No Rome Releases New Single ‘Brother’
Announces ‘Blueboy Must Die’ Mixtape
Released 28th July on Dirty Hit
‘Brother’ is the new single from No Rome and the first new music from him since the release of his debut album ‘It’s All Smiles’ in December 2021. The release follows a string of live dates across the US, supporting Keshi and arrives with the announcement of ‘Blueboy Must Die’, a 7 track mixtape set for release by Dirty Hit on 28th July.
The new single, produced by Kurisu and recorded in London, is the first taste of ‘Blueboy Must Die’ and feels like the natural step on from Rome’s debut album, pushing the influence of shoegaze further, with his vocal woven around intricately layered synths and luscious strings. Lyrically ‘Brother’ finds No Rome exploring platonic love, inspired by poet Rachel McKibbens and conversations with Kurisu during the studio sessions, as he explains:
“Me and Chris (Kurisu) were listening to an old record called Plantasia by Mort Garson while watching random shit about AIs – we started talking about all these idealisms about religion and the importance of companionship and falling in and out of relationships with friends in the studio. From there we started getting really inspired with the synth choices and textures the album had. I began obsessing with these spacey elements and the idea of being a brother to somebody, so we started messing around with the prophet we had in a studio in West London and ended up making these chords that started the song.
There’s this poem that Rachel Mckibbens wrote called “Letter from my Heart to my Brain” that I read which is one of the inspirations to the lyrics. In there she says “It’s okay to feel like only a photograph of yourself, to need a stranger to pull your hair and pin you down”. That spoke so much to me, understanding that its okay to fuck up. I felt the need to write something that shows love in a platonic way and being there for each other more”
The single arrives with a video directed by Ben Brook, set in a dystopian underworld, with AI and distorted tech which sees No Rome navigating the human issues of a tech driven downfall, whilst presenting a series of surreal observations on mass-consumerism. Watch the video here.
With over 150 million streams globally to his name and support from Vogue, The Face, High Snobiety, NME, The Guardian, The Fader and Paper Mag to name a few, No Rome is consistently proving that he is one of the most exciting, versatile and talented young artists around.
The tracklist for ‘Blueboy Must Die’ is
1. FULLMOONBABYSH*T
2. Elevator Music (OMG)
3. Hackney Bounce
4. 97RAGER
5. Brother
6. Deep Diving
7. 180
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