Pop singer Carolina Romano came to Nashville from Hattiesburg, Mississippi, six years ago–and she has just turned nineteen. The confidence this singer-songwriter exudes belies the “painfully shy” girl she says she was growing up. Describing herself as “very much a homebody,” Caroline says she discovered through music “a way of expressing those parts of myself that other people didn’t see. I knew it was the only thing that could make me feel like myself, so from an early age, I decided this is who I am and this is what I’m going to do.”
She began taking guitar when she was nine, discovering her passion: “I can make music on my own.” She also took some voice lessons at eleven or twelve, learning to project. She found early inspiration in Taylor Swift, who inspired her– “not only her music but also her career and what’s she’s put out into the world. Hers was the first album I bought for myself,” says Romano. She also draws inspiration from such artists as Queen, Averil Lavigne, and Shania Twain.
“I’m really into Lauv and Yungblud right now, on the edgier side of things, but I try to take inspiration from everyone and every song I hear,” she adds.
Although she considers herself a full-time musician, she’s also taking classes at Belmont, “mostly to learn about music and to be connected,” she says, pointing out that getting into the music industry when she was so young meant she was always around people who aren’t her own age in the studio and at venues. College classes seemed like a good way to meet some people and to learn more about music, she says, although most of her studies are online due to the Covid pandemic.
Recently, she said that her advice to other young people interested in making it in music is to “commit to your craft.” That means, she says, “you have to make sacrifices for it. If you’re not making sacrifices you have to reevaluate how committed you are. For me, that means practicing every day. Even if you have people working with you, making sure you do everything you should, only you can make it happen.” Now she is seeing that commitment, that habit of practice, paying off.
Her most recent single “I Still Remember” came out in July. With most tours postponed, she’s been promoting the release through social media. Although she misses going out, talking up the song and performing it live, she’s grateful for the online platforms. While others have chosen to livestream acoustic shows, Romano hasn’t found that the best way to perform her pop style of music.
Her music videos have gained her a lot of attention. The latest video for “I Still Remember,” with Caroline appearing as both a welder and a seamstress, was a fun video to create, she says.
“I deliberated back and forth with the director, who’ has shot all my videos. He has become a good friend. I have such an infatuation with the video aspect of music. It brings a whole new world to the song, another back door story,” she says, adding that she wanted to show a dark sense of humor in the video, “dark and oddly twisted because the song is so pop and bright. We took a lot of inspiration, used a lot of mood boards, and I’m really proud of how it turned out.”
The video for her first single also got a lot of attention, with Romano teaming up with pop sensation Jacob Whitesides, who added harmony to the song “Masterpiece.” Caroline says she had been a fan, and knew he was a strong vocalist, so she was pleased that he could collaborate, adding his particular harmonies to the project and performing in the video.
“He was the most fun,” she said. “We both had a sense of dark, moody pop at the time, so we played on those characteristics in “Masterpiece.” When that single was released, a lot of her former hometown classmates didn’t know she made music. “Some of the people I went to school with followed Jacob on social media and asked ‘Is this you?’ I’ve gotten a lot of support from people back home,” she says.
Some might find a country music town like Nashville an unlikely home for a pop musician, but Caroline points out the blending of genres in mainstream music now.
“It doesn’t make a big difference anymore,” she says. “Some people make only country music but still write with pop artists. And the pop community has grown so much since I started coming here. You can still feel the country vibe, especially downtown, but there are more pop venues and more pop musicians here now.”
Caroline Romano seems set on being true to her path. “When I first started a real career in music, I had some people say, ‘You should be country. This is the easiest way.’ I was fourteen years old so I considered the idea, but I’m a very strong-willed person—sometimes to my own detriment. I’m very vocal, and my parents have always been very supportive in helping me decide who I wanted to be. I always knew, but it took a while to be sure pop is the way for me. I have to self-evaluate every now and then and be sure I’m still on the right path.”
Another area where she feels certain is her song selection. “All of my music is written or co-written by me. It’s my policy because I feel like there’s no way I could deliver everything that comes with releasing a song with the same passion if I didn’t have a hand in writing it. For me, songwriting is as much of what I’ve fallen in love with as singing the song. I don’t think at this point in my life I am able to fully commit to a song that I didn’t have a hand in writing.”
She has found the Nashville co-writing scene a great opportunity too. Some of her co-writes are set up by her team, while others come with what she calls “the domino effect.” She explained, “Nashville is such a big city, but in the pop world, you feel like you know everybody after one write. They’ tell me I should write with this person or the next, so it’s an organic situation.”
As she matures, she plans to stay true to her music. “It all starts from the songwriting point of view; that’s why I’m so adamant about writing my own music. It’s the only way to create a linear show of what’s going on in my life. I’ve written so many songs in quarantine that are drastically different from what I wrote a year ago.”
Romano says, “I just turned 19, and so much happens in a year, especially when you’re young—you fall In love for the first time, move out on your own for the first time, and I’m going to continue to grow. I hope there will be a sense of maturity that comes with that sound, but I don’t think I’ll ever lose the fun brightness to music that I try to bring in all my songs that is kind of a stamp of Caroline.
The music I make shows the world from my perspective but put in a way I think people around me are also experiencing. We’re all traveling through—whatever age we are. I hope the music I write will put people into a time in their life when they thought, ‘I wish someone could put that into words.’”