and, you know, in the creator’s shoes and stuff like that.

[Musical Interlude: “Daisies” by Jack Romero]

Romero: Oh, God. So, so much change. So, when I first started releasing music, it was very much just like a cluster fuck of just stuff. Every single song that I would write, I would bring in and it was like more of an artist development type relationship with my producer. And there was a lot of deadlines that we had and a lot of it just felt forced and rushed. And I think age had a little bit to do with this too, where a lot of my ideas would kind of go unnoticed or be like, ‘Oh, that’s a cool idea, let’s think about it.’ And then it would never come back up again. And I’ve kind of worked my way through, you know, working with different people. And the past couple people that I’ve worked with Christian Kwitkowski, who actually produced ‘Two Boys in Love,’ and then Evan Pruett, who is also a student here who I work with now, they’re way more receptive when it comes to my ideas. And so I think though my music has changed a lot. I think the core of what I’ve always wanted to be there has always been there, which is just, you know, writing just passionate type songs, I guess. You know, as I was saying, personal, but, you know, existential type shit. But sonically it started out more pop-y and more kind of like Kings of Leon rock, which is not a bad thing, but it just wasn’t exactly what I wanted my sound to be like. And then I started listening to a lot more  surf punk and, you know, bands like The Frights, like Fidlar, and they’re kind of like funky fun lyrics or like heavier. Or there’s a band called Mannequin Pussy, oh so damn good. They have a song called ‘Romantic’, which heavily inspired my song “Into Men,” which is my most recent release. But it’s one of those things where it’s kind of like every song is a different journey, but it all kind of has that same kind of heavyish rock meets that kind of punky indie soft, you know. It’s kind of just a cluster fuck of all that kind of indie genre stuff.

[Musical Interlude: “Daisies” by Jack Romero]

Romero: My first one when it comes to live performance. Earlier this year I was fortunate enough to be asked to play the Spark! welcome week concert through Visions and Voices which is at McCarthy Quad and it was just such a magical experience. There were just so many people there. And I thought it was going to be, you know, bring your picnic blanket, bring like a flask of wine, you know, just chill and listen to music. But no, it was a full on show man. And it was the most rewarding thing to be able to hear people just catching on and singing my music that I’m sure they’ve either not heard or maybe possibly by slight chance have heard my song once. But even unreleased music, people were just dancing and screaming too. And that was kind of that realization of like, ‘Oh, shit.’ You know, you always go through those phases of like, ‘is this really what I love doing?’ You know, you go through the stress of it all, or especially being in like a major where it’s so focused on performance and new music all the fucking time. But being able to go on a stage and have people receive your music so well, it was just so eye opening and so lovely. You know what, no, that is definitely my favorite memory. I had so much fun. I had so much fun. I still watch those videos all the time now because it’s just like it’s just such a surreal thing.

[Musical Interlude: “Daisies” by Jack Romero]

Romero: Yeah. So there’s, you know, the two aspects of it, which is like music and then how people perceive the music. And when it comes to music, I think the biggest pressure for me is just that a project has to end at some point. You can’t keep making tweaks to it, you can’t overdo it and kind of letting, you know, like your baby go is a huge thing. And I also then that leads into how will people perceive this because of course, you want your music to be as authentic and you as possible. But at the end of the day, especially for new artists, it also has to be marketable. You know, it has to be something catchy that people would like to listen to and continue to listen to, no matter how experimental, you know, one wants to be. But yeah, definitely making sure  I have a finished product that I’m proud of that I know is marketable - that’s a huge pressure. And then the perception of it, especially as a queer artist too where it’s like I’ve gotten - like not a ton because I’m obviously not like a huge artist or anything - but I’ve definitely gotten some like pushback, especially from like old peers in my life, because I went to Catholic school growing up of just some like homophobic shit man. And so it’s like for the most part and the people I love, I obviously all support me and my music, which is fantastic, but it’s kind of like that perception of because I’m releasing like unapologetic queer music, there’s going to be people who are just are just not going to love it. And so that’s kind of the thing that’s hard to push past.  Of like that I’m doing this for gay people, you know what I mean? Like by a gay person for gay people. And so it’s kind of staying in that lane and being sure that  I stick to my goals regardless of how people view it. Even though sometimes I just want to like, ‘Oh, I just want to write just like music that doesn’t - I always try and fit like, you know, like gender and sexuality into my music. But it’s one of those things where it’s sometimes I just want to fuck that all the way because it’s just like I want to be loved by everybody. But that’s not the point of it at the end of the day, too. So if that’s the point. And then idk that’s just not the point to me.

