Debora Iyall and the Story Behind Romeo Void
The Rise and Fall of a New Wave Diva and Absurdist Afterthought
Debora Iyall, now 55, never really planned for it to happen. She became the lead singer of a band called Romeo Void, and it wasn’t until 1983, when she heard herself on American Top 40, that she realized she had something. Their hit A Girl in Trouble (Is a Temporary Thing) made it all the way up to number 35 on the Radio and Records chart.
“[Casey Kasem] announced it and it was like Woooow!....” Iyall said in an exclusive 2003 phone interview from her home near Joshua Tree National Park in California. “We were totally excited. We thought, 'Oh good! Now people will come to our show.'”
How Romeo Void was Created
Iyall met her fellow band mates at the San Francisco Art Institute where her original plan was to become an artist. She had been working on a piece that needed some musical background so she enlisted the help of a student named Frank Zincavage, who happened to have a bass and a drum machine. Here she also met Peter Woods and Jay Derrah, who had formed a tongue-in-cheek ’60s revival band called The Mummers and the Poppers. She became their lead singer.
Later, when they needed a new band name, inspiration came from a San Francisco magazine with the headline Why Single Women Can’t Get Laid in SF. The band had already decided that the name would not begin with “the” and had sought inspiration with the help of two lists of random words and an Anaïs Nin book. The magazine title made Romeo Void seem like the obvious choice.
Her influences include Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix and early Fleetwood Mac. A lot of her inspiration also comