Canadian duo ROMES have built their rise the long way, eschewing traditional label infrastructure in favor of a fiercely independent, self-contained approach. The duo consists of brothers Jacob and Nicolas Bitove, who handle nearly every aspect of their work in-house, from production and mixing to visuals and release strategy. That DIY ethos is central to their identity, allowing them to move quickly, experiment freely, and connect with listeners on their own terms. It’s a method that has paid off, with their debut full-length album Sonic Trash gaining traction through word of mouth, steady streaming growth, and an expanding international fanbase.
That momentum recently reached a new level with the band’s first-ever European headline tour. With no prior touring history in the region, expectations were uncertain, but they quickly found themselves playing to packed rooms, with several dates selling out. Just as importantly, the shows became a testing ground for how their music translates live, with the duo reworking their material into a high-energy set shaped as much by electronic performance as rock tradition. That approach, and the response it sparked, now carries directly into their upcoming U.S. tour, where they’ll be presenting a tighter version of the set.
Drawing from ‘90s and early 2000s influences, including industrial, hip-hop, big beat, and dance-punk, ROMES crafts tracks that feel equally suited to a club system or a rock stage. Onstage, that translates into songs blended, reworked, and pushed beyond their recorded versions.
In this interview, ROMES talk about their European tour, the evolution of Sonic Trash from basement experiments into a full album, and how their independent approach continues to shape their work.
How did the European tour go?
Nicolas: It was unbelievable. Completely surpassed our expectations. It was our first time ever playing a headline tour and our first time ever playing in Europe, so we didn’t really know what to expect in terms of crowd size and everything. Then we got over there and like half the tour was sold out and the crowds were just unbelievable. The energy they brought to every show in every city. It was a real treat for us, for sure.
Did anything take you by surprise? Was there anything about the reaction that might influence your future approach to performing?
Nicolas: This was also the first time that we had ever played any of the Sonic Trash album songs live, so there was a lot of preparation. Obviously we were really excited to translate the record into a live experience and it was an exciting process for us because, at the end of the day, we’re a duo and we kind of bridge the gap between rock music and electronic music. We love going to dance shows with electronic artists and seeing how they craft a seamless set from start to finish. And we were like, “Why can’t a rock band do that? Why does it always have to be play a song, stop, talk for a bit, start the next track?” So we took that electronic music approach and basically crafted our hour and a half set so that every song transitioned into the next. We were mashing up some of our songs live, remixing Beastie Boys and Sebastian and Chemical Brothers into our own tracks. It was a cool experience for us to be able to do that for the first time, and I think it seemed like the crowd responded to it well. We’re going to be doing a lot of the same for the upcoming US tour. Obviously it’s a shorter set, so we’ve got to cut it down, and that’ll be another battle.
When you were making the album, were you thinking about how the songs would work live, or did that come later when adapting them for performance?
Jacob: Yeah, I think it was done after the fact. When we’re in the studio we’re just trying to make the best song possible, or what we think is the best song, and then we figure it out later to make it work live.
Nicolas: But that being said, Jake, I feel like a lot of the songwriting for the album actually came about from us jamming in the studio. Not all the songs, but for a lot of them it wasn’t like, “Okay, let’s sit down and compose a bass part and then track something on top of it.” It was just the two of us in the studio jamming ideas together and seeing what stuck. I think having that live element in the recording and songwriting process probably lent itself to the live performance.
Were there any tracks on the album that were particularly challenging to play live, or that evolved once you started performing them?
Nicolas: No. Again, for some of the tracks we mashed up two songs live or remixed some of our favorite songs into them to create a new live version. It’s exciting for us and also gives the audience something fresh. Obviously you can go up there and just play the songs as they are on the record, but we like trying to remix them a bit. With one of our older songs, for example, “Chillthefuckout.,” we completely reworked and remixed it to fit a bit more sonically with the Sonic Trash tracks.
Was it always obvious that you wanted to release Sonic Trash independently? Did you consider working with a label?
Nicolas: We knew we wanted to do it independently. Over the years we’ve been in a couple of label deals and both left a sour taste in our mouths. When we got out of the last one and were back to being independent, we knew that was the way we wanted to move forward. We handle everything in-house. Songwriting, production, mixing, mastering, music videos, merch, album artwork. The two of us do everything. It’s a very DIY project, and having the flexibility and freedom to make the project and then set our own release schedule and do things on our own terms was really important to us. With Sonic Trash we had a pretty unorthodox release schedule where we released singles every two weeks leading up to the album. Typically people say [release] every four to six weeks. But we wanted to build momentum, so we decided to do it every two weeks, and a label would never go for that. We had a good time doing it independently and based on what’s happened, I think once we get back from the US tour and start working on the next project, it’ll probably be the same path going forward.
In the press release it mentions the album coming out of basement experimentation with gear and sounds. Was there a moment when you felt the identity of the album really started to take shape?
