Some dads are cool. Graham Hill is a father, a musician, architect and a composer who grew up in rural West Virginia. In 2001, Hill moved to California and started playing drums with Beach House and Papercuts. Lately he has worked on his solo outfit, Roman Ruins while raising his second child.
Yes, we know that’s a pyramid. Yes, we know Romans didn’t build pyramids. What we didn’t know was that Roman Ruins make awesome smoothed out psychedelic pop.
Roman Ruins is psychedelic dance pop at its best. All the ingredients are there, vitally a slow tempo and qualities of smooth weightlessness. While musically intriguing, Hill’s lyrics are an interesting feature to his solo sound project – if you can make them out!
It is easy to see how Hill’s life and music overlap. Roman Ruins has overarching themes of home and relationships, distant and close. He explains his approach and understanding of music as architecture: “I enjoy psychedelia as a therapeutic pursuit, a retreat from distractions, but I don’t actively strive for it in my music. I record things based on what I’m feeling in that moment, then I sample them and build libraries of sounds, much like materials for designing buildings.” Hill has said to use music as an escape route to exploring outside perspectives and although he enjoys working solely alone, he found that his album was shaped by the people that exist in his life.
Loved One is a gentle song that tells a dream-like story of traveling, encouraging you to step into the breeze, step into the breeze, step into the breeze, and so on. With padsy beats, a stuttering synthesiser and smooth rhythm this song points to all things dreamy. As a collective sound, Roman Ruins is soft, airy and mellow, yet there is a whimsical quality that underlies everything.
Source of Pride will be the second full-length album brought to you by Roman Ruins – the songs on this album said to be carefully layered and represent a sensitive and thoughtful sound. Source of Pride is said to be released (on vinyl!) on the 15th of July through Gold Robot Records.
FIND OUT MORE ON
▲ iTUNES ▲ BANDCAMP ▲ GOLD ROBOT RECORDS
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