Q&A: “PRAY TO ME” and the Making of ‘HOLLYWOOD FOREVER’: DeathbyRomy’s Most Fearless Era Yet
INTERVIEW
INTERVIEW
☆ BY KIMBERLY KAPELA ☆
IN A LOVE LETTER TO LOS ANGELES’ BEAUTY AND BRUTALITY – Los Angeles is a city of contradictions—glamorous yet gritty, a place where dreams are made and just as quickly shattered. For singer-songwriter and dark-pop provocateur DeathbyRomy, it’s both muse and menace, a backdrop to her evolution as an artist and a battleground for survival. Her upcoming independent album, HOLLYWOOD FOREVER, doesn’t just tell her story; it pulls listeners into the raw, chaotic beauty of chasing something bigger than oneself.
With a signature blend of pop’s infectious melodies, industrial rock’s grit, and trap’s high energy, DeathbyRomy has always thrived in the in-between. Her music feels seductive yet dangerous, euphoric yet melancholic. It’s a sound that finds its full expression in HOLLYWOOD FOREVER, a record she describes as “in one sense, a love letter to L.A., but at times it reads more like hate mail.” It captures the highs and lows of a young female musician growing up in the industry’s relentless machine, where moments of triumph can feel as fleeting as the city’s golden-hour glow.
Leading the charge is her latest single, “PRAY TO ME,” a collaboration with alternative rock band Palaye Royale. The song is a declaration of reckless devotion, a pulsating, sensual anthem that feels like getting lost in the night with someone you shouldn’t love—but do anyway. “PRAY TO ME” isn’t just a love song; it’s a plea, a demand, a raw and gritty confession wrapped in distorted guitars and pounding beats. “It’s an angsty love song,” Romy explains.
This latest release follows the bold statements of “BITCHFAMOUS” and “XXXhibitionist,” two tracks that showcase DeathbyRomy’s ability to shapeshift—from snarling provocateur to hypnotic siren. Each song on HOLLYWOOD FOREVER is a piece of a larger mosaic, reflecting the chaos, allure and danger of the city that raised her. It’s not just an album; it’s an unfiltered portrait of an artist who has bled for her craft, turning pain and passion into something that demands to be heard.
With HOLLYWOOD FOREVER marking a new chapter, DeathbyRomy is stepping into her own with unwavering confidence. Her first-ever US headline tour this April will bring these songs to life in a way that only she can—raw, immersive, and unapologetically her. In a world that often asks artists to fit into neat boxes, DeathbyRomy refuses. Instead, she builds her own universe—one where love is messy, fame is fleeting, and music is the only thing that’s real.
DeathbyRomy delivers a manifesto of resilience and reinvention. She’s never forgotten the city that shaped her, fixating on the endless contradictions that make L.A. such an “inspiring and brutal” place to live for her debut full-length.
LUNA: Thank you for talking to Luna. Our readers would love to get to know you and your music more. For any readers who aren’t familiar with you yet, what inspires your artistic style and sound?
ROMY: I'm influenced by many different artists and many different subcultures and aesthetics. When it comes to the visual world of my album, I've always been really influenced by Alexander McQueen. I was very inspired by Harajuku fashion, and all of the culture coming out of Japan when I was young. I love Lady Gaga and I love Manson. Those are a few things I pull a lot of influence from. I push and say a lot is that I love to embrace the beauty and things that are dark and things that are ugly. I like playing on that with how I express myself and the DeathbyRomy project.
LUNA: What kind of atmosphere or emotional space do you aim to create for your listeners?
ROMY: As far as the atmosphere and emotional space I try to create and convey in my music, I love people to feel empowered. I love people to feel strong. All my favorite music is something that made me feel stronger when I needed to. I want people to feel related to and understood who maybe don't find that elsewhere.
LUNA: You just released your newest single “PRAY TO ME” and huge congratulations! I love how it continues to break boundaries within your sound and is expansive. What inspired the single and storytelling behind this work?
ROMY: “PRAY TO ME” pulls from a lot of religious imagery and while writing the song, I don't think I initially realized the story it was telling until I had fully painted the picture. “PRAY TO ME” is about being absolutely and totally devoted to someone in almost an angsty way. There's a lot of statements made later in the songs, like, “Take my wings and tear them off / Tie my hands to the edge of your cross / Speak in tongues / Our language lost / Say my name like the word of God,” and it's just about absolute and total devotion. It's an angsty love song.
LUNA: How did the collaboration with Palaye Royale come about? What was the creative process like working with them on this track?
ROMY: I knew the brothers and Palaye through some mutuals here in LA. I actually know Sebastian's wife, Larissa, and through her the guys found my music, and when I finally got to meet Remington, who’s their frontman. He had told me that he was a big fan of my music and he'd love to get to try and work on something together, so I kept that in the back of my head, and even though I was obsessed with “PRAY TO ME” for a really long time when it existed with only me on the record, something about the dynamics felt off. I felt like it needed another voice. It needed something to help switch it up, switch up the energy. I thought Remington could be a really perfect addition to the song, so I actually heard him do a really heavy cover of “Closer” by Nine Inch Nails, and when I heard him do that, I realized I thought he'd be really good on this.
LUNA: “PRAY FOR ME” is a glimpse into your upcoming album HOLLYWOOD FOREVER that drops later this year—what is the inspiration behind HOLLYWOOD FOREVER and what themes and emotions do you explore?