Nicolas: It did start with all the experimentation we were doing in our basement studio, and a lot of that involved integrating gear in unconventional ways. For example, an acoustic drum kit triggering modular synthesizers, recording the drums through Jake’s guitar pedal board, whatever it might be. We were just having a ton of fun with sound design and creating ideas in unusual ways. As we kept jamming all these different ideas we ended up with over a hundred snippets. Then we started going back through them and realized a lot of them had this cohesive sound. At first we weren’t even trying to make an album. We were just getting in the studio and experimenting to see what happened.
Jacob: Just having a laugh, yeah.
Nicolas: Yeah, just having fun. After we had countless ideas we realized there was this cohesive sound starting to take shape, so we went back and picked the best ones and fleshed them out into songs. But every song on Sonic Trash had a totally different creative process. With the title track, for example, we used drum triggers to trigger different notes on a Moog synthesizer. The kick drum triggered one note, the snare another, and we jammed for about an hour while Jake modulated the synth in real time. Then we chopped up the synth audio, resampled it dozens of times, put a new beat over it. For us to recreate that song now would be almost impossible. It just happened in that moment, and we ended up naming the album after it.
Being independent, do you ever have difficulty knowing when something is finished?
Nicolas: This was the first time in our history of writing and recording music where we said to each other at the start, “Let’s not overthink anything.” If an idea was awesome right away, we’d flesh it out into a song but try not to overcook it. There were times when Jake would have to tell me I was overworking something and say, “Okay, no, it’s done.” And then vice versa. Sometimes he’d want to add more and I’d say, “No, it’s done.” A lot of times you realize you keep overworking a song thinking, “If this were different it would be better,” and then nine times out of ten you end up going back to the first iteration and thinking, “Fuck, that was the best idea.” You just have to trust your gut.
It seems like there were probably a lot of ideas that didn’t make it onto the album. Do you think any of them might be repurposed later, or do you prefer to start fresh?
Nicolas: It’s hard to say. Some of the ideas could be repurposed. A lot of the ideas that didn’t become full songs still ended up on the album in other ways. We had hundreds of little snippets, five or ten seconds of some idea, and when we were making the record we went through them and microsampled a lot of them. We injected these little snippets into the songs themselves. So instead of grabbing a snare sample off Splice, we’d grab some crazy distorted drum sound we recorded during an experiment and use that instead. There are dozens and dozens of these micro samples from our jam sessions that ended up forming part of the sonic texture of the album.
You’ve also had a lot of music used in sync placements. How does that relate to the album work? Do you ever write music specifically with that in mind?
Nicolas: No, we’ve never tried to write specifically for sync. Interestingly, the biggest collaboration we did in that world was on the last two Call of Duty Black Ops soundtracks with the composer Jack Wall. Getting into the video game space was never something we were actively pursuing. We were just posting our studio experiments online and Jack came across one on Instagram and DM’d us asking if we wanted to collaborate on the upcoming Call of Duty. We were like, “Yeah, obviously.” With other sync placements it’s usually creative directors who come across our music online. Spotify, Apple, wherever. Then they reach out saying they want to use a track. It’s never something that factors into our creative process. We just make music that excites us and if people dig it, then sweet.
With all the singles released leading up to the album, what factors went into choosing which songs to release and in what order?
Jacob: We decided early on that we wanted to release a song every two weeks. I think we released six singles leading up to the album. Nick and I had a few conversations about which songs we should release, but we both agreed on what we felt were the strongest songs and what would make the most impact for this new project.
Nicolas: Yeah, and we also wanted a bit of a diverse offering. We released “the dread” as pretty much an instrumental. It has a vocal hook but it’s essentially instrumental, which we had never done before as a single. “Sonic Trash” was the lead single and that’s essentially instrumental too, which we’d also never done. At the time it was really just about which songs excited us the most and represented the project best.
I’m curious about the history and evolution of the band. I mean, I know that you started off as a four-piece and I’m wondering how it evolved into what you are today.
Nicolas: Yeah, so it started as a four-piece with two of our good friends from Ireland. We lived in Ireland for 11 years, went to school there and then relocated back to Toronto. With the two Irish guys we had been doing the band thing as a fou- piece. Then when COVID hit they moved back to Ireland and Jake and I were faced with the choice of what to do next. We decided to continue the project as a two piece, which I guess it’s been since 2020 now. It was at that time that things changed dynamically and sonically with the music. A big part of that was us going back to our roots and pulling from all the heavier influences we grew up with in the ’90s across punk, electronic, industrial and hip hop. All the best stuff from the ’90s. That’s what we grew up with. With Sonic Trash we opened up the creative process to pull from all of those influences, which naturally found their way into the music. It ended up becoming this mashup of different genres, which was cool to hear from people after the European tour shows. A lot of them said it sounded fresh but at the same time had this big ’90s nostalgia factor, combining all these different genres. It doesn’t quite sound like any one thing, but you can hear the influences.
Is there anything else you’d like to add?
Nicolas: Sonic Trash will never die. US tour coming up. Very excited for that. It’s 21 shows supporting an awesome artist from New York, Des Rocs. We’ve been following him for a while on social media, so we’re pumped to go warm up the stage for him across the States. Then once we get back at the end of April, we’re back in the studio hopefully working on the next record.
For tour dates and other info, visit romesmusic.com. Purchase music at romesband.bandcamp.com
