Rio Romeo: Such Sweet Sorrow
⤏ PHOTOS BY KARA VORABUTR
⤏ PROPS COURTESY OF RIO ROMEO
What’s your sign?
I’m a Capricorn sun, Scorpio rising, and a Leo moon.
Where do you live?
I grew up here in LA, I moved away to Chicago when I was 18 and I lived there until I was 21. Then I came back [to Los Angeles] in March.
Would you go back to Chicago?
Oh fuck no! I think Chicago is a fantastic city to visit, but not to live in, for me personally.
So, what is your scar story?
I’d been skateboarding and I had this board where the trucks were really loose, and I said I’d get around to fixing it, but I never got around to it. So the trucks were loose, I was skating really fast and I got the speed wobbles. There was no saving myself. I was head-first into the concrete. I was out for literally five minutes, until these three bad-bitch chicks found me and got my partner, t, who took me home and stitched up my head on our living room floor.
What’s your experience with social media?
I just talk about my life and what I’m going through and what’s happening with me, I don’t really participate in trends. I’ll just post health updates, music updates, relationship updates, stuff about my cats, how to propagate plants — very much if you were my friend. It’s just like a diary. Sometimes we teach baby gays about how to cut their hair, shave your face, how to do “masculine” makeup, general flirting advice. And I get a lot of feedback from it. People will tell me that just by living my life in my they/them, masculine lesbian form is very inspirational to them as young queer people, just so they can see I’m a normal person with three cats, in an apartment that I love, with a partner that I love, and I’m doing okay. I’m queer and I’m okay. So my relationship with social media is that it acts like a journal for myself and for everybody I guess.
“People will tell me that just by living my life in my they/them, masculine lesbian form is very inspirational to them as young queer people"
Do you have pets?
We have Roach and Fucker — those are our two little kittens. They’re our little babies, and then my outdoor cat is Phyllis. She was an indoor cat that I brought with me from Chicago, but she pissed on everything in the house for months so now she’s an outside cat.
Did you always want to be a musician?
The goal was never to be a musician. I always wanted to be an artist, or an entertainer, or someone in that field. I always thought I’d be a painter. I’ve been painting my entire life and I’ve very seriously studied fine art. But I started posting these funny little peepee poopoo songs on Tiktok and everybody was like, “do this as a career!” So I released a couple songs and now here’s a career!
Where did “Romeo” come from?
I’m an escaped theatre kid and it’s just a play on that. I chose a different last name because I don’t really have a connection with my family anymore.
Who’s your dream collaborator?
Sir Chloe! She’s just a good angry screamer and she’s so powerful.
What is your relationship to picture framing?
I’ve been involved in the picture framing industry my entire life. I did work in a picture framing shop as a kid, and when I grew up I got a job at a picture framing shop in Chicago. I worked there for two years, and when I came back here I worked in a picture framing shop.
Anything fascinating that we should know about that industry? There’s nothing that’s gonna blow your mind about picture framing! Well, there’s eight different kinds of glass that you can use for a picture frame. There’s like a huge secret about how they make anti-reflective glass, like, nobody knows how it’s done.
What made you choose piano?
I’ve messed around on the piano for most of my life, like there was always a keyboard at home, and I tried to learn it a whole bunch of times and just gave up every time. Then I started playing piano a lot in school when I was 18, so while I was waiting for my friends to get out of rehearsal I would play piano in the practice rooms. So I was just bored waiting for my friends, but hen I got really invested in it and passionate about it when I got my own piano in July.
Do you have post-pandemic plans?
I’m probably gonna go on tour! I don’t know, I’m starting to get a lot of people starting to ask me, “When are you gonna go on tour,” and I say “fuckin’ Christ I don’t know!” But that’s probably what’s going to happen. It’s wild because I’ve never played a live show before.