We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Rome Da Luce a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Alright, Rome thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. What’s been the most meaningful project you’ve worked on?
I recently released a reimagining of ‘El Tango de Roxanne’ from Moulin Rouge, produced by Scott Welch and featuring the inimitable Jasmine Crowe on violin. We released a video on YouTube and it will be available for streaming soon!
Other upcoming projects include a new solo EP entitled Numinous, produced by Pete Mills of The Sweet Kill, and the debut album of an as-of-yet untitled new collaboration between myself and fellow singer-songwriter Dani Hagan.
Lastly, following a frustrating period of dead ends with my visual artwork, I finally had the breakthrough I had been looking for and a new canvas series is in the works!
Rome , love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
Following a career as a piano bar entertainer for almost twenty years, I have largely moved away from that following a residency at LA’s Bathtub Gin last year. It was always fun to incorporate elements from my piano bar days, such as audience interaction, sing-a-long, and comedy, and it was so rewarding to be able to play more original music, stylized covers, and bring in guest artists for a fun jam!
These days I play anything from solo piano shows to full band sets and pretty much any arrangement in between thanks to an extensive network of musicians and collaborators who are as professional as they are talented, and fun, solid human beings.
After years of booking agents, talent buyers, art dealers, and the like saying “I just don’t know what to do with you,” to the point that it became a badge of honor, I feel my voice as a songwriter, visual artist, and entertainer has matured to have something to say from an honest and unique perspective.
For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?
For me it is all about the discovery, be it the discovery of the right lyric to best articulate a sentiment, the right melody or instrument tone to best articulate what words never could, a connection with collaborators wherein something becomes greater than the sum of its parts, how certain mediums or colors interact on a canvas to make me aware of something I never knew I felt, let alone could make sense of.
Akin to that timeless adage “Know Thyself,” it is about the discovery of who I am and how I can relate to the world. I used to think I needed to change, now I believe I just need to know and accept myself, and from there profound change can occur.
On the other side of an exploration, or somewhere along the way, one is left with a body of work, or even a single piece, or a captured moment, that expands their understanding, if only of themselves, and allows for a proverbial shedding of the skin as they continue their journey, now feeling renewed or liberated from barriers imposed from within as much as without.
Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?
In recent years I experienced a paradigm shift. Party due to the pandemic, partly due to the maturity turning 40, but mostly due to falling in love with a woman and becoming a father figure to her two remarkable kids, a lot of the ideas or expectations I used to hold onto so tightly had to be put up for review.
I used to think the stadium tours, billboards, and other such measures of success or external validation were important, but now I see how insignificant all of that really is. If those things are to happen they should be a byproduct, not the goal. I struggled with it at first, wondering at what point did letting my dreams evolve equate a failure to accomplish them in the first place, but I soon realized I was the only one who gave a shit, and there are other things far more worth my energy and intention.
Years ago I read a quote from Bono, one of my beacons in life as I cultivated my own voice, who said something to the effect of “You don’t sing for seventy thousand people screaming their love for you unless you need that. Unless you are broken without it.” Thanks to these shifts in my life, fulfilling interpersonal relationships, and therapy of course, a lot of that sense of brokenness I once resonated with was put back together.
And my creative process is all the better for it.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.romedaluce.com
- Instagram: @romedaluce
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCsXcfNFbcsk3QKynHFlFPIQ
Image Credits
Jasmine Day Michael Dominic Edson