Just before the release of his first EP, Night Tracks, Roman Ausen agreed to meet with me and chat about it.
At only 22 years old, Roman is at the beginning of his career, yet already very accomplished. From his beginnings to his musical ambitions, and going through his inspirations, he showed great generosity in this interview.
A FEW WORDS WITH… ROMAN AUSEN
Unis Son: Let’s start with your background. Tell me about it.
Roman Ausen: I started music around 10-11 years old, with the guitar, and very quickly I knew I wanted to professionalise. I joined a high school that had a specific music course. By the time I reached my final year, I had made some connections but nothing as concrete as what I had imagined. So, I thought, well, I’ll stop and pursue studies only in music and go to Paris. It’s a bit of an atypical journey because I arrived in Paris when I was 17. That allowed me to make new connections and deepen my wish to become a professional musician.
US: So, this is your calling, then?
RA: I didn’t give myself a choice to try something else. I don’t even know what else I could do, actually.
US: Can you tell me about how you reworked Moneymaker? What did you want to achieve through this new version?
RA: The first version was released back in 2020, at the end of COVID. I had returned to my parents’ house, I didn’t have all the equipment to make music. There, I only had my Mac and the keyboard keys. I was less focused on composing new tracks because I didn’t have the necessary equipment at hand. But it all started with this bass riff. And then, when the lockdown was lifted, and I could return to Paris, I already had everything in mind, the guitars, the vocals, etc. I quickly returned and re-recorded everything. And that resulted in the first version.
With this second version, which is on the EP, I wanted to re-record everything, even though ultimately not much has changed. In the first version, there was an organ in the solo and bridge. This time, I replaced that with some kind of synths. Otherwise, I’ve re-recorded everything to make it easier for mixing and mastering. Maybe I wanted to make something cleaner. But there’s not a big difference, it’s a version that’s a bit cleaner but remains faithful to the first.
US: I think it’s a bit more in line with the spirit of your EP Night Tracks. There’s a slightly more disco vibe, maybe a bit more nightlife. Tell me about the influences you had for the EP.
RA: I would say that Moneymaker was the starting point of this project because originally, I came from rock, indie-rock styles, etc. Actually, arriving in Paris and studying music allowed me to discover many other musical genres with which I wasn’t particularly familiar. Moneymaker was really the first track where I dared to mix a bit of the rock influences I had before with new influences that I had just discovered, like funk, and also to accept making things a bit more pop.
On the other tracks, the influences were mainly from music of the 70s and early 80s, between disco and funk, without necessarily being too stuck in the past. And trying to have a touch of modernity in the making process. I didn’t go through a traditional studio. I did everything here, in my flat, so it’s a bit more homemade, I’d say. The goal was still to be able to offer a first professional and qualitative project by working with what I had.
US: I would have never guessed that you recorded it in your flat.
RA: That’s a good point because it’s true that nowadays, making and listening to music is maybe simpler. It was a question of budget first, not going to a studio because, in that case, time really is money. And there was also the desire to come up with a first project that reflects who I am. Maybe I would have ended up frustrated if I had gone to a studio, thinking, ‘I spent a day spending this amount, and in the end, I come out with something where I think I could have done better.’ However, by not having any constraints, except the ones I give myself, I think it allowed me to achieve something that was already quite faithful to the vision I had.
US: About your influences, do you have any that are not necessarily musical that enhance your writing?
RA: Not particularly. What was important for me was to put the bass forward. Because in rock music, the bass tends to be a bit more in the background, while in other genres like funk or disco, it’s a lot more present. So, maybe it was about trying to give it more importance. On a track like Moneymaker, which is still a bit rock-oriented, and perhaps the most rock of the EP, I really wanted to give a central role to the bass. And myself not originally being a bass player, as I started with the guitar, it was quite interesting to focus on an instrument that’s not the preferred instrument of the genre and try to make something out of it. So, I feel like the influences were mostly musical; I don’t have any particular memories of movies that could have inspired me.
