INTERVIEW // RUMI
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YOU PREVIOUSLY MADE MUSIC UNDER THE NAME ‘A DREAM, THE NIGHT’. WAS THERE A REASON BEHIND THE NAME CHANGE?
I tried the whole duo set up for a long time, had multiple members coming in and out. Now seemed like the right time to go down a solo route. ‘A Dream, The Night’ was always more of a band name, so that’s where ‘Rumi’ became a thing. This is my first time going solo, my first time going away and writing songs by myself.
HOW HAS IT BEEN MAKING MUSIC SOLO?
It has been a bit daunting, especially when it comes to performing alone on stage. You often find that when you’re looking out into a crowd the lights are really bright and you can’t see anyone. You can’t see anyone’s reaction and have no one on stage with you to reassure you. So when you’re by yourself you just try and perform the best you can and hope that they like it! I am definitely going to have other instrumentalists join me on stage from time to time to change it up a bit.
WHY DID YOU THINK RUMI WAS THE PERFECT FIT FOR THE MUSIC YOU WANTED TO MAKE?
Something drew me to the name, I always followed the work of music blog REMY and the musician Romi so liked the idea of making a pattern of vowels. Something about the word ‘Rumi’ (roo-mee), drew me to it, it felt right.
HAS THE MUSIC SOUND CHANGED WITH THE NAME CHANGE?
The music has less of a guitar element than it did before as I don’t have instrumentalists with me and don’t have the experience with it. The sound is a little more aligned with house music, though I hope the music evokes the same relaxed mood as it did before.
TALK TO ME ABOUT THE NEW SINGLE ‘MOI’
The song reflects my daily life, going out all the time, the feeling you get the night after a hard night out. There are three different timelines within the video. Different portrayals. How I behave before a session, during a session and the day after a session, when you’re trying to recover from the night before.
DID YOU HAVE MUCH CREATIVE CONTROL WHEN MAKING THE VIDEO?
Right from the start, myself and Alan Flynn met up, discussed ideas and planned locations for the shoot. It was a very collaborative process. The idea of the glitch, blending three different timelines together visually was an idea we came up with together.
HAVE YOU ALWAYS BEEN A ‘DIY’ MUSICIAN?
I put the song together completely myself, the finishing touches were added by Herbert Place Studios in Dublin, they finalised the mastering and production. It was more or less finished by the time I sent it away for mastering, I was just reluctant to put it out into the world until I felt confident it was suitable for radio play. You never know how a song is going to sound coming through different types of speakers so allowing the people at Herbert Place Studios to tweak it ever so slightly took the pressure away.
YOU RECENTLY DID VOCALS FOR A TRACK CALLED ‘LOST’ RELEASED BY KODU, HOW DID WORKING WITH THEM COME ABOUT?
I am friendly with the guys anyway, so we decided one night to work on a track together. Dillon sent me the audio of a basic synth, accompanied with a little guitar and I came with the vocals. I added synths into the chorus and by sending our material back and forth we finally came to a stage where the track was suitable to be sent away for production. Playing it live is something that we’re going to play around with until we’re happy to have ‘Lost’ in a live set.
WHERE WILL BE ABLE TO SEE YOU PERFORMING AS RUMI?
I’m hoping to release a couple of live videos first, build up a portfolio of performances. I performed with A Dream, The Night at Valley of Arts last year so that could be on the cards. I hope to play as many sets around Limerick before knocking on the doors of festivals.
IS THERE AN EP IN THE WORKS?
Right now I’m still working on tracks. I hope to bring out a new single first with an accompanying video before bringing out a four-track EP. A lot of collaborations are in the works, but I’m also working on tracks that will eventually be accumulated into an EP. I don’t want to bombard people with music either, I’m willing to take my time developing Rumi.
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