Roman Candle: Piper Ferrari On First Hardcore Show Welcome, Femme Presence In The Scene, and Upcoming Record!
Photographed by: @danielleriot 2023
Roman Candle is easily one of the most passionate hardcore-screamo bands in the current scene. With a nuanced approach to composition, insanely talented lyricism, and an overall chaotic and chartic feel to experimentalism, the seemingly post hardcore act undeniably participates in the genre. Closing down For The Children Festival this past weekend in Los Angeles, I had the opportunity to speak with Vocalist Piper Ferrari on all things Roman Candle.
I’m really interested in what your first hardcore show experience was like!
Piper: My first hardcore show was this band called Easy Money, and they played at this spot in Vegas that used to be called The Garth. And The Garth was like this super small warehouse that had no ac, and it was grimy as fuck, it was so bad, and my friend Vlad (I didn’t know him at the time but we’re friends now), he was throwing trash cans at people and it was absolute chaos. My friend broke her nose, and I was like I’m going to stick around. It was very like ‘first show experience,’ it was ridiculous. Very memorable– I think about it all the time.
Can you tell us about the current state of Vegas hardcore, how long you’ve been in the scene, and how has it changed since you started getting involved?
Piper: So I started going to shows back in 2017/18ish. It was like my senior year of high school, the scene has grown so much since then. I mean Blackpath Booking in Vegas, they put on all the shows, and I’ve seen them– just every show they do it keeps getting better, and better. They started selling out the two Vfw halls we have. It’s very community-based. It feels very family-oriented. Everyone knows everyone, everyone fucks with everyone. There’s no weird beef or anything like that, everyone gets along, and it’s just great.
What’s the inspiration for Roman Candle, either musical or nonmusical?
Piper: Musically, all of us really fuck with late 90s or early 2000s hardcore and emo music. I mean it’s really obvious in our music but we like Poison The Well, Saetia, and other bands like that.
What drew you to wanting to make hardcore-screamo inspired music specifically?
Piper: Honestly, that’s what I grew up listening to. My uncle he’s only sixteen/seventeen years older than me, and he just put me onto that shit. I remember it was specifically when I got my first iPod, he gave me his whole GooglePlay music account, and dude I got into so much cool music from him. Ironically our guitarist Jonas is also around the same age as my uncle– I was like ‘you grew up listening to that style of music, I grew up listening to that style of music but in a different way,’ and that’s kind of what we bonded over. It was really cool.
How has being the female front to a hardcore band influenced your audience, your sound, and kind of your overall experience in the scene? If you wanted to talk about your experience being a femme-presenting singer.
Piper: For sure. I feel like when we’re on stage it’s cool, it’s the interactions at the merch table and like in my Twitter and Instagram DM’s that are weird, but other than that I feel like we’ve been very well respected by our male peers for sure. I don’t feel like I’ve experienced any misogyny within the scene, it’s always the random ass fools on the outside and online that don’t really go to shows that come to the merch table and talk to me some kind of way that are weird– other than that, I feel like there’s this thing within hardcore, and I’ve seen this my whole life, of people acting like women in hardcore are crazy. So I’ve just embraced that.
That’s entirely apparent in your guys’ music– especially with “Mad Girl’s Love Song.”
Piper: That’s literally the song! Because like I get it, you can’t fuck with this kind of music as a woman without being a little whacky. Even if it’s just a tad. And I think it’s about time that we fucking embrace that.
Considering that, how have you in the past, or do you have any plans for the future, for promoting positive female influence in the scene and in your music? Is that not an agenda on your mind?
Piper: Honestly, and I’m going to be completely transparent. I’m the oldest of five kids, so I’m the oldest of three girls and two boys, and being their role model is hard enough. So to be other people’s role model, when I’m not really, I don’t know, necessarily the best influence? Is kind of a little overwhelming. So I guess going into things with that in mind is something that doesn’t happen, I think it’s just something that happens organically, and it’s something that I’m learning to accept and be comfortable with [...] Being in this position is a very daunting task.
With your music do you have any desire for showcasing the fact that you’re a female singer, doing hardcore?
Piper: Like repping that? I don’t really think about it. I think it’s something that’s so engrained in who I am, like I’m a woman, I was raised by women, so you know, who I am is just a representation of them. I don’t really think much about it… We’re working on our next album, and I love Sylvia Plath, so there’s this song we’re writing (and “Mad Girl’s Love Song” was an ode to Sylvia Plath), and I’m trying to do something like that with every album. I don’t know if you’ve read “Lady Lazarus”– great poem, but there’s a line in it: “I eat men like air,” that I’m probably going to use in this next album. I didn’t do that with intentions of being ‘yeah like I’m going to rep who I am,’ but it is who I am. It’s something that I can’t turn on and off.
In light of female involvement in the scene, from Roman Candle to Scowl and Dying Wish etc., whether that be conducting interviews, participating as an audience member, fronting or playing in a band, or even creating art representative to the nature of the scene, uplifting the insanely talented presence around you and showing respect for the talent regardless of the individual, is a value both expected and rooted in the nature of hardcore (and the music scene in general). Talent is not limited to or signified by identity– Roman Candle’s music speaks for itself.
On the topic of your EP release, Discounted Fireworks, your lyricism is absolutely insane and the lyrics seem to resonate so powerfully with your listeners– what’s the writing process like?
Piper: For lyrics honestly I just write them in my notes app on my phone, sometimes it’s on pen and paper, and I’m just scribbling down… I’ll write down random phrases that I think of in my notes app or on paper or whatever, and I’ll do a bunch of those, so it’s just a bunch of random ideas and then once I have those ideas and we have the instruments behind it, then I start to fully develop a song. Does that make sense? I’ll start off with like one sentence, and then I’ll go from there.
Melding elements of post-hardcore, hardcore, and screamo, the latest release: Discounted Fireworks, encapsulates progression of feelings from phantom romance to weaponized betrayal, to borderline all-consuming rage with the closing track, “Spit In Their Faces.” Finding the perfect balance between bleakness in a poetry-reading manner (comparable to La Dispute, To Be Gentle, or even Saetia), to hopefulness and an overcoming spirit with Ferrari’s gnarly screams, each track filters through the minds of listeners, leaving the disavowed emotional rawness that Roman Candle is known for, ringing in their ears. With just five tracks barring thirteen minutes, waste no time in streaming this album.
What are the upcoming plans for Roman Candle, and are there any goals you want to accomplish with your band in the next year?
Piper: We’re recording our first full-length album in January, which I’m really excited for, and then we’re going on tour with Militarie Gun for two weeks in February and March, and that’s all we have planned for next year.
Any final thoughts, shout outs, advice for people in the scene, or anything to say to your fans and readers?
Piper: Shoutout Vegas. Advice– don’t fuck with the cool guy shit, it sucks. Learn how to fight. Don’t be scared of getting your ass beat. Just be who you are honestly, at the end of the day it’s like being true to yourself is all that matters, and if you’re doing that, you’ll feel great. That’s it, yeah.
Talking with Ferrari, her infectious energy transfers on and off the stage. Whether they’re performing in Vegas or out-of-state, in the front attending local shows or playing sold out festivals, each performance is worth watching, and their authentic reflection of hardcore and screamo values completes the package.
Written by: Allison Payne (@allieepayne)
Published on: 01 January 2024