[Musical Interlude: “Daisies” by Jack Romero]

Romero: You give birth to the song. You conceive the song with, like your acoustic instrument. At least that’s how I know me and a lot of my other songwriter friends, you know, with your acoustic guitar or piano or whatever. And that’s kind of the conception of it. And then you demo it out and that’s kind of like your first, you know, child and you watch it grow with your producer, kind of like you’re parenting this child song. And then it kind of, you know, and then once you’re ready to push it away, like set it off, that’s when you distribute it and publish it. And then honestly, once it hits like Spotify and streaming platforms, it’s almost like you kind of set it off to adulthood, Like you revisit it. They visit for the holidays, like every couple of months you listen to it. But at that point you’re just so focused on your next project and making sure that it’s better than your other children. You know what I mean that’s the whole point that you got to keep moving up and up and up. But that’s kind of almost the graveyard for music in a way where it’s like, that’s the birthplace for most people when they see it. But for an artist, I feel like your Spotify and streaming platforms is where you kind of say goodbye to it almost.

[Musical Interlude: “Daisies” by Jack Romero]

Romero: “Daisies” started out in late 2020. One of my best friends at home, her name is Bri Joi, who’s also an artist. She is stunning and amazing and one of the best songwriters ever. She was coming over. We were going to have a sleepover, a little girl’s night. And I literally just got out of the shower, and I was just sitting on my bedroom floor and I was on facetime with her just talking about our plan. And I was like toying around. And so then we hang up the phone and I just start playing cords. And I found this chord progression that I thought was really pretty. And I was like, ‘Oh, this could be something.’ And so then I started humming shit over it, and I ended up loving this melody that I wrote over it, too. And I was like, ‘Wait, like I can actually write a song right now.’ Because also it’s like you sit down to write a song and of course you could sit down and write whatever song. But  you know, there’s always those like spark moments where it’s like, ‘Oh shit. Like I’m going to write a song right now.’ And so I remember humming something over it, and I just remember the first word that came out of my mind was ‘daisies’ at some random part when I was humming. I don’t even know why like I love daisies now because of the song. But prior to that I didn’t really have any connection with daisies. And so I called her back and I was like, ‘Hey, hear me out, let’s write a song tonight.’ And she was like, ‘Let’s do it.’ Because, I mean, we worked on other stuff together, but we never wrote together. And I got a little ahead of myself because after we hung up. I ended up writing all the lyrics in 20 minutes and she came over around like an hour or two later and we went downstairs to my basement. And in my basement I have this room which I use as my rehearsal space/studio. And we sat right on the floor. I plugged everything in and I tracked the guitar for a demo and I sang the song and I handed her the mic and I said, ‘Your turn.’ And she is just a genius writer. But even more so, what I think she excels in is her harmony writing because she wrote all of the harmony on that song, which plays such a key role in the development of the song and kind of how the song grows and like fluctuates and doesn’t, you know, become monotonous because the harmony just grows throughout. So she got all that done and recorded it all, and we finished it within like an hour, honestly, probably less. So that was kind of the first birth of the song and I fell in love with it. I was like, ‘This is the best thing I’ve ever written.’ And to this day I still think it’s definitely like top three best songs I think I’ve ever written or we’ve ever written. I just love it so much. And so I was holding on to it and just waiting for the right moment to start working on it. And next thing you know, two years go by or like a year and a half go by. And I start working with Evan and I say, ‘Okay, I have the song.’ I pitched it to them, pitched it to Evan and Truman. Sorry, There were two producers on it, Truman Sinclair and Evan Pruett. And I pitched it to them and I was like, ‘What do you guys think? Like, can we work on this?’ And they’re like, ‘Absolutely, ya.’ So I was thrilled. However, I did need another vocalist on it because Bri, first of all, she goes to Berklee, so she’s in Boston. I mean, obviously we can bounce tracks back and forth, but she’s going in the more R&B, like that type of direction with her music, which I totally respect because she’s also just like a killer at that stuff. But so I reached out to her like, ‘Hey, I love the song too much and too much to not put it out. Can I get another vocalist on this?’ And she said, ‘Absolutely.’ And so I reached out to one of my favorite artists of all time. Her name is Liz Becker, and she was gracious enough to want to work on it with me. And I showed her everything that Bri wrote and she was just as flabbergasted as I was in the basement in 2020, just hearing how all these harmonies just came together so eloquently and she immediately agreed to hop on the song as well. And I remember it was the first day we came back. Was it after summer? No, it was either after summer or Christmas break, but it was after one of the breaks and we just came back and we went straight over to Evan and Truman’s apartment because they were roommates and we recorded the vocals in their apartment. And that’s kind of where, you know, where the song was actually birthed. And then we let it grow up. As I was saying earlier, throughout just the weeks following that.

