Rome Ramirez wasn’t inbuilt a day.
He was as soon as a guitar-strumming, teenage Chic fan in a Mexican American family in Fremont, Calif. At 18, he moved to Los Angeles to observe his dream of creating music. He swept flooring, lived in his van and ultimately did the inconceivable: He turned the singer of his favourite band.
In 2009, 13 years after the dying of Chic’s founding singer-songwriter Bradley Nowell, Rome befriended Chic’s remaining members, Bud Gaugh and Eric Wilson, and have become the frontman of Chic with Rome — enjoying to a longtime fan base in amphitheaters world wide. Behind the scenes, Rome developed a sturdy songwriting profession of his personal, chopping his enamel within the studio-session tradition in L.A. and racking up credit on Enrique Iglesias and Selena Gomez songs.
But ultimately, the band began to really feel extra like a job than a calling. After a number of lineup modifications, Chic with Rome launched into its farewell tour in 2024. “For almost all of being in Chic, our recording schedule was so busy,” he says. “I knew that so as to do a solo profession, it takes the whole lot from you if you wish to do it proper, in order that was not on the thoughts.”
Regardless of being a lifelong California boy, Rome moved his household to Nashville in the course of the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic. There are perks to residing in America’s songwriting capital — like a slower tempo of life and the flexibility to do “extra errands per day than in L.A.,” he says with amusing. However now, he says that he and his kids are a number of the solely Latinos of their neighborhood.
“There [are] lots of people who depart California,” says Rome. “They trash-talk California, nevertheless it’s simply such an enormous a part of my id and tradition — rising up as a Mexican American in California, that Chicano tradition. I’ll all the time love Los Angeles.”
After 15 years in Chic with Rome, the 37-year-old has cast a brand new path as a solo artist. His sound is a West Coast cocktail of beachy reggae and hip hop-inspired grooves, specifically made for summertime — like his new single “Gradual & Straightforward,” that includes the Soiled Heads, his pals from again when he slept in his van.
It’s the primary providing from his debut EP, “Gemini” — “It’s concerning the duality of my music, I can’t be put right into a field,” he says — which is about for a Sept. 19 launch. He’s additionally introduced a slate of tour dates within the U.S., beginning Sept. 17 in Destin, Fla.
This interview has been condensed and edited for readability.
Your solo profession was kick-started by stepping down because the lead singer of Chic with Rome. Was having a solo profession one thing you had in your head for some time?
By the course of touring with Chic, I used to be actually closely concerned in songwriting. I used to be doing all types of data for folks I actually appeared as much as — like Selena Gomez and Jason Derulo and Enrique Iglesias. Big names. As a child who grew up writing songs in his mother’s basement, this was similar to a dream come true.
It wasn’t till the pandemic occurred the place for the primary time Chic with Rome wasn’t touring, we had been at dwelling and I began live-streaming. Folks had been displaying up in these rooms — like 500 to a thousand folks. I used to be one of many first folks in my music group who was already outfitted with cameras, able to go within the studio. I might begin with a Chic album and undergo each music on the stream. After which the subsequent album, then the Chic with Rome album, then I might do covers. After about like six months, I ran out of songs and other people had been simply asking like, “Dude, do you might have any music? Like, are you engaged on something?” And truthfully, I hadn’t labored on music for myself in so lengthy.
I feel a part of that was not desirous to dig deep into traumas, [like] rising up in a family with medication. However in the course of the pandemic, I had time to start out writing music once more for enjoyable — enjoying with sounds that I liked and grew up on, and beginning to pull the scabs off of [wounds] that I tucked [away] up to now. After some time I had a handful of songs, and I simply knew I [couldn’t] put them within the Chic with Rome set. This factor I like to do began to really feel like a job, and that may be a no-go. So I requested myself, “Am I going to do Chic with Rome for cash, or am I going to actually observe one thing that I consider in?”
We began having conversations about what the way forward for the band was wanting like previous to our summer time tour in 2023. I’m actually glad that the whole lot occurred the best way it did. We had a roll out for the whole lot. I wanted to belief my intestine and observe by with my perception on this music and what I’m constructing.
“Lay Me Down” with Soiled Heads is considered one of your largest songs, with practically 120 million Spotify performs, nevertheless it got here out in 2010 — a lot sooner than your present enterprise in your solo profession. What’s the story behind this music?
I’m from the Bay Space, however I moved all the way down to Los Angeles after I was 18 to go make one thing of myself. I used to be hanging round this recording studio that the Soiled Heads had been simply getting began at.
I used to be simply interning, sweeping flooring, [eating] cheeseburgers, that sort of factor. Everybody knew that I may write a music, and ultimately, after hanging on the market for therefore lengthy, me and the Soiled Heads labored up a friendship. They mentioned, “Let’s get collectively and write a music in the future.”
