[Guest]

OK, here's an interview I conducted with Romanelli. It was great chatting with him, and I hope you enjoy reading his answers as much as I did.

lethalnezzle: First question, let's start at the very beginning. What's your earliest musical memory?

Romanelli: When I was younger, I didn't know anything about my father. Turns out he was a pretty successful musician in Las Vegas in the late 50's and early 60's (I was named after Dean Martin). But when I was 8, he was still a secret. One day, I got an idea in my head out of nowhere that I wanted to play the cello. I remember my mother turning pretty white, but she made it happen for me.

As for recorded music, my sister got me a copy of Sweet Baby James by James Taylor...my first album. I learned it from top to bottom, and made up my own harmonies for the entire album. I thought it was cool as hell that he could make up songs like that, and it really got me wanting to hear more, and everything I could get my hands on. It was the start of my collection, which I've lost and sold and had to start over multiple times. But that was the beginning for me.

lethalnezzle: So which artists would you say were particularly important in helping to sculpt your tastes during those early, formative years?

Romanelli: It was the 70's, and I didn't have access to a lot of music early on. We didn't have internet, we just had radio. The big ones early on for me were Bruce Springsteen, because his approach to music was overall really big for me. Songwriting, performance, recording, rock as religion, the whole thing. I was also drawn to the great vocal bands like Queen and Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young. And I wanted more than typical boogie, but also great guitars. Neil Young was an early favorite, and on guitar, no one could beat Duane Allman. The first really serious listening moment I had was "Loan Me A Dime" from the first Boz Scaggs album. Duane's guitar solo on that was mind blowing, and is still my favorite to this day.

lethalnezzle: You mention songwriting, not only here but regularly around the forums. What do you define as good, or great, songwriting?

Romanelli: Songwriting is everything. The albums we love are collections of great songs...album charts everywhere are filled with them. I listen for flow, melody, the right instrumentation, mood, lyrics, everything. And what I've discovered over the years is that the best songwriting tends to be the simplest. Things get muddied up and too busy and overblown when the writer tries to do too much with an idea. But the ones that keep their songs on a simpler level: Dylan, Lennon & McCartney, John Prine, the older country guys, and many others have, for me, the better albums because they keep a simple approach to songwriting. Have something to say, and say it in a way that you'd want to hear it said yourself seems to be a pretty strong recipe for success. And I've always carried that philosophy into my own songwriting as well.

lethalnezzle: You have a lot of fairly recent (1990s/2000s) alt. country albums featured pretty high up your chart; would you say that era is your favourite? Do you think there was perhaps a classic songwriting renaissance in that era, or was it just a case of the right albums coming along at the right time for you?

Romanelli: Actually, yes. Alt-Country is a fairly young genre, if you take it outside of outlaw country. The genre has been blessed from its early days by people like Jay Farrar (Uncle Tupelo and Son Volt) and Jeff Tweedy (Uncle Tupelo and Wilco) and Steve Earle, and more recently by the likes of Ryan Adams and Jason Isbell, both of whom are extremely prolific and who have raised the bar pretty high for writers in the genre. Both were part of very good bands (Whiskeytown and Drive-By Truckers), and both have gone on to very fruitful solo careers. Bands like the Truckers, Jayhawks, Lucero, etc. are blessed with songwriting that I believe is fresh and strong, and a good link between the older (pre-rock & roll) country and the better melodic rock. It's pretty big where I live, but kind of an underappreciated music in a lot of parts of the world. Maybe in part because of the stigma of what mainstream country music has become over the years.

lethalnezzle: It's clear from everything said here and your charts that you are particularly fond of guitar-based music, be that because of your early experiences or your geographical location or something in your genes or whatever it may be. To go in another direction, when did you first come into contact with electronic or sample-based music, and what was your initial reaction?

Romanelli: It's true that just about everything I absorbed early on was guitar based. With the exception of jazz (which I still love) and classical (which I became kind of bored with in my twenties), everything seemed to have a guitar in it. There was early synth music in the 80's that I listened to but didn't particularly love, but the first real exposure I had to electronic music was on mp3.com between 2000 and 2002. Mp3.com was, back then, a site strictly for unsigned artists, and the most aggressive promoters of their own music was the electronic artists. And a lot of it (not all of it) was really bad...homemade music that would have otherwise not seen the light of day. And it soured me on it, and kept my mind closed for several years.