ROMY: HOLLYWOOD FOREVER is my first debut album, and it's inspired by a lot of formative years I've had while being DeathbyRomy and growing into the woman I am now. I grew up doing this project. I've been doing it since I was 15. I was still 15 when I started making music under this pseudonym, and throughout that time, I experienced what is maybe regular to some other child actors or something, but not to most kids who don't try to delve into any industry work.
I experienced a very strange upbringing. My parents didn't have the means to help me into the music business, and I was found by someone online who took me in and wanted to help make my project what it is. That experience started off really good, and it got really dark. Throughout those years of growing my project and growing into a woman at the same time, I experienced a lot of really crazy moments that I had not really gotten the chance to reflect on and write about. HOLLYWOOD FOREVER is the art of me being the young girl who just saw this as a dream and had no idea what she was in for and follows my life over the last 10 years.
LUNA: How do you feel HOLLYWOOD FOREVER captures your evolution as an artist?
ROMY: I think sonically, HOLLYWOOD FOREVER is the best culmination of all my references and everything I've ever wanted this project to be. I've definitely experimented with and pulled from so many different genres and musical influences. HOLLYWOOD FOREVER feels like everything that I've ever tried to do finally came together and made sense, and it's my dance-iest album. It has some of my heaviest moments, and it has a return to some really, really sentimental moments that I think some of my fans probably missed from me that I was known for putting myself out there emotionally and vulnerably through my music.
LUNA: What is your favorite song from HOLLYWOOD FOREVER and why do you love this song? Is there a certain element, lyric or message that you gravitate towards the most?
ROMY: “LITTLE DREAMER” is my favorite song on the album. It arguably is the most pop sounding record on the album, and it has just a really pure and raw, emotional pre that is probably one of my favorite moments I've ever made musically. That song is about me, and I think a lot of people will be able to relate to it, because everyone has a dream. Everyone who goes after their dream and chooses to try and make it hits walls, hits moments where they think ‘I just cannot do this. It's taking all of me.’ This song romanticizes that fight within myself about wanting to keep going and echoes my mom's voice in my head of always being supportive and always telling me I can do it regardless.
LUNA: What was the most surprising or challenging aspect of creating HOLLYWOOD FOREVER compared to your previous albums?
ROMY: Well, on the contrary, actually, I found an easier time getting this project together than I did other projects because I think I had had so many pent up memories and experiences that I've not yet given myself the time to process that. I just allowed myself to finally feel all those things while writing this project. I really dove into it and wrote the songs and pieced it together quite quickly. The biggest challenge was fine tuning everything. The mixing and mastering of the project was actually quite tedious because of how many different genres I blend in my music and how much I like to focus on low end and vocal clarity, which is not something that is really easy to obtain. Mixing, I found the right guy for the job, and he worked really closely and carefully with me and my manager, and we ironed it out. This record sounds like nothing I've ever heard before. I'm really proud of it.
LUNA: You’re about to go on your headlining tour across the U.S. and Canada and huge congratulations! What can fans expect from a DeathbyRomy headlining set? Any surprises in store?
ROMY: Definitely some surprises. I'm trying to bring out some names I can't share yet along the road, and I'm really excited. I'm both equally optimistic and terrified about this tour. That's what I keep telling people. I've never tried to do a headline run like this in the U.S. It will be my first time. Some of the venues on this tour will be the biggest venues I've ever tried to sell on my own. I'm equally terrified and excited.
What people can expect from this tour is a beautifully ironed out and fully realized version of the live show on anything they've ever seen. They can expect a lot of fun choreographed moments from me and the girls, they can expect to see the girls performing with me more than ever, because I actually realised how strong the live show was once I had added the girls in my band. I realized I really wanted to make a song with them, so that when they perform with me on stage, it is something that is genuine and felt by all of us.
The song “KILL OR BE KILLED” on the record is actually the most important on the record to me, as it touches on every woman's experience in the industry of being fetishized, of being preyed on for her youth, of being told she needs to stay young if she wants to be deemed beautiful, she has an expiration date, she has to be thin, or she has to do this or that, so she doesn't look like this on stage. It's really such a toxic environment that me and one of my band members have unfortunately, really seen some really ugly sides of. She's been in the industry longer than I have. People can expect fucking pure feminine rage. They can expect sick intros. They can expect a fully produced and executed show.
LUNA: Touring can be exhausting—what are some essentials you’re bringing with you to stay grounded on the road?
ROMY: I will be bringing my theragun. I'll be bringing a yoga mat, because I do yoga every day. I have a bunch of chronic pain issues I suffer from, and the most important thing I can do for myself on the road is to do the best I can to try and take care of my body, so that I'm not physically exhausting myself, or that I'm not pushing myself too far physically. We put on a really physically taxing show. We like to do the most up there, and I don't want to compromise that, but I also don't want to hurt myself. I'll also probably bring a book because I've been trying to read more, and me and the girls will read something together. We all read the Julia Fox book together over the summer last year and that was awesome.
LUNA: How are you feeling in this current era of your career and what does the rest of the year look like that you would like to share with Luna?
ROMY: I’m still figuring out the rest of the year's touring plans. I'm sure you're going to see us traveling a bit. We're trying to figure out where we're going overseas. In my heart of hearts, I would absolutely love to get to South America before the end of the year. I don't know if I have plans yet, but that's a big goal of mine. You can expect to see me pushing this album down everyone's throats because I couldn't be more proud. I want everyone to hear it.