[Musical Interlude: “Daisies” by Jack Romero]

Romero: I definitely like whenever I go to write a song or whenever I’m trying to think of a song, the first thing I do is I take my capo, I close my eyes and I kind of just zhuzh it wherever I want to put it. And then I find a fret and I just lay it down and then I just start fucking around with some chords. This one came a lot faster. “Daisies” came a lot faster than some of my other tunes, but definitely I just like to go in with an idea of what I want to write about or an emotion and kind of just based around that. And then what normally ends up happening is I’m a big believer in not naming a song off of a chorus. I love naming a song off of a word that’s used like once, once or twice, like daisies I say that I think twice throughout the entire song. “Into Men” is an exception to this. I say that like a thousand times in that song. But, I have a song called “Finger Tattoo,” which is also coming out. I say that once and it’s not even the premise of the song, but I think having that like a tangible object to think about when writing a song that always comes to mind. And that’s kind of what I was naming my songs. But when it comes to my process though, it’s a lot of just dicking around until I find something that makes me feel like, ‘Ooh, like I kind of like this.’ And then I start humming and speaking gibberish. And then once one of the words or one of the phrases hits, I kind of build out around that, whether that’s, you know, second, first verse, third line or chorus, like the second line of the chorus, you know what I mean? Like, I kind of just wait until I say something that I think is worth hearing, and then I kind of just grow it from that.

[Musical Interlude: “Daisies” by Jack Romero]

Romero: So that one specifically was focused a lot on the parts of my coming out journey that were not all too bright. The whole premise of the song is it’s a point of view from a lover who lost their partner to suicide because of a hostile, unaccepting environment that the other man unfortunately was in. And so the whole point of the song is it’s like a queer take on Romeo and Juliet almost. So it’s so it’s the whole, ‘I scattered some daisies where death becomes youth.’ Like I put some flowers on your grave.

[Musical Interlude: “Daisies” by Jack Romero]

Romero: ‘But I save my favorite to put it next to you,’ like I save - these are for you, you know.

[Musical Interlude: “Daisies” by Jack Romero]

Romero: Let’s see. So the second verse like ‘I passed,’ but the second verse is kind of where the story kind of kicks in. Like ‘I pass by your home. When I left your grave, a house where the closet was your home base.’ So that was kind of like you were a closeted man. You could never come out to your family.

[Musical Interlude: “Daisies” by Jack Romero]

Romero: Family, ‘A family of ties is all cut loose.’ So it’s kind of like you came out to your family.

[Musical Interlude: “Daisies” by Jack Romero]

Romero: ‘A secret that’s now truth but what’s the use?’ Because they’re not going to accept you and this man’s dead, which is an awful, awful, sad thing. Honestly, something that’s just way too common in the queer community.

[Musical Interlude: “Daisies” by Jack Romero]

Romero: And so the whole premise of it is the partner coping with this in a way that’s not healthy. And at the end of the day, he goes back to the grave. And so the very first verse I talk about like ‘the sun burns my neck as the clock strikes noon,’  strikes noon ya.

[Musical Interlude: “Daisies” by Jack Romero]

Romero: And the last verse, ‘The moon hits my face, it’s 12 past noon, I tell you, my darling but…’

[Musical Interlude: “Daisies” by Jack Romero]

Romero: And it’s kind of unresolved at the end because he joins his lover and, you know, for eternity, which is a beautiful thing. And the whole story of Romeo and Juliet is obviously a gorgeous and beautiful sentiment. It’s an awful tragedy. But that’s kind of where - I kind of took my whole - like the trauma that I dealt with for growing up and going to school and also like at a home life where I wasn’t accepting at first. I kind of took that and just kicked it up a few notches and kind of just poured it all out in this, like super sad but honestly, like a hopeful song. I think of it as but.

