Oakland Artist AroMa Isn’t Defined By Time
All of AroMa’s art, from the drip to the slap, hinges on a relationship with time.
AroMa’s fashion pairs edginess with antiquity. Their film visuals are simultaneously classic and fresh. And their music combines crying alt-rock guitar riffs and big orchestral strings with R&B soul and introspective lyrics, creating a sound that spans decades.
“On the eve of my 10th birthday,” AroMa says, “I realized that when you go to double-digits, you never go back to single-digits.” The realization made it clear that certain things are finite. “And that terrified me,” AroMa admits.
To combat that anxiety, AroMa began a process of either urgently “chasing time,” or completely running away from the construct, so as to not be “captive to the finite nature of temporal beings.”
On June 26 at Eli’s Mile High Club in Oakland, AroMa will perform music from their latest EP Smitten, as well as pieces from their forthcoming project, on a lineup with the band Spa and the duo closegood at the MASC4MASQUERADE BALL. Presented by Trans Bay and hosted by RAY, AroMa guarantees some refined fashion statements from artists and attendees alike.
But AroMa has no idea what they plan on wearing yet. And that’s part of their stragey.
“I honestly wait to the very last minute to pick a lot of my outfits,” says AroMa, for whom procrastination lights a fire.
“I love the ‘grandma aesthetic’,” they tell me, crediting their Big Mama’s influence. “When I was a kid, I thought she was the coolest person,” says AroMa of their grandmother. “I was meant to be like her; I didn’t know that that meant eventually I also would have a wig collection.”
Along with matching antique hairpieces, big black leather belts and fly feathered garments, the added element to AroMa’s sense of style is time.
Their first full-length project, ZoomBug, “a radically queer musical about race cars and shitty exs,” was written in a bout of anxiety about time passing. When it dropped in 2018, the campy musical became something of a local cult classic.
The film centers a fake band, played by real musicians. Oddly enough, it was that collective that catalyzed AroMa’s music career. “My first-ever live music performance was because somebody asked the ZoomBug band to play a New Year’s Eve show,”AroMa tells me. “We weren’t even a real band.”
That experience opened the door for more productions. AroMa was making music videos for other artists when they began working on another film, Moon Baby. But when the pandemic stalled the production, AroMa fully turned to music.
“I low-key hate releasing music,” says AroMa. “But it needs to be done.”
The songs on their four-track EP Smitten were workshopped for months. Some marinated for years. Leadoff track “Goldmine” was written five years ago, when AroMa and their bandmates first got their studio space in downtown Oakland.
“It felt like, ‘okay, this space, in this moment, is the beginning of a big change,” recalls AroMa. With a desk, a basic sound system and furniture they’d repurposed, the venue allowed the collective to celebrate being chaotic; that sentiment is reflected in the song. “‘Goldmine’,” says AroMa, “was written at the start of something new. A big leap, the beginning of some significant evolution.”
Creating the song “Territory” gave AroMa trouble, as the “character” in the song is an “overzealous, big-voiced, very brash” person trying something for the very first time. AroMa had to sound apprehensive, yet confident. After years of refining the track to show trepidation and also declare that they’re here to “embrace the fucking journey that’s ahead,” says AroMa, the song is all about “allowing yourself to feel, and be affected and be loved.”
Creating the track “Eyes” was about overcoming a different artistic hurdle: having your stuff stolen. Three years ago, thieves didn’t just steal their hard drive from their car — they stole the whole vehicle.
“Although we lost the track,” AroMa laments, “the live version of the song was developed so much by us just playing it over, and over, and over.” That’s the version that appears on the EP.
“Armageddon,” the final track on the project, also had to be re-recorded. Like “Territory,” the song is about trying something new for the first time, but in place of hesitation, “it’s like embracing the consequence in a rapturous way,” says AroMa. With an urgent, bold sound, the song is the EP’s crescendo, sending listeners off into the horizon. AroMa says it’s their way of saying “goodbye, traveler.”
Though there’s an air of “alternative rock soul” throughout Smitten, AroMa’s music is less about genre and more about the “characters” that represent facets of who they were when they wrote the song.
As time passes, the version of AroMa who finishes a song is different from the one who started the creative process. And as they grow, their sound constantly changes (AroMa makes hip-hop music as well). But the way that AroMa tells stories in the music remains consistent.
“I’m not so interested in perfecting a formula, I’m not trying to create a new genre,” says AroMa. “I’ll flow in and out of whatever the fuck feels right.”
AroMa performs at the MASC4MASQUERADE BALL on Friday, June 26, at Eli’s Mile High Club (3629 Martin Luther King Jr. Way, Oakland). Tickets and more information here.
