ROMderful

Inspired by a mix of late-’90s and early-2000s sounds from electronica and jazz to R&B and game music, ROMderful has gained a following with his atmospheric tracks. After first emerging by posting songs online in 2016, ROMderful issued his debut album, Press L to Continue, in 2019.
Born Rommel Donald, ROMderful grew up in Birmingham, England where he first started playing guitar around age nine after getting into the Guitar Hero video game. In his teens, he got heavy into emo music and played bass in a death metal band. He eventually gravitated toward producing, drawing upon his love of hip-hop artists like Pharrell Williams and the Neptunes, the Internet, and Musiq Soulchild. Working under the name ROM, he began posting songs online and developed a following. However, a toxic relationship with his then-girlfriend resulted in his laptop being thrown against a walll and causing the loss of much of his music created after 2015. Over the course of the next few years, he battled depression, lost his manager, and was forced into touring to pay his bills. He eventually regrouped, found a new manager, and began working on music again. Buoyed by his renewed sense of purpose and with a sound that had developed since he lost his original tracks, ROMderful returned with his full-length debut, Press L to Continue, in 2019. Featured were collaborations with K-pop artist DEAN, Canadian singer TOBi, and Britain’s Shakka and the Queens-based/Moroccan-bred singer Dounia on the track “Run Tings.” ~ Matt Collar