London-based, 18-year-old Roman Lewis is certainly one-to-watch, not only crafting beautifully impassioned ballads with his singer-songwriter capabilities but also charming with his goofy and sweet adolescent persona. His latest single “Something to Care About” continues to expand his discography of devout lyricism reminiscent of unrequited love paired with distinctive and compelling use of acoustic arrangements. I had the opportunity of catching up with him as he passed through New York while on tour.  

‣ First and foremost, how are you?  

I mean right now, I’m buzzing! I had the best breakfast ever, I was walking over here listening to “Today” by the Smashing Pumpkins—just super cheerful.  

 ‣ How does being here now compare to the first time you were in New York? 

The first time I was in New York was a year ago. I’ve played here three times, the first time being at Rockwood Music Hall. The show was a weird one… [My family and I] walked along the High Line and were having such a good time and it just started pouring really hard, it was a good time. I like New York, it’s cool.  

‣ You’re currently on tour! How has it been so far?  

Tour’s been great! It’s all going great. I love the two bands that are on the bill—Inhaler and Blossoms. They’re great guys and all really lovely so that’s always nice.  

‣ Can you pinpoint a surreal moment you’ve experienced during a live show? 

In April, I did my first headline show in London. I wanted to make it super special—I hyped it up in my head to be this huge, super important moment. At the end of the show, I did a singalong which was great. I got all of my friends from school up on stage and none of them knew what was going on. I was like, “Hit it!” and all of the sudden “Gimme Gimme” by ABBA came on. I wanted us all to be dancing to “Gimme Gimme”, but it was kind of super awkward. It didn’t really work, which is also why it kind of worked… All of my friends were so embarrassed. At the time it was really strange but in hindsight, it’s a funny moment.  

‣ During your teen years, things are changing rapidly—your likes, your dislikes, how you view the world… How do you think you have grown as a person since starting your career and how has that manifested into your work? 

[I think] I’m definitely a very different person. I went to a big school [with] about 4,000 people. You’re always put in different classes because there are loads of people, so you’re always changing friend groups. Because I was changing who I was friends with all the time, I was sort of changing all the time as well I guess. If I look at myself [at] 13, 14, 15, 16, 17… It all feels like different people in a funny and embarrassing way. I think I’m more in my own skin though now—I feel more like myself. Musically, my taste has definitely changed. I mean… My voice has broken… If you go back to 13-year-old Roman singing… (laughs). [There were] songs I used to play with a capo on the 7th fret and it was super high. And now there’s no capo at all. Nice and low. I think the music I make however is still quite similar. I’ve got a couple of songs I’m planning on releasing soon which I wrote when I was 14. A lot of people dismiss what they write as soon as they grow a little bit older because they’re writing different things now and they think it’s ‘better’. I don’t think it’s necessarily better what I’m writing now, just different.  

‣ So do you ever look back at things now you wrote when you were younger and feel embarrassed? 

Oh yeah. Oh yeah. All the time. All the time… There are some ridiculous things… But then some of the time I think it’s funny and cute. A lot of the stuff I’ve had released I wrote quite a while ago because I’m still quite proud of the stuff I had done when I was younger. I sort of said I would put that stuff out first and then move on to the stuff I’m working on now. Even though what I’m making now is maybe slightly different it doesn’t necessarily mean it’s right, so I’m still proud of it all.  

‣ If your music was to be played during a movie montage, describe what that scene might look like to you. 

It’d be great to have one of those moments of realization—like somebody’s in the car crying, looking out the window… Or maybe it’d be great at the beginning of a movie when you see a character just walking around and brushing their teeth or whatever and you’re just getting to know them. For some reason when you said that though the first thing that came to mind was somebody eating a burrito really passionately and being super into it. I think the first bite of a burrito—by the end of the burrito less so—but the first bite of a burrito is like… Wow… I would love to be able to soundtrack that moment.  

‣ Your new single “Something to Care About” is out now! Can you give us some personal insight into what that song means to you and how it came to be? 

A few of my friends also write songs and we all hang out. One of them was over he got to the piano--he doesn’t have one at his house--and he was like “I really want to write a song”. I was like, “Really?” and he was getting really into it and asked me to leave for a minute while he was writing. So I’m really bored and go upstairs and just say, “Ah, fuck it” and pick up my guitar and I write “Something to Care About”. I got suggested that I should do a second EP and at first, I was quite against it, and then I felt like a lot was somewhat left unsaid and I had come quite a long way from the things that I had written about in the first EP. I was writing for it to be the continuation of that and was going through [it] with a little bit more perspective which I really enjoyed. I was writing about having a time where I had nothing to care about, [because] the one thing I did have to care about was gone. So it’s sort of about that time where I realized all of the other things I have to care about.  

‣ Do you have any singer-songwriter inspirations? If you could ghostwrite for anyone, who would it be? 

Nick Drake! I adore Nick Drake. Pink Moon is my favorite album of all time, I love it. Or Joni Mitchell. But I’m into a lot of rockier bands now, like Radiohead and Smashing Pumpkins. If I could ghostwrite for someone… I have no idea… Myself! Or… One Direction because you’d get a lot of money for that.  

‣ As we’re sitting in a cafe right now, it seems fitting to ask, what’s your go-to coffee order? 

Just a latte. Right now I’m not having milk because of the tour, so with oat milk or something like that. An iced latte! Iced coffee tastes great. I did a little Euro tour with my friends this summer and we were in Amsterdam and we found the most incredible iced coffee we’d ever had. We were trying to figure out what it was and we asked them, and they said they use a slushie machine for the iced coffee. But it was insane. It didn’t taste like an iced coffee slushie… it was the ultimate iced coffee. It was amazing.  

‣ Super important… Where does the panda obsession stem from?  

These are the types of questions I’ve been waiting for! When I was six, I got a panda cuddly toy, I called him Panda—I was a very creative six-year-old. I’ve just had an obsession with pandas since. I just love them for some reason and it just became a thing. Now I have 100 pandas in my room or something crazy like that. It’s funny because you walk into the room and you see the big pandas and you’re kind of like, “Ah” but little by little, the tiny ones start popping out and you realize you’re surrounded! People get fairly freaked out… I’m not going to try to reason why I love them, I just fucking love them! They’re a very chill animal, they just hang out, eat and sleep. Even my dog looks like a panda, really.  

‣ Was that an intentional choice on your part? 

It was unintentional… It was for my brother’s tenth birthday and we were choosing between the puppies and I was the one who pointed him out… So actually it was probably subconscious…  

 ‣ So what is there without pandas?  

There’s Rick and Morty without pandas. But it’s just not the same…  

‣ Besides releasing new music, what are some personal goals you hope to accomplish in 2020? 

 I want to start playing with a band. I’ve got a show coming up soon in London so I’m hoping to have musicians play with me. I love playing acoustically but it does get quite lonely up there when you have no other support. I’ve always been really really busy. This year I got into university in London and I deferred it for next year, thinking I would be really busy this year. But then one of the tours I was supposed to do got canceled, and overall I was less busy this year than I thought I was going to be. So I’d like to keep a bit busier next year with music or whatever it may be.

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