Dylan: Do you feel like being from the Philippines has influenced your sound much?

Jomm: I'd say there's a lot of songs of mine that're inspired by Filipino songs that my mom has shown me. “Come and Go” specifically is heavily inspired by a song called “Manila” by Hotdog. It's this really goofy disco thing in the Philippines and I love it. A lot of my songwriting stuff, especially when I compare it to indie artists that I like in America, is so overdramatic, so about heartbreak and love and that kind of stuff. Part of it is also my childhood; in the Philippines you don't really grow up with cartoons, you grow up with anime. When I listened to anime intros I noticed the similarities [to his music] so hard. I love the harmonies in JPOP stuff.

Dylan: Do you have a favorite anime soundtrack?

Jomm: “I love the Your Name soundtrack and the “A Silent Voice” soundtrack has inspired a demo that was made last year, which may come out this year.”

Dylan: Off of that - you've been putting some demos out and letting people give feedback on them. How's the reception been on that? Have people been supportive?

Jomm: I put out a demo called “Bossa at the Aquarium.” I had basic lyrics for it, it was basically done, and then one day I listened to it and was just like; “I hate this song.” I generally know how the audience reacts, because when I put out the snippet for “Bossa At the Aquarium,” people were like “I'm so glad you're working on something again.” rather than “This is good.” As opposed to the new demo I posted, which is the demo I'm really excited about right now, people were so hyped for it. People were commenting that it sounded really great, and I got excited to work on music again.

Dylan: You started off in 2021, how do you feel like your sound has evolved since?

Jomm: I'm not gonna lie - Jomm was never supposed to be my big thing. I had a totally different perception of it when I started it. It was supposed to be like Gorillaz where I would work with a new singer and different writers I knew. After I put out the first one, I had a different singer sing my second single “Misled,” and I just didn't like the way it sounded, so I stuck with the same one. And then I kept going, because I thought “It's weird if you have the same singer for the first two songs, and then you switch on the third one.” I don't look at [my earlier material] with a lot of pride. I think it’s both liberating and frustrating when you don’t have an audience. When you don’t have an audience, you just do whatever, like “Hey I’ll just put a synth solo at the end cos it feels good”. But it also feels like garbage because, it feels like you’re screaming out into the void, and I do think that an artist can’t exist without an audience. 

Dylan: All of the Jomm songs are in collaboration with your vocalist readyaimfire27. How did you guys meet?

Jomm: “It’s really simple. I cold-contacted around 50 people on Instagram to collaborate on music and then I stumbled across  “readyaimfire27”’s IG page and really loved her Soundcloud material. We don’t talk much but I want to get to know her more. I really love her music as well, it’s really complementary to my material. My music is very upbeat and overly dramatic and insecure, while her music is very introspective and poetic.”

Dylan: I noticed a big change in your sound when “Melody on Replay” came out? What do you attribute that shift to?

Jomm: I took a 5 month break from music. I put out “Maui", and it got such a poor reception; I submitted it to articles, nobody took it. I was so down that I didn't know if I wanted to release music anymore. “Melody on Replay” was my last hurrah to make something really exciting, and it got actual attention, which kept me going. 

Dylan: Can you talk about any similarities between songs? I always get similar vibes from “Radio Silent” and “Play Pretend”

Jomm: I get that comment a lot. I love those two songs. I see the similarities but that’s mostly because they stem from the same set of demos. I will always defend that the two songs are very different, at least to me. “Radio Silent” is incredibly heartbreaking. It’s the only song I’ve written that’s based on myself rather than something fictional.  “Play Pretend” is more fictionalized and is me writing a really insecure character.

Dylan: What're some big inspirations to your sound?

Jomm: A major inspiration to my sound is video game music. When I was a kid I loved MarioKart Wii, and Super Mario Galaxy 1 and 2. I love those soundtracks. I love the orchestration and the melodies . “Melody on Replay" was originally made as a video game track with 8-bit instrumentals. 

Dylan: Do you have any collaborations on the horizon? What’s your dream collaboration?

Jomm: I really wanna produce a track for my friend Buboy. He was the guy who played guitar on “Play Pretend.” Love his stuff. I want to do something [with him]. I have the demos for my next big single, I just need to finish it. This one has to be the biggest thing I've ever worked on. It could be the most self-indulgent as well. There's parts where I do a synth solo because it's fun to do it, and I'm just trying to ignore the audience as much as possible. I feel like my lyrics tend to border on insecurity because I’m really scared of being seen negatively by an audience, but for these songs, I really wanna forget about the audience and write lyrics that feels like me, both the beautiful, the heartbreaking, and the ugly.

Dylan: Why do you maintain such a mystique around yourself? All your covers are photos of you as a kid, but you haven't shown any recent photos of yourself at all, are you ever planning to shed the mystery around your image?

Jomm: Ok, big reason I do it - I don't like people seeing my face. I'm a little insecure about it. A big part of it is like, damn, I'm photogenic as a kid. Also, it's a fun brand image. I like using it for the covers, I have a lot of photos because my mom took a lot when I was a kid, I don't think I'll ever run out. [For] The new single I'm half considering using a recent photo. I'm really excited about it. I haven't promoted it at all because it's not done. It's gonna be a double single. I really love it. One is a more traditional Jomm song, and the other is a demo I've had for a while. I love how both of them capture the fun and energetic side of [Jomm] and also the more melancholic side. 

Dylan: Is there ever gonna be a Jomm EP?

Jomm: There was this long break between “Loving you From a Distance” and “Lonely Valentine”, and that's because I was working on a 5 song EP. I called it the Digital Hearts EP. It was gonna be hard EDM with a mix of everything else I was working on; with a really digital sound. I kinda wish I went through with it, now it's gone because my external hide drive just died. So that's like 3 years of demos gone. But that one was really heartbreaking. I think it would've done well today with so many artists going into the EDM sound. 

Dylan: What're your long term goals? 

Jomm: I'd love to do music. It's most likely going to be a side thing just because of how difficult it is to grow as an artist, and it's always unexpected. That makes me nervous about it, I need to have a stable thing. But I'd love to keep doing it through college. Part of me doesn’t want to be that 35 year old guy who’s like “Look at this new music I worked on guys,” at the office, but part of me would love to be that guy.

Dylan: What's a piece of advice you'd give to new artists?

Jomm: Some of my fondest memories of making music, is when I had no listeners. Those late nights spent writing a new ridiculous section, knowing that there was no audience to disappoint. So I think it’s really important to cherish the process. However, a more practical piece of advice for newer musicians, is to listen to music and I mean really listen. Really think about why you like that section, what about the chords make you feel like flying, what about those drums make you wanna dance. I think my music improved tenfold when I started making moodboards of music and really writing down what I liked in those songs.