[Musical Interlude: “Daisies” by Jack Romero]

Romero: Yeah. So I mean, sonically, I wanted it to be a steady growth and so, while all the sections of the song, there’s not one clear chorus, which is like a huge thing that I wanted. I didn’t want to have any repetition. I just want it to be a sit down story. One of my all time favorite artists - if not one of my all time favorite artists - his name’s Jeff Buckley, and one thing that he always did well was just tell a story for how it is. And he was heavily inspired by Leonard Cohen, which did the same thing. And I kind of want to sonically express the emotions with the point of view from the story of the man who has who we’re hearing from. I kind of wanted to emotionally express that through the music. And so the first verse is just an acoustic me and Liz singing the exact same melody and him just visiting the grave. The second verse starts off with, ‘I pass by your home as I left your grave,’ obviously gets a little bit more intense. Harmonies come in full throttle. We have, you know, a [unintelligible] pattern in there and then kind of where he makes that decision, where it’s like, if he’s not here, I’m not here. It’s when that bridge kind of kicks in, which is where I just repeat the phrase, ‘I’ll be there soon. Right there with the moon.’

[Musical Interlude: “Daisies” by Jack Romero]

Romero: Which is kind of like the promise. Like when I see that moon and when I’m there, like, I’ll be right there soon. I’ll be there - there with the moon. Which, you know, hence the last verse, ‘The moon hits my face. It’s 12 past noon.’ That’s kind of like the biggest core of the song. That’s kind of where I wanted it to hit its peak. And I do think it hits its peak. And then on the last verse, as I said, I’m just lying there with them and joining him, which is back to again even less than it was before. There’s just me singing the melody and then a very, very slight and small harmony at the end of each phrase. And then again, just unresolved. So it’s like you start at a one, you take it to a ten, and then you bring it to a like negative five, you know.

[Musical Interlude: “Daisies” by Jack Romero]

Romero: That’s like the one thing. I definitely have to, like, pick and choose when I want to explain the song. So I played this acoustic set where it was kind of like a coffeehouse type vibe, except it was with wine and in the front yard of someone’s house, you know, at night. So like coffeehouse vibes and it was like acoustic. And so that was a very surreal, not surreal, but very eye opening experience because since I wrote it, I have not been able to sit down with my acoustic and just sing it one on one. You know, just me kind of just bare bones, how I wrote it. And so in that type of instance, I did go into detail about what the song was about and what it means to me and why I love it so much. But then there’s instances like how I was talking about the Spark! performance where it’s a ton of people who don’t know my music. Like I’m not going to bum everybody out when they’re having fun being like, ‘Here’s a queer take on Romeo and Juliet. Like, let’s get fucking hype.’ I feel like you definitely have to pick and choose when it’s an appropriate time to talk about the song, which honestly, that goes back into, you know, writing music as well, just making it marketable. Because as long as it’s bumpin’ and people can, you know, feel something or dance to it, I think, you know, it doesn’t necessarily matter what the lyrics are. But lyrics truly matter when it comes to an artistry and artist moment where it’s an acoustic performance or a place where people are supposed to listen into the deeper meaning. But other than that, you know, you’re just trying to host a good show and make sure people are having a good time and, you know, feeling good. So yeah, you pick your battles in a way, but.

[Musical Interlude: “Daisies” by Jack Romero]

Romero: So I because the song is so sad, I wanted to create some type of - it still is a sad video, but I wanted to create it in a way where it’s not just the story itself because the story you can hear in the song. But I wanted it to be like, what is the after life with these two boys? What does it look like? And so me and Liz actually both just before I say anything, it was filmed and directed by Annabelle Toe and Lola Thomas. Lola Thomas spearheaded it. I met with her before. She’s one of my all time great friends. I trust her with my life. She;s actually filming some of my other music videos as well. But yeah, the song - the video itself - I wanted to be like, ‘What are these people doing afterwards?’ So it’s frolicking around a graveyard a little bit. We had our flowers. There’s a part where we went to Manhattan Beach, kind of just let the wind, you know, flow the sheets around. And so that’s kind of the visuals that I wanted to go with that. So, in the cover itself, it’s me and Liz and the same day we were filming. We were at the Rose Garden and we were sitting by the fountain. Just because we wanted to get a shot with the fountain. And as we were being filmed, Lola noticed a rainbow behind us and it was from the water in the fountain. And I remember looking back at the footage after the day that we were filming and just seeing that, and it’s one of those immediate things where it’s like, I know that’s for a fact is what I want it to be, because it was just almost too perfect for us not to use it. So though the other song is obviously sad and about, you know, the story of how it happened, I wanted the video and the visuals to be, you know, I wanted to be kind of almost an after ,like an ending to it because the song never ends. But, you know, this is the ending.

