Exclusive Interview with 'DVRK ROMANTICS'

The writers Micky Waters and Rachel Dibiaso, who have been working together on projects in the Sync and Advertising world for the past few years, founded Dvrk Romantics (pronounced Dark). The pair combined their love of blues, glam rock, and independent music to create a sound that combines ethereal vocals with catchy drums and cinematic nods. Wes Anderson, Tarantino, and Western films are among our shared interests, and this is reflected in the band’s music and visuals.
While Rachel concentrates on the melodic structure and lyrics, Micky oversees the production of the music, from complex instrumentation to hooking bass lines. Together, they create the entire track in Micky’s home studio, from the initial idea to the finished product. In the beginning of her career, Rachel Di Biaso played a variety of roles with various artists. Artists like Christina Novelli, Leighton Allen (The Hoosiers), Rising star Mauvey, Lloren, Sohodolls, and many more have used my services as a creative consultant, artist manager, and songwriting partner over the last three years.

Every listener is drawn into the Dvrk Romantics Sphere by the eclectic combination of Rachel’s vocals against Micky’s production, which has been compared to Lana Del Rey, Lorde, and Robyn.

Their debut song, “Love in A Time of Danger” was released on 12.08.2022. It is a bass-driven, electronic track that draws inspiration from Anna Calvi, Groove Armada, and Massive Attack. This song by DVRK Romantics is intended to serve as a “introduction” before the release of their High Octane Track, “Trouble Won’t Wait,” at the end of September. Check out the song and the exclusive interview below:

1. Can you tell us a bit about where you come from and how it all got started?

DVRK ROMANTICS: Dvrk Romantics is a duo, Rachel DiBiaso on Vocals and Micky Waters on Production and Instrumentals. We started as a writing duo for publishing companies in London (sync music) and over the last 12 months, started writing our own music! Rachel has worked as an artist manager, songwriter and now is a creative director and photographer for many artist campaigns. Micky is also a member of the Rock Band, The Answer and has toured with the likes of ACDC, and played with the Rolling Stones.

2. Did you have any formal training or are you self-taught?

DVRK ROMANTICS: Rachel: ‘I started off running a recording studio about 6 years ago, through that I was able to pick up a lot of skills and really hone in on the music scene, before that I spent years working on little youtube videos and blogs, just me and my guitar!

Micky: bit if both really. I Come from a big musical Irish family, we were always playing music, from trad folk, pop to heavy metal : )

I was taught guitar but when starting my first band, no one else wanted to okay bass so I said i’ll do it, I taught myself bass mostly on a healthy diet of grunge, Rock, blues & funk, I tended to lean more towards that.. influenced heavily from Metallica to Stax soul records!

3. Who were your first and strongest musical influences and why the name ‘DVRK ROMANTICS’?

DVRK ROMANTICS: So the name Dvrk Romantics ‘Pronounced Dark’ is in reference to the dark romanticism movement, whereby there was a lot of focus on sin and the darker sides of humanity – a lot of what we write about reflects on that – such as our latest release ‘ Trouble won’t wait’ we also really focus on that in the production elements, keeping this edge of the cinematic and nostalgic in it.

Rachel – In terms of musical influences, I love bands like Wolf Alice, Wet Leg, Scissor Sisters, T-rex, Massive attack. I also love Lorde, Lana Del Rey, Robyn – so I think there are definitely nods to those!

Micky – I think we both have quite different influences that has carved our sound to be something more unique. mine coming from a indie rock back ground.. I love finding an interning chord structure and messing with it a bit, find something in there that sounds a bit different. Like on ‘Love in a time of danger’.

4. What do you feel are the key elements in your music that should resonate with listeners, and how would you personally describe your sound?

DVRK ROMANTICS: Rachel: I think our sound is Glam, Cinematic and Indie Rock. Our first release was definitely more somber, but our most recent release has really shown the breadth of what we are about. Creating these sort of anthemic songs that go against the grain of commercial modern music.

Micky – driving bass on electro beats with built on dreamy sounding landscapes. Lyrical when we start a track we take a good look at our lives, what’s going on? and inject that emotion into the music, then mix in big a anthemic choruses.