As for hip hop, it's been a much more personal battle for me. As a live performer, I once saw rap as a threat to what I do. I also had a family member who was stuck in a gang mentality for many years, which led to having the best years of his life spent incarcerated. I know it's not the fault of the music, but it's easy in that situation to see it in a negative light. I was at a point to where I pulled the hip hop albums out of my collection and was going to get rid of them. I'm glad I didn't. Because over time, things can change, and the mind can be opened to different experiences. One of the things I hear at BEA a lot that I completely disagree with is that if you dislike something, you shouldn't waste your time with it. I believe, and am living proof that, you CAN become open to things that didn't work for you in the past, and that sometimes all it takes is some time and a shift in how you see and hear the world. I was once closed to both types of music...now it's a growing part of my musical world. BEA has helped with this immensely, and I'm thankful every day for it.

lethalnezzle: Now, without wishing to focus on the negative too much, is there any music which has had the opposite effect? Something you used to appreciate but which has fallen in your estimation over time?

Romanelli: Outside of classical music, which just became tedious to me, not much outside of a few individual albums. Appetite For Destruction would be one that would stand out. I liked Yes a lot when I was younger, but they don't really do it for me anymore. I have most definitely outgrown Billy Joel. Otherwise, things don't fade a lot for me. I'm able to still see what attracted me in the first place to most music.

lethalnezzle: OK, the big question now. Why do you listen to music?

Romanelli: You say that like there's a choice. Music is a part of everything I do. It's always playing in my life. Driving. Working. Relaxing. Sleeping. Partying. It doesn't matter what I'm doing, there's always music to be heard around me. In silence, I'm lost. With music, the world seems right. But it doesn't just fill up silent space. It brings symmetry, structure, and sanity. It's like a really close friend that I can't bear to be without. It's been the one true constant in my life, and I'll never turn it off.

lethalnezzle: You mentioned that you make music. When did that start, and can you give us a sort of rundown of your evolution as an artist?

Romanelli: As I mentioned before, I started out on the cello at a very young age. By middle school, I had switched to saxophone, and then I started my first rock band at 15. Saxophone became bass for a short time, which evolved into guitar, which I picked up for the sole purpose of writing songs. I do play guitar on stage now, though.

I was in and out of some crappy bands, and a handful of really good ones. A band called 13th Floor in Los Angeles during the early 90's gained some label interest, but nothing came of it. Another band called Troy had serious interest, but the founder was afraid of success and he disappeared for about 6 months, or until all of the interest was gone. Both of these projects were leading me slowly into a less hard rock and more melodic and song oriented sound. In 2001, I recorded an album in Los Angeles, and was serious enough to have had Bob Ludwig, who has engineered or mastered pretty much everyone who has had a hit album in the last 40 years (Madonna, Metallica, Springsteen, Simon, etc.), master it. I promoted it hard for three years, then settled into playing solo shows for a period of time.

I returned to Colorado in 2007, and am now playing in an alt-country band called Roadside Attraction. I also have plans to record another album, hopefully starting by the end of this year.

lethalnezzle: You say that you made a gradual change from being in hard rock bands to something more melodic and song oriented; why do you think this was? I mean, I guess as people get older we tend to settle into conservatism a little more in all walks of life, be it in our political opinions or our listening habits, but I imagine there's more to it than that. Was it therefore a conscious decision to maybe tone down your sound and focus more on the songcraft, or do you think it's something you just naturally fell into and settled on? And could you tell us a little about your songwriting process, if you have one? Do you decide to write about certain topics prior to doing so, or is it more of a bolt from the blue type of thing?

Romanelli: The music that I play has evolved pretty much as the music I listen to has. At 15, my musical world was pretty small. So was the realm of what I would perform. As I was introduced to different styles, my onstage and writing repertoire evolved accordingly. I don't feel that what I am able to perform has in any way settled...in fact, it continues to grow outwardly and expand in new directions. By playing a less hard rock monster, I'm able to incorporate more things into what I do than ever before. More complex vocal harmonies. Different and non-conventional instrumentation. And yes, the songs are overall much better and more interesting. Limits are being erased instead of being created, and it's cool to see that I am still capable of musical growth...more so now than at any time in my life.

