Story & Lesson Highlights with Mike Romeo of Gowanus Brooklyn

We recently had the chance to connect with Mike Romeo and have shared our conversation below.

Good morning Mike, it’s such a great way to kick off the day – I think our readers will love hearing your stories, experiences and about how you think about life and work. Let’s jump right in? What is a normal day like for you right now?
Aside from my day job, my typical day you’ll find me at work in my studio space in Gowanus Brooklyn. This is where I am able to experiment with materials and ideas. I generally work on sound at home but I’ve found a real love in recent years of getting off the computer and working with physical mediums like clay, silicones, paint, building electronics, using now outdated audio hardware, found electronics materials, and so on. I’m truly grateful to have at least some time and space to work on what I’m interested in on a personal level.

Can you briefly introduce yourself and share what makes you or your brand unique?
My name is Mike Romeo. I am an artist living and working in New York where I grew up about an hour outside the city. I would have considered myself solely a musician several years ago, but these days I work with a multitude of mediums. I think it is more apt to call myself a multimedia artist these days. I’m interested in combining sound, visuals, electronics, and physical materials in my work.

The theme of my work’s visual forms and auditory textural elements are inspired by the convergence of the organic and synthetic materials and the manipulation of these elements by humans within the Anthropocene. Effects on Earth’s ecology due to anthropomorphic unabated climate change could itself be seen as a sort of global-scale experimentation. Additionally, the potential for future geo-engineering and / or direct manipulation of genetics with technologies like CRISPR.

This theme is used as a catalyst for the work, expressed as a creative output of an artistic form of cybernetics; the science of communications and automatic control systems in both machines and living things. The work conveys an artistic representation of lines between mechanical and natural systems becoming increasingly blurry, and viewing the future with unease.

As a person who grew up between pre and post 9/11 I also experienced first hand the intrusion of surveillance into every aspect of our existence due to the widening scale of technological integrations into our surrounding environment. This has heavily influenced my work as an artist, translating the heightened sense of fear into whatever I’m creating.

Thanks for sharing that. Would love to go back in time and hear about how your past might have impacted who you are today. Who were you before the world told you who you had to be?
I think I have always had a similar sense of equal amounts curiosity and cynicism about the world before and after transitioning into adulthood and having to hold down a day job, while finding time to work on the things I’m passionate about.

It may be a bit of the New York mentality in me, but I have always had a healthy dose of skepticism about whether other people are espousing, whether exposed in school, church, or some other authority. I think this has served me well as an artist as I’ve always connected most with people who seem true to themselves on an individual level. People who aren’t afraid of expressing what is deep within, rather than following what everyone else is doing.

Another thread that has followed since I was a kid, was finding interest in the complexity of nature and the universe. There is something really calming about not having all the answers, and not being able to contemplate the sheer scale of the larger space we exist in. I think I am always kind of translating that feeling into all of my work. I have always considered the gut feeling of, “how does this make me feel”, as opposed to, “what does this all mean? what are they trying to say?”. There is no answer to why the world is the way it is, no matter what anyone tells you, and that is the same way I feel about art, it’s a totally subjective experience, there is no winners or losers, it just is. With that said, I have always been drawn to certain work whether in music or art. I think I haven’t changed that much in that sense.

Was there ever a time you almost gave up?
I once had a nightmare scenario for a performer. I was offered a good opportunity to perform at a decent sized event. I had prepared heavily in the prior weeks. Finally, the day arrived, I setup everything as quick as I could with the limited time I had before I was set to perform. But then, in front of a room full of people, I just couldn’t get anything to work properly, and there was basically dead silence while I fumbled around trying to make things work. It never happened, I spent too much time figuring things out that it left little time to perform. I packed everything up and left. I was really crushed over the whole experience, I felt that at that point I should just stop trying to push my creative career and just focus on getting a stable job. I came to the realization that I just didn’t have the knowledge or skill to put together the idea that I had in my head. In that moment I seriously thought about just stopping altogether. All these years later it’s just a blip however. If anything it made me realize that no matter what there just is a passion that I have to do what I do whether there is a room full of people to perform in front of, or whether I am exhibiting a piece in a small space that one or two people come by to witness. It turned into something freeing if anything.

Alright, so if you are open to it, let’s explore some philosophical questions that touch on your values and worldview. What’s a belief or project you’re committed to, no matter how long it takes?
One core belief that I have held that has evolved over time, is expanding my artistic medium for creative output. For most of my life the focus was on music or anything sound related, but in the past several years I started to consider many different parts of my practice, from physical sculptural work, to electronics building, and purely digital visual work and coding.

I think this may be an uncommon belief held by artists and creatives. I never quite liked the idea of virtuoso type musicians, it just never excited me that much to put all your focus into one instrument or type of genre of music.

For example, I really loved Elliot Smith, his songs and playing sounded like it could fall apart at any moment, not to say he wasn’t a great guitar player, but it’s just the spirit in his songs, rather than how complicated his guitar playing was. I feel the same about painters or anyone else.

This is a belief I try to live by as best I can to not get caught up in being a perfectionist, which I am not by any means. You could work on one project for a year, and a different project that took a week somehow just has such a greater impact.

Before we go, we’d love to hear your thoughts on some longer-run, legacy type questions. When do you feel most at peace?
I think the act of making, performing, experimenting is where I feel most at peace. I’ve found that whether sitting playing on a keyboard or working out ideas with clay is a similar type of enjoyment and calm that is very hard to recreated. It’s exciting to hear or see concepts come to life. I think this is something really nuanced and human. It’s this type of activity that you can’t quite put into words.

In addition to my practice itself, having a studio is an amazing thing that I deprived myself of until a few years ago when a friend brought me into a space called Gowanus Studio Space in Brooklyn. Having a dedicated space and time to do whatever I’m thinking / feeling at the moment is now essential to finding that sense of peace.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.night-shining.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/_nightshining/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@nightshining5662
• Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/nightshining

Image Credits
M.Romeo