5. For most artists, originality is first preceded by a phase of learning and, often, emulating others. What was this like for you? How would you describe your own development as an artist and music maker, and the transition towards your own style, which is known as POP?
**DVRK ROMANTICS**:
Rachel: I think we really started off just jamming to different sounds, trying different productions and then one day it all fell into place! We are lucky to have our publishers which means sometimes we get sent briefs to work to, which is separate from the band. Being able to work in different genres and creating in different styles of music I think really helps define your originality.
Micky – yeah working in the sync world has opened my mind to lots of different genres and made me go study the instruments, scales & chord structures. I was commissioned to write a track for world schools charity for Nepal, so I had to go learn what instruments sounds production in involved in that. Every day learning something new. So when we started DR we had lots of idea to go and tap in to to TRY to create something a bit different.

6. What’s your view on the role and function of music as political, cultural, spiritual, and/or social vehicles – and do you try and affront any of these themes in your work, or are you purely interested in music as an expression of technical artistry, personal narrative and entertainment?

DVRK ROMANTICS:

Rachel: I feel like music these days definitely has a platform to be able to really speak about issues and can help so many people with their emotions. We try to really be quite vague with what we are writing about, so that it can be interpreted differently to different people and resonate in different ways. For me, Dvrk Romantics is about creating a feeling and emotion, so we tend to be less political, however I am certain that if we were truly inspired to do so, we would.

Micky – I see music as the ultimate way to express freedom of opinion. And your own feelings are an amazing way to vent anything that could cause mental health issues. Singing about it, thrashing it out on the guitar or drums makes you feel a whole lot better.

7. Do you feel that your music is giving you back just as much fulfilment as the amount of work you are putting into it, or are you expecting something more, or different in the future?

DVRK ROMANTICS:

Rachel: Music post pandemic is even harder to crack. Independent musicians are struggling to go on tour, find funding and still have to try and make premium content. The work we put in is so immense, from recording and production, to rehearsals, to videos and social media. But, we love it and we want to continue to make music because we want others to love it too. Our aim is to get a great show together and in 2023, start performing live and build up some great followers to come with us for the ride!

Micky – it’s a long game plan. We are a very productive duo, we seem to get good tunes out quite quickly. It helps that we have a studio to track as we are writing, really captures the fresh ideas.

8. Could you describe your creative processes? How do usually start, and go about shaping ideas into a completed song? Do you usually start with a tune, a beat, or a narrative in your head? And do you collaborate with others in this process?

DVRK ROMANTICS:

Rachel: ‘Ha! This is a tough one. So I normally write loads and loads, to the point where my phone is just full of voice notes, little lines or things that I think will work. Then normally what happens is me and Micky come together and review them. He also produces and sketches out so many songs and instrumentals, so we listen to it all and start piecing things together. I think the best work comes from when we are writing and co-creating at the same time – it just becomes this effortless and natural process.’

Micky – can be a chord sequence either of us come up with or an idea for a mood. ‘Love in a time of danger’ was a mood. Title I came up with around the time things got bad in Ukraine, then we developed it by just jamming out together on acoustic guitar.

9. What has been the most difficult thing you’ve had to endure in your life or music career so far?

DVRK ROMANTICS: Rachel – Running a studio was the hardest thing for me, in a pandemic. Managing artists, trying to keep everyone positive around me in the industry was just the hardest thing. Tours were cancelled, dreams were lost, and jobs were scarce. I am so glad we are almost back to a normal way of working again, and there are more opportunities in the industry.

Micky – it’s a tough commitment living breathing music for a job. I’ve been doing it now for about 15 years & dealt with Ups and downs life can throw at you. I stopped touring 5 years ago as leaving family was getting harder to endure, long stints away and playing the same circuit for a long time left us yearning to try something else.

Adapting to a producer roll has been a pleasure, getting to work with new artists and I never thought I’d have a band like DR! The op to have such indulgence in song writing with no rules is any musos dream.

10. On the contrary, what would you consider a successful, proud or significant point in your life or music career so far?

DVRK ROMANTICS: Rachel: For me, I have worked in music for almost 10 years – starting as a Songwriter, then a manager, then a photographer, then creative directing for many artist release campaigns. To finally release a song of our own, was monumental – it was something I have put off for years. So for me, the day of our first release, was so so special.’

Micky – music that makes peeps really stop smile and think ‘that’s just really cool! To have a successful production on screen to Netflix shows or an ad that really works.. and maybe even set up a platform for playing live! Who knows?!