Breakout pop musician, Caroline Roman, who has made her mark by headlining the SRO High School Nation tour earlier this year, and has been in the studio writing songs to add to her debut EP, Gold. Her EP did extremely well on iTunes and Spotify, and was heavily applauded by critics also.
Roman’s new single is “Live High,” which is about living life to the fullest, without worrying about what anyone else says or thinks. She began writing songs at the age of 13 as a way to encourage and lift her friends’ spirits up. This Georgia native is also ranked number one on Reverb Nation for her hit song,”Gold,” from her EP of the same title.
Roman chatted with us about her tour with SRO High Schools Nation Tour, touring with Drake Bell, her songs, and what else is in the works for her.
It’s lovely to speak to talk with you. Thank you for taking the time to speak with me.
Caroline Roman: Thank you for having me.
You’re best known for going out on tour with the SRO High Schools Nation Tour. What was that experience like?
Caroline: That was beyond anything I ever could imagine. So I did it twice. And the first time I did, it was actually my very first tour. So we started back in September and it was seven weeks, 35 cities, and we opened up for Drake Bell so we started in Chicago, Indiana area and then we came down to the Carolinas and then finished in Laredo, Texas. Which is very far south in Texas which is kinda crazy but it was fun. It was really, really cool and my childhood dreams came true because Drake Bell so-Â
What was it like touring with him? I’ve actually covered him before and he seems really, really nice and-
Caroline: Yeah, he’s super cool. I don’t know we always had these chance meetings back stage. It became like a thing. So before I would perform or before he would perform we’d have a conversation, it was very fun, it was cool.
Awesome. Happy to hear that. Would you like to do something similar to that again or do you just want to focus on your music individually?
Caroline: Well, it’s funny you mention that because we actually have a campaign going right now. I started the Bringing It Campaign August 1 and we have 14 singles coming out for the next 14 months. But I am working on going on tour so I’m trying to go and hope to be on tour by next spring.
That will be fun. And that’s a good way to build up momentum with your fans by releasing singles to get that build up. I like it.
Caroline: Yeah, we’ve been working for this for four years now so…
Of course. And your new single out this month is “Live High” and I love that it has a great positive, upbeat message with the music behind it as well. What does it mean to you personally and what do you hope your listeners get out of it?
Caroline: It’s really just living above all the negativity of today’s world. The peer pressure, the bullying. It’s living above all of that and just being yourself and feeling good about it. So that’s what I hope people can get out of it. I always like to have messages with my music and you can see that especially in my first EP Gold. I released Gold back in December and I wrote it for a friend of mine who wrote a six page goodbye letter to her mom. So it was really important for me, I guess, I mean I wrote it for her and I wrote it in response of what she did. But I performed it on the High School tour so we performed it around the 25 – 35 cities and I sang it everyday and I talked about it and I made sure to share the message of, “It’s okay to be who you are and just not to be perfect.” And if I can say that through music then It’s the best thing I can do.
Absolutely, I totally agree with you. Is your friend still here? I hope she is.
Caroline: Thankfully, thankfully, she got the help she needed and she’s doing great and she’s still with us.
That’s awesome. I’m happy to hear that. You actually started writing songs as a gift to your friends when you were thirteen. Relating to that, what’s your song writing process like and what sparks your inspiration for your lyrics and music?Â
Caroline: It’s different every time. I can get inspiration literally everywhere. Like I see a color that I really like and I wanna write about that or I hear a melody in my head. For some of these songs I know For Heat of the Summer that came out on my first EP, I had a melody in head at three in the morning and had to wake up and make sure I had it recorded so I could write around it the next day. I mean a lot of times it’s differently, I could write lyrics and I could just collect those or I could have a melody or I see a color or an event happens. I have a song that I wrote for Parkland and that violence that is coming out Sept. 1.
So there’s always something different and then I also play piano so if I can write along with piano next to me that’s all the better.
Love it, how long have you been playing piano?
Caroline: I started taking lessons in Pre-K. I’ve been playing it for pretty much forever. I’ve always been musically inclined.
That’s good! Do you want to try out any other instrument or do you just want to stick to vocals and piano?
Caroline: Well my Dad plays guitar. I’ve always wanted to pick up guitar so hopefully in the future I can start playing.
Who are some of your female influences?
Caroline: Definitely people like Demi Lovato, I mean I know she openly speaks out about mental health awareness and supports all of this stuff along that and has things too with her shows where people can go and talk to people. She’s not afraid to talk about her own battles so I love people like that.
But she’s also top 40 and she’s also she can be who she is and she can have a great hit but she can also have songs like “Sober.”
Is there anybody else?
Caroline: I love people like Cardi B. I don’t listen to her music per se but I love how she’s herself. I love Prince, I love the old icons. I mean Madonna. People who own being themselves and can influence that and people through their music. It’s something I really, really take inspiration from.
Do you have a guilty music or entertainment pleasure?
Caroline: Do I have a guilty music pleasure, hmm?
Caroline:Â I love cooking, anything creative I pretty much do so I like to paint, I like to cook, I like to write and I don’t know. Yeah, definitely I love cooking and singing. Me and my family get together every night and cook dinner and blast Broadway tunes or we played rap music last night but we all get together and jam out so-
Post Malone and Drake are my top two people I’m listening to right now.
I love Post Malone!
Caroline: I have a song with a rap on it coming out. I mean not spoiling too much but I am working with a really, really great artist, Tyler Rain, and so she was boss enough to agree to perform on the song with me and we have a really, really, really cool song coming out.
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