Meet the goth girlfriend of your dreams (or better yet, nightmares): Los Angeles singer/songwriter DeathbyRomy. Her new single “Kiss Me Goodbye” released via Capitol Records is an eerie and hypnotic ballad underscored by strings and cyber-electronic beats. DeathbyRomy’s vocals capture a plurality of emotions, featuring raw lyrics that read like painstaking confessions from a diary.
The video for “Kiss Me Goodbye” evokes the style of a gothic horror film, as DeathbyRomy, draped in a baroque wedding dress, poises with ominous grace before a fire. The title sequence displays ornate blood-red lettering and follows with grainy footage that statically alternates between cracked mirrors, spray-paint, and vignettes of DeathbyRomy crying wax tears. She rocks the aesthetic of a real-life Corpse Bride but with a palpable coolness, for her music is very much vulnerable and alive.
On the single, DeathbyRomy revealed, “‘Kiss Me Goodbye’ was inspired by a few of my close friends’ stories about their experiences with being the ‘other girl’—a place I’m sure many of us have been in. I chose to try and take the stronger, self-assured take at telling this story by reclaiming a sense of strength and power in saying goodbye. Rather than a ‘poor me’ situation, I thought it should be a triumphant anthem for not being willing to be second best.”
Now 20 years old, Romy Flores wrote her first song at age 5 and began releasing her music at 15, channeling the array of iconoclastic artists she was raised on: The Beatles, Björk, Kanye West. With her 2018 debut album Monsters, she soon drew an ardent following that launched her Capitol Records debut, 2019’s Love u — to Death EP. Her style and sound are ever-changing, molding from short but wickedly sweet to bold, electronic drums and the fierceness of rock ‘n’ roll.
“Kiss Me Goodbye” arrives on the heels of her 2019 EP Love u – to Death. The EP’s single, “Problems,” tallied over 38 million global streams and incited unanimous tastemaker applause. Alt Press claimed DeathbyRomy is “well on her way to alt-pop domination,” while tmrw Magazine wrote, “there is no doubt she is made for big things.”
After catching DeathbyRomy’s 2018 Los Angeles performance, Grimy Goods forecasted her as an Artist to Watch in 2019 — “You can expect to see her on a number of playlists and buzzings about the up-and-coming artists for next year. It’d be a tragedy for your ears to continue to sleep on her.”
Watch the video for “Kiss Me Goodbye” and stay tuned for more music, as well as the stuff of your nightmares at Romy’s Instagram, Twitter, and Website.
Words by Jenna Dorn