[Musical Interlude: “Daisies” by Jack Romero]

Romero: I clicked record. That was actually from the original day that I wrote the song and that sound or that tag was from right when I handed her the mic and I didn’t know we were recording and I don’t know what we were talking about, but we do sound pretty dumb asking what 2 x 3 was. Which is six just - we do know what it is now. Yeah, I know my math for good. But yeah, so it was just an accident. And I just kept it in there. It just -. I don’t even know because it has nothing to do with the song, but it just it fits so well. And I think at the end of the day, why I kept it for the final release is because though Bri wasn’t, you know, singing on it, I still wanted her to be a part of it. And I wanted to be her voice whenever I listen to it or whenever anybody listens to it, because she’s just played obviously such an integral part in the song. Yeah, so I really don’t know why we’re asking why she was 2 x 3 was. But I mean, we kept it in there because, I mean, it just fit the vibe.

[Musical Interlude: “Daisies” by Jack Romero]

Romero: After “Daisies” I released a song called “Into Men.” When did I release that? I released that in September, I believe. Which is another queer song, obviously. That one I tried focusing solely just on - “Daisies,” obviously was very analytical and very in-depth and specific. So I wanted  “Into Men” just to be exactly what I wanted my brand to be when I originally started saying, ‘Yes, I’m going to write queer music,’ which was simple, simple, simple. I just wanted like the first is, ‘Spend every day thinking of you/ the games to play/the ones I lose.’ It is just the most - I want it to sound like a hug in a way, but almost kind of like a, you know, hard hug. That’s what I was talking about earlier with Mannequin Pussy, which is like a cool ass punk band. And they have a song called “Romantic.” And that’s, you know, what that was inspired by. But yeah, so I just wanted that song to be just as clear as day and something that was just easy to listen to. But now I’m currently working on a song called “Finger Tattoo,” which is going to be a fully acoustic song, which would be me and acoustic. And then we are also getting a pedal steel guitarist to come on because I just wanted to, you know, throwback to some like, you know, honky tonk music. When I was growing up, even now, my dad solely played like 50s through like 60s, maybe even 40s through 70s. I don’t know, just like a lot of that type of country, like Loretta Lynn, George Jones, Dolly Parton, or Tammy Wynette. Like all those people. And so, pedal steel obviously is such a huge part of that type of music. And so I always wanted to add it’s one of my songs. This is the first song where I was like, ‘Yeah, this fits.’ And so it’s a very, very chilled, very, very raw performance of the song that we recorded. And that’s coming out probably in like a little less than half a year. I would probably give it maybe like 3 to 4 months, maybe five. But yes, that’s kind of my next song that I’m releasing. But I have a whole, you know, boatload that I’m that I’m planning on working on after and after that.

[Musical Interlude: “Daisies” by Jack Romero]

Romero: My all time goal. Okay, so I have three separate paths that I would want to go down as an artist. My first path, well my first goal first goal, and this is kind of like my next big goal as an artist, one that’s like, you know, a huge reach but not not out of reach, if that makes sense. Is I would love to be an open, like be an opening act for somebody on tour. You know, just travel a bit and kind of live that, you know, like, like that starving artist type life for a minute and yeah, it’s kind of my next goal as an artist where I’m at now. All time goal as an indie artist would definitely be, honestly, as cliche as it sounds - I’ve said this since I was ten years old, but I would love to be an opener at the Grammys. I think that’s like a huge thing. And though it is like, you know, formulated and stuff like that, I do think Grammys hold such prestige when it comes to music and hold such a gorilla grip on the industry. I mean, the Grammys is the industry. And so I think even being seen, not even winning a Grammy, but just being seen as an artist on the field. I think that’s like my main goal where I’m like, ‘Yeah, I did that.’ And then I’m also working on - like I want to start releasing some house music under a completely different name. But if that happens, I would love to do like a Prada runway. But if that’s my indie artistry type stuff, those are my two goals.

[Musical Interlude: “Daisies” by Jack Romero]

Romero: I don’t know if I have anything else to say other than like, it just makes me happy. It’s a good outlet. And I love creating and I love the networking side of it, too. I love meeting people in music. I love hearing about other people’s music, I love learning about music. I just think I mean, there’s something so satisfying about finishing a song. There’s something so satisfying about hearing the first bounce of a song, and there’s no greater feeling than finally releasing a song and kind of letting it, you know, grow. The hard part is after it’s released and kind of, you know, wanting to stick by it and guard it and love it just as much as it did the first day you wrote it. But I think the most fulfilling factor of it is it’s just it just feels it just feels warm, you know? It’s just like a warm feeling whenever you finish something.

[Musical Interlude: “Daisies” by Jack Romero]

Host: You’ve been listening to SC Unplugged. A behind the scenes glimpse into the inspirations, creative process and musical goals of your favorite Trojan artists.