oh! Drew a Heart <3 by Past Life Romeo
I remember specifically the night I opened up the DM about interviewing Cam, aka Past Life Romeo, on their new single release Drew a Heart <3, which is now out alongside the EP You Look Just Like Me.
Enjoy reading about their creative process, their inspirational figures and how having a crush usually always means making up stories with them.
Bonnie: What’s your name, pronouns & birthday?
Cam: Past Life Romeo
They/Them
6/6/2000 ♊️
Who is your legend?
Probably Sophie. I remember the first time someone told me about her, I was on a train, her album just came out. It was a five hour train ride, I listened to it on repeat the whole way. I feel like her impact on pop music is huge, pop production became more experimental, more daring… I really had her in mind while making this EP.
Introduce yourself a bit / tell me about your journey so far as an artist / what did you already release?
I’m Past Life Romeo, I’m based in Paris. This is a brand new project, I only released one song called Sometimes, Most Nights. The journey’s been great so far, I started writing my first EP a year and half ago and it will come out next May. I’m playing a lot in Paris and in France, things are exciting.
Describe your new song Drew a Heart <3 in three words.
Emotional pop music, or Having a crush.
Tell the story behind the song. What inspired it?
It’s one of the first songs we did for the EP, we started it on the very first day I met Carlos Loverboy (who co-produced the whole EP). I was very inspired by Lorde’s Melodrama and The XX’s On Hold and I wanted to write a pop song that blended those influences. It’s about falling in love, having a crush and making up stories in your head about them. It’s one of the fun songs on the EP, it’s about teenage love.
How did the process of writing and making this song look like and how long did it take?
Like I said it’s the first song we worked on but we put it on the side for a while cause we weren’t sure of the demo. Then one day, later in the process (we had most of the songs in the EP already) we came back to it and Carlos tried to sample the demo and work from the sample. And just like that it started to make sense, it really is the leitmotiv of the song cause it samples itself all the time, so you can hear multiple work versions of the song inside the final track. Most of the layers are just samples of the masters of older versions of the track. I like the feeling of it, it’s like listening to a song on the radio, there’s something rough about the sound.
What are some favourite lyrics you’ve ever written?
My favorite lyrics are probably from songs that will come out later, in my second EP. But in this one I like the end of Drew a heart <3 a lot, the whole outro. And also the bridge in Saliva:
Finding shared interests with people I have no interest for
Just to share saliva with strangers I met on the internet so…
It’s funny.
If you could send the songs to any artist (dead or alive) knowing they’d listen to it, who’d it be?
Maybe George Daniel asking him to remix it. I like what he does with The 1975 but also his production for Charli or The Japanese House…
Any honorable mentions you wanna make? Anyone you wanna credit on this song?
The two people who made the song sound like it does today, Carlos Loverboy and Jim Casanova. We worked on it together and it was a real team effort, I love them!
And a little mention for James Rand who mixed it, Jack Palmer who mastered it and Antoine Conde who did the amazing artwork.
Where can people find the music/social media/website?
@pastliferomeo on IG and Tiktok
The EP You Look Just Like Me is now out via Pias.
Past Life Romeo is performing at the famous Rock en Seine festival this August 22nd - secure your tickets below (hurry up, they’re going fast!)