Rio Romeo, a 23-year-old nonbinary butch lesbian interdisciplinary artist, is celebrating the release of their latest EP Good God!, out now.
Following a full range of emotions throughout love – infatuation, yearning, complacency, insecurity, and absolute unwavering faithfulness, the fully gender neutral EP features five tracks and is Romeo’s response to “too many straight love songs in the world.”
“Good God! is a story about queer love and loss,” they say in a press release. “The EP is fully gender neutral. I found that all of the songs I have loved throughout my life are very specifically describing patriarchal straight dynamics, which left me wanting more. There are too many straight love songs in the world; I write so that at least a few don’t fit that mold. Although they are not explicitly visiting queer subjects, Good God! keeps it open for interpretation to your own, unique personal life.”
The EP also includes some of Romeo’s previously-released tracks including “Bet,” a song about going all in on a fractured relationship, and “Absence,” which was written in 2018 while they were struggling to balance their recent bipolar disorder diagnosis and an all-consuming relationship.
As a proud butch member of the nonbinary community, Romeo writes music from the heart and from experience. Storytelling runs deep in their background, as they grew up in theater and began performing at a very young age. Romeo now creates content about their day-to-day life, as well as addressing bigger issues such as discrimination in medicine against LGBTQ people and queer activism.
In addition to Good God!, Instinct caught up with the rising artist to talk more about their experience as a nonbinary butch lesbian in the industry and their hope to empower young queer people to explore their identities and find home within themselves through music.
Check out the full interview below.
Rio Romeo…
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