Today we’d like to introduce you to Roman Svengali.
Hi Roman, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
My introduction to music began at about age 7 when I started playing the piano. I had a tiny kid’s-first-keyboard that my mom had gifted me. I didn’t come from any kind of true musical background at all, but one day, to my mom’s surprise, I was just playing a tune on this keyboard and that lead me to play in the band at church.
Some years go by and I get into rapping and songwriting, which was completely independent from my piano playing. I would listen to various artists and just try to imitate that. It started off as a hobby until maybe 2 years later when I pick it back up and actually start recording myself to YouTube beats on my phone.
Since 2017, I’ve been writing and releasing songs under the stage name Roman The Writer onto several streaming sites. And throughout the years, I’ve become much more of a producer and composer for my own music. It wasn’t until 2025 when I released my third album THE MUSICIAN OF SPACE pt. i: YVES KLEIN. where every single song on the LP was a beat that I had made myself, and since then every song I put out is a solitary production of me, Google Docs, and Logic Pro.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Being a young artist is a bit synonymous with organic growth. The more I make music, the better I become, just like with many things in life.
However, I think something that still proves itself quite difficult is getting myself and my sound out there. Endeavoring to have people I essentially don’t know tune into my art and become fans and support me is NOT easy for me.
Fortunately, I’ve found that the meeting and connecting with local musicians is accompanied by community and support. And it’s not necessarily this ego-driven attempt to “be the biggest fish in this very enormous pond”, but as an artist, there isn’t really much progression without an audience. I see the networking aspect as not only the beginning of an audience, but the beginning of many friendships as well.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
I label myself as “an alternative hip hop musician”, which for me basically means “I’m a rapper that writes songs atop some frequently unusual instrumentals that I produce.”
There have been many times where I perform a song at an open mic and I’ve received compliments on the beat for how cool it sounds or wild it gets. I’ve also received compliments on the lyrical content and how certain lines stand out to some people. Things like that are pretty assuring, especially any appreciation towards my lyricism. I tend to be extremely humble and shy about my art, but not when it comes to my lyrics.
“The Writer” just comes from how even at the very beginning, I’ve always been very proud of and impressed with myself for the raps that I come up with. I think the best way to describe my raps is idiosyncratic. I always said that I’m not scared of AI replacing me because I truly come up with some niche and nerdy bars that a computer could never even begin to generate.
What does success mean to you?
Generally, I believe that success is measured by how well what you do can bring you what you want.
Let’s say you’re a model, and you do this photoshoot and you post it onto the internet. You do this countless times, which builds an amateur portfolio and aesthetic for yourself. Then one day you get scouted by and signed to a modeling agency, which then boosts your career and gets you into more professional spaces. This takes a good amount of your time and sort of takes over your life, but you love it. It’s lucrative, it’s a little challenging at times, but it’s fun and it’s your passion. I believe that that’s a successful model.
I’m not a model, so I’m just sort of using my imagination to provide an example.
But speaking from a musician’s perspective, if your music is paying the bills, you’re getting booked for shows, people are listening to your music, people know your name, etc., that’s a pretty baseline vision of musical success.
Anything lucrative is successful to me.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.romanthewriter.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/themusicianofspace?igsh=a3B5b2Uyazc5NDZu
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/share/17h75Qn5xh/
- Twitter: https://x.com/RomanTheWriter1
- Youtube: https://youtube.com/@romanthewriter?si=j8aG8boBoyLLSopk
- Soundcloud: https://on.soundcloud.com/CnIaBo9kEtKYbm7qK3
