We were lucky to catch up with Young Romantics recently and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Young Romantics thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. We’d love to hear the backstory behind a risk you’ve taken – whether big or small, walk us through what it was like and how it ultimately turned out.

Our story to this point has been rooted in risk. Beginning as just two high school friends recording music in a car with little besides a will to create, we’ve become a family through five years of writing songs, playing shows and living the day-to-day uncertainty of trying to “make it” together.

However, if we had to pinpoint the biggest risk we’ve taken so far, we’d mention the week we spent this past January at a studio in Franklin, KY, called Thunder Sound, where we recorded our most recent project and first full-length album. After years of being a band and recording music on a smaller scale, this was our first look at setting aside the money and time needed to record for a week straight, often working 15-hour days to fulfill our vision.

Since one of our members is still is college, we had to strategically plan our stay around his winter break, and the rest of us took a week of vacation from our jobs to make it all possible. We did so knowing the product we’d walk away with would be the ultimate statement we were capable of producing at the time.

Though just one example of how risk has guided our journey through and through, it is perhaps the most prominent and one we’re most proud of.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers

As mentioned, Young Romantics began as just two friends, Griffin Fletcher and Matt Porter, recording in a car while studying at Western Kentucky University. Porter skipped class one day and programmed a beat, which he sent to Fletcher. Immediately upon listening, Fletcher began humming a melody and sent back something like, “Let’s make this a song.” We did just that and haven’t stopped since.

After releasing our first-ever single to a streaming service, the only thing on our minds was when we’d release another one. We soon after began work on our first EP, which we released in December 2017.

We spent the following winter break working on our next, which we released February 2018. From there, we decided to focus on our live show, recruiting Mitchell Manuel, whom Fletcher met while living on the same freshmen dormitory floor, to play guitar live with the band. We added a bassist soon after and played our first full-band show in November 2018.

Our next move was recording our first EP as a band, which we released in August 2019. Since then we’ve released a second EP, recorded a full-length album, played close to 100 shows and formed our own LLC.

Although we feel we still have a lot to prove and more ground to cover, we’re happy to be where we are as musicians and people. We’ve been rejected by countless venues, labels, radio stations, blogs and playlist curators, but that means nothing compared to the music and m0ments we’ve shared throughout the process.

We believe in our music and hope those who listen to it feel the same.

What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?

We think so. Just as we’ve been inspired by creatives throughout our lives, we hope our art is honest enough to inspire similarly. Playing live and recording is wonderful, but they’re both just byproducts of following your muse and being open enough to create something to share with others for the sake of paying it forward.

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?

Outside of inspiring others to be creative, we believe one of the most rewarding aspects of being artists is the fact we’re trying to be artists at all. We sacrifice a lot in the way of finances and free time to be in a band because we love doing it.

Regardless of any hardship or heartache along the road, we’ve stayed true and stuck to it. It’s hard to ask for much more than that.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://youngromanticss.com/hello
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/youngromanticss/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/youngromanticss
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCK0dNYugxcD3SJD1yI4kZCw
• Other: https://open.spotify.com/artist/6X7OQgcgOeXFKjmDcFEtl4?si=VmEIWmwhRIiPdDXygYb1aA

Image Credits
Personal photo: Josh Lohrman 1-3: 6ixtoshoots 2-5: Fred Games 4-6: Rachel Coyle