So we barbecued some scorching canines and simply frolicked in one of many guys’ yard with a few guitars on a picnic bench … and we wrote “Lay Me Down.” The music sat round for a yr, however we actually favored it.
They had been occurring tour within the van and I wasn’t doing something — I used to be homeless on the time, Chic wasn’t even a thought. They supplied me to go on the highway with them, so I did and performed that one music with them. From there, our supervisor took the demo to KROQ. The music began getting performed on the radio and the reveals bought fuller. It was such an incredible expertise. It was simply simply by the grace of God, it like all labored out and our lives modified from that time. We cashed our first checks and purchased our first vehicles collectively from that.
You collaborated with the Soiled Heads once more in your latest single “Gradual and Straightforward.” It’s your first single because you’ve gone solo. What was that course of like?
It’s come full circle with my greatest pals once more. I knew this music was particular. I went into the studio with the goal of — “I wish to make a summer time music that appears like a Van Morrison file, however [an] Uncle Kracker [vibe]. Actual easy.”
I went in with my boy, Nick Bailey, who I write a number of music with, and we nailed that music in two hours. After I bought the demo I used to be like, “Man, it’s so shut. What if I put the Soiled Heads on it? [With] somewhat rap and somewhat melody, it might simply be so completely different.”
They liked it. They despatched me their vocals the subsequent week and I used to be like, “OK, I really feel like it is a good music.” Finally some superior promoters at radio stations heard it they usually needed to take an opportunity on the file.
The summer time vibes are robust on “Lay Me Down” and “Gradual and Straightforward.” What artists launched you to this sound that’s current in the whole lot you do?
I grew up on Motown and Bob Marley. That’s what I circled again to after I left Chic.
As I used to be engaged on music in the course of the pandemic, I used to be like, “What do I wish to hear? What’s the shit that I like?” And it’s like Stevie Surprise, it’s the Supremes, it’s the 4 Tops, it’s Fiona Apple, it’s Leon Bridges, it’s Van Morrison. I actually like feel-good music that sonically jogs my memory of an older time.
I’ve children now, so I’m very aware concerning the message I put into the world. I’ll attempt to write a music that the world may benefit from listening to, however not make it a preachy music.
How would you describe the sound of Rome?
The underlying issue is soul music. Whenever you hear soul music, you consider Teddy Pendergrass and issues like that. I really like soul music. [Take] Bradley’s voice in Chic, you can’t inform me that that man wasn’t a soul singer.
That’s the music that I actually gravitate to, music that simply feels actually trustworthy. Reggae music [lives] in me. Jack Johnson is one other enormous affect. My sound is reggae and soul and pop music, for lack of higher phrases, as a result of I write simple-ass songs.
How do you are feeling like your Mexican heritage makes its means into your music? Or in how you progress and the way you current your self?
Rising up Mexican formed my complete framework for a way I reside my life. I don’t communicate Spanish, however I grew up in two households that had been absolutely fluent in Spanish. All my pals rising up had been Mexican. [I remember] seeing Carlos Santana enjoying with Rob Thomas on [television] and my dad was like, “He’s mexicano proper there.” Man, that was fairly sick.
Rising up in a extremely thick Mexican tradition [meant] each my mother and father labored their ass off, however on the similar time, household all the time got here first. These are the sort of morals which are actually instilled in Mexican tradition, that I’m so proud that I’ve. As a household man now, these issues are so outstanding in my life. We take a number of satisfaction in what we do, we work our asses off … then when it’s time to play, we play.
What makes a very good summer time music?
One thing that you simply don’t need to attempt too exhausting to take heed to. There are some songs the place you’re like, “All proper, I must get within the automobile and drive and take heed to this factor, trip it out the gate.” After I envision a summer time music, it’s quite simple and simple to play.
Folks on-line are debating what the music of the summer time is in 2025. What has been your music of the summer time?
When it comes to listening and all of the rattling content material I’ve been making, it’s “Gradual and Straightforward!” However other than considered one of my very own songs, in all probability “Golden” from “KPop Demon Hunters” as a result of that’s what my children are spinning. The music is shockingly good. It’s like Max Martin s—.
You’re on fairly a giant U.S. tour. How is it going?
It’s so sick. We simply rolled out a pair dates in Florida simply to check the waters and people reveals are promoting actually good, so promoters have been including increasingly.
I’ve been to so many of those locations [with Sublime], in fact, however the power’s completely different. I’m enjoying smaller spots, [connecting] with folks earlier than and after the reveals. You may’t actually do this in amphitheaters. I’m experiencing the whole lot in reverse. I used to be homeless after I met Chic after which I used to be on the tour bus. Now, it’s like we’re climbing up the ranks once more.
I’ve such a protracted lineage of songs I’ve been engaged on and the fan base — shout out to the Romies — who’ve adopted me over time. Placing collectively the set checklist has been a celebration of the completely different eras of my life. I’m simply having a number of enjoyable doing this.