US: It’s interesting how you transitioned from guitar to bass. Tell me about this approach, what prompted you to go there?
RA: Often, when I started a piece on guitar, it was with a rhythmic base just drums, which were very simple because it was only MIDI drums, through the computer. So, I couldn’t do a lot of breaks, etc. And then, ultimately, in styles like disco, it’s true that the drums are very simple, but they provide a really solid foundation. It leaves a lot of space for other instruments, and here, the bass. So, it was easier to start with a rhythm section that included bass and drums, but with a lot of space for the bass. It was quite natural, actually, to think, okay, I’m looking for a bass line and then I build around that.
US: Night Tracks is your first solo EP. What would you like to do after this?
RA: The desire to embark on a solo project only goes back about a year, really. When I started this, I already had a few songs on the side, but I didn’t know exactly how to release them yet. Whether I would do it through singles, one at a time, through an album, or an EP. And then I thought, in the end, an EP might be the perfect compromise. I still wanted to come up with a project that I could release physically, and I thought it’d be more grounding to have something a bit more solid.
In the songs I already had on the side, I had already imagined a certain coherence between the tracks. As for what comes next, after the EP, will it be more singles, or maybe even a second EP? Because there are tracks that I haven’t been able to use for Night Tracks yet. I plan to use the break period this summer to think about what’s next, and potentially come back in this autumn, maybe with a single and why not an EP for the following year. It’s still under consideration.
US: Perhaps some live shows too, in Paris?
RA: Absolutely. I had a concert last week, on the 29th of April, at the Supersonic, just before the EP release on the 3rd of May. Then, there’s potentially a date in July, but it’s still being discussed. But it should be confirmed in the next few days. Those are the only dates before the summer break, before coming back in the autumn and booking some new dates for the end of the year.
US: Are there any places you would particularly like to play?
RA: I’m really at the beginning of this live phase. Until now, the songs hadn’t left my flat. Finally being able to make it concrete by performing the songs live and getting direct feedback from the audience is quite stimulating. But it’s really brand new. At the end of March, it was my very first show. And now, the second… There are plenty of places I want to discover, even though I’m already very happy with how I’ve started.
I didn’t expect to be able to play at the POP UP du Label and the Supersonic, it was something I had been aiming for a while, but I had to wait for the right moment to claim to play there. For me, it’s symbolic because it’s one of the first places I discovered when I arrived in Paris. I’ve been out there quite a bit, and I still go there a lot. So, being able to play there was quite important. In Paris, there are plenty of cool venues. La Boule Noire, Point Éphémère, places like that would be huge.
US: We were talking about being able to release something physical. It’s true that even though music is very dematerialized right now, we still like to have the physical object. Are you releasing it on CD, or are you also releasing it on vinyl?
RA: So, it will be on CD, for now. It was important for me, when releasing a project like this, to have the physical support and be able to sell it at the end of concerts. But for now, CD only. It’s a budget question, really. It was simpler to start with that.
US: Would you like to release a vinyl at some point?
RA: Definitely, yes. I would prefer to release a vinyl for an album. But clearly, if I had a choice, even to do both, I would have gone for it, I would have done both.
US: We’re already at the end of our interview… so: what is your earliest musical memory?
RA: I think the first… to give a bit of a quick answer, I think the first memory is David Bowie. David Bowie’s music. Because I don’t come from a family of musicians, but my parents have always listened to a lot of music. I would say that it instilled some basics in me, especially my father, who is quite into rock. He’s a big fan of David Bowie, and naturally, he would make me listen to his music.
Memories I have are of albums, when he released them in 2001-2003, playing in the car. I remember an album he released in 2003, called Reality, with the title track, and I used to play around, singing along while I was on an electric quad bike. And I think that’s my very first musical memory, through David Bowie.
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With this lovely memory, I thank Roman Ausen again for sharing these words with me, about his project and his ambitions. The EP Night Tracks will be released tomorrow. Keep an eye on the blog for its review!
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