Introducing: The Keymakers

Brothers Rome and Red are electro/pop and RNB outfit The Keymakers. New single Suffer is a masterclass in fusing 80s electronica, cutting edge RNB, and pure pop. We chatted with the brothers about the song, their influences, and much more.

Could you tell us a bit about The Keymakers?

We are The Keymakers – a duo music project from brothers Rome and Red. We’re two brothers trying to make music that moves people.  If we had to describe ourselves and our music in one word – it might be “unique”. We’re massive fans of music and always have been, and we’re out to try and impact others through music the way that we’ve been impacted.

We’re from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and now live together in Los Angeles. We started together in music by writing and producing songs for other people, but in 2017 decided we wanted to give our own artistry a try, which was when The Keymakers were born. We put out our first release, Good for You in September of that year, and have been growing and cultivating our sound ever since, learning a ton along the way.

What motivates you and inspires your music and aesthetics?

We’ve always been inspired by the idea that music can transport you. The fact that the right song can take your mind to a new ‘world’ that the song itself creates. It’s a beautiful idea that played a part in both of our interests to create our own music. If our music can be that for someone else in the world, an escape, a way to transport their mind, then we’ve done our job. Along with that idea, is part of where we got our name.

We grew up huge fans of The Matrix series, in the world of The Matrix, there is a character (a program) called The Keymaker. He had a ring of keys and depending on who used the key, the key they used, and the door they used it on, they could be instantly transported to somewhere far from where they started. I think we really attached ourselves to that idea and, through what we were trying to do with our tunes, wanted to become Keymakers ourselves. Artists who gave folks a way to take their mind somewhere else, to be transported to a new world.

Aesthetically, we’ve used this idea to create ‘worlds’ that correlate to each song. We listen to the tunes and ask ourselves, what colors do we see, where do we go in our minds, how do we feel there? And those things help us build the world of the song.

Who or what would you say has had the most influence on your sound? I can hear Depeche Mode at times, but also commonalities with rock, R&B, and The Weeknd too.

That’s actually not the first time we’ve gotten Depeche Mode, which is pretty cool! I think our influences are a big part of what makes us refreshing to some of our listeners. Growing up, our parents were BIG music fans, so just riding in the back seat of the car we were getting exposed to all sorts of funk, soul, R&B, Motown, and jazz tunes.

Our Mom always loved a wide range of genres which showed us how vast the world of music is, while our Dad knew a seemingly endless supply of the deep cuts that showed us the power rhythm and groove can have on a tune.

Moving from there, Rome spent some time playing in jazz bands (which is where he started developing the sax skills we often use) and Red dabbled with guitar and drums in a garage band. As Rome started to get more into composing and writing his own music he dove into neo-soul and R&B influences like Ne-Yo, Musiq Soulchild, and Stevie Wonder. On the other side of things, Red moved into DJing and electronic production, and learned from influences like Deadmau5, Skrillex, and Porter Robinson.

While those artists helped us stay influenced while we were younger, the biggest way to continue to stay inspired is to continue to always listen to music. More recently, we’ve been loving more melodic electronic musicians like Ben Bohmer and Rufus Du Sol. While less of a direct influence on our sound, we are both big fans of Alt-J. There is a lot to learn from so many artists out there, our goal is to keep pushing forward, discovering new sounds, and continuing to develop our own along the way.

Do you have specific roles when it comes to writing songs?

That’s actually been a really interesting aspect of our creation process. When we started making tunes, while Rome was in Boston and Red was still in college in Indiana, our process was pretty regimented. Usually, Rome would write a song with only piano backing, send it over to Red who would produce around the acapella, using the piano as a sort of template.

Alternatively, Red would work on an instrumental beat and send that to Rome who would write lyrics over top. As we’ve been living and working together for a few years now, our process has evolved quite a bit. There’s a lot more projects that we start sitting side by side in the studio, one of us has an idea that the other attaches to and it sort of just catches fire. There are still times when one of us will develop an idea to show the other, but the lines between whose specialty is ‘producer, writer, composer’ are almost entirely gone. Our studio process is now more of a creative amoeba than a structured journey.

Does being brothers influence how you create music?

Definitely. We’ve been really close since we were very young. Obviously, we got into fights growing up – and we still get into some fights, but at the end of the day we have a similar way of thinking. On top of that, the music we grew up listening to has a lot of overlap, so our ears are pretty similar. The chemistry we have as brothers and friends can make the process of producing and creating music a lot easier; there’s not as much tension as there might be otherwise. Even when we disagree, we can normally find a way to get on the same page.

Another thing that being brothers impacts is the way we perform. People always talk to us about our chemistry on stage, and I think we’ve really leaned into that. We take our music seriously, but we’re also here to have fun – and whether it’s on stage or in the studio, we just have a lot of fun together.

What song by another artist is guaranteed to get you up and dancing or singing along?

For both of us? Probably Tunnel by Polo & Pan. And for something a little bit different – The Look by Metronomy

What bands or songs do you think we should be checking out right now?

Tonoso is a duo we met out here in LA that makes criminally underrated and cool music. Everything from Gidge is great, but especially their album New Light. Would also highly recommend Men I Trust and their album Untourable Album. We actually have a playlist we try to update regularly with what we’re listening to, called songs we dig which you can find over on Spotify.

If you could collaborate with anyone, who would it be?

Probably Rüfüs Du Sol – they’ve always been one of our favorite bands and we love the way they make music. It’d be incredibly fun to be in the studio with them and see what we could come up with together.

Was there a specific theme behind the lyrics of Suffer?

Overall, it’s a song about love and pain, and how they can go hand in hand at times. Suffer tackles the idea of why we stay in relationships that aren’t good for us. It’s basically about someone having a hold on you that you can’t break free from.

We wanted to dive deeply into that message and really tell it from the perspective of someone ‘captured’ in a bad love they can’t escape. One of the repeated lines through the song ‘Why you wanna break my heart’ is one of our favorites because it almost directly asks; why do people sometimes get this pleasure from hurting the one they love. Suffer is definitely a darker track that has a sort of sexiness to it that makes the love vs pain relationship come across even stronger.

What’s up next for The Keymakers after the release of Suffer in terms of new music, videos…?

We have a lot in store for this year as a whole! Suffer was the first domino to fall from a whole heap of releases we’re planning. We followed up the Suffer release with an official video, directed and edited by us.

As we mentioned earlier, a big part of our creative journey is the ‘world’ you can build for or within a song. We felt like we could really dive in that world and turn it from a sound space exclusively to a full visual package.

We took all of 2022 off from releasing music to really tuck into the studio, get hands on with some new equipment, and dig in creatively. We were able to finish up a bunch of new tunes and already have a few slated for release as we head into the springtime. This will be our first full year that we’re taking on music as a full-time gig so we’re hitting the ground running as best as we can.

You can discover more about The Keymakers on over Facebook and Instagram as well as their TikTok channel. Suffer can also be streamed or downloaded on Apple Music and Amazon Music – click here for further listening options.