Songwriting is a strange process for me. I'm not as prolific as I'd like to be because I simply don't have the attention span to write on a regular basis. Yet I still have well over 100 completed songs. I can write on demand if I have to, but I prefer not to. For me, it's more exciting to let it come to me naturally. When it starts, I have no idea where it's going to end up. Sometimes, it all makes perfect sense. Sometimes, I have no idea who was using my brain during the process. It's all about feel, about letting what's in my head process itself and letting it come naturally. If a song hits, and I find myself thinking of Hank Williams, for example, I'll let myself go in that direction, because that sound is in my head for a reason.

lethalnezzle: I was wondering what you think of the state of music currently? Your 2010s decade chart is very short in comparison to many users; is this because you think there is less great music coming out?

Romanelli: I have been accused by many of being closed to new material because I don't have a lot of music from the current decade on my charts. This is simply not true. I think the best way to explain it is like this. A few years ago, I got into collecting baseball cards. Lots of great cards, players, and teams. The better the player, the higher the value. Lots of buying and selling and trading…mostly buying. Let’s take, for instance, Ken Griffey Jr. The Kid. 1989 Upper Deck rookie card came straight out of the gate at about $250, and his future all ahead of him. Why would you not invest in that? I had 3 of them. Got them for the price of a single pack of cards…about $4.00 each. Between these Griffey’s and all the other great players I was sitting on, I was going to have the greatest collection of them all. Except that I didn’t realize that all of these high prices were nothing but hype. Griffey went on to hit over 600 home runs, is a Hall Of Famer, and his rookie card is now worth exactly half of what it was in 1989. Every year, dozens of new players begin their careers. History tells me that there may be 1 or 2 worth the effort of collecting their memorabilia. And which ones? It takes years to figure that out. The point? There’s hype about every single album that comes out in a year. People fill up their charts with brand new shiny things, which is fine by me. How many albums came out this year so far? How many will be worth the plastic they are packed in five years from now? I don’t work that way. It takes me time to become excited about an album. It’s going to take time for new music to get to my charts, because I have to decide where I stand with it. And I will take my time, and I will let it slowly run through me before I decide on it. I’m not in any hurry to run out and buy up a ton of 2013 albums. I’ll get there. I hear the music. But there’s also a lifetime of backlog out there as well. I’ll get there in my own time. You live your music they way you want to…I’ll do the same with mine.

lethalnezzle: Do you think there are certain aspects of music - be it in terms of the music itself, the music industry, the fans, etc. - in 2013 that are better/worse than 25 or 35 years ago, and what are they?

Romanelli: The differences between music in the 70's and music today is pretty minimal, really. Rock is as dead as it was in 1976...it's not dead at all. If nothing else, we've come a lot farther because music today has much more to draw upon than the musicians of the 70's did. It used to be 50's rock and roll and blues. Now, you have everything that's come since that time. The result is that music is more varied, with more influences present. It's just as good as it ever was...music today is part of the same evolution I was discovering as a kid. I hear things today that move me the same way music moved me at 15. The message? Keep an open mind! Not just about new stuff, but about the importance of the older music as well. And keep an open mind about those who are of a different age than you, too. We all have a lot to learn from each other. Dismissing music or people from a different generation is only shortchanging ourselves.

lethalnezzle: OK, thanks for taking the time to answer my questions, it's been really insightful. Now for the final question, in true BEA fashion; what album are you listening to right now?

Romanelli: Ha! Right now, I'm on a plane between Austin and Phoenix. But the most recent album I listened to was Salesmen And Racists by Ike Reilly. Which, by the way, I very strongly recommend to everyone!

[Le_Samurai]

Excellent question lethalnezzle about the 2010 and I also found the response interesting. Excellent interview. On a side note, the Ken Griffrey Jr. rookie card is probably my all time favorite card.

[Wombi]

Still really enjoying these. Definitely the best thing going on on BEA at the moment.

[meccalecca]

[Guest]

[meccalecca]

[Guest]

[meccalecca]

[gtroda]

Enjoyed reading this one. Good job guys.

[Patman360]

Aw man, these threads are immense. The bar just keeps being set higher and higher. The users behind BEA are easily among the most fascinating people I've ever come across. Great job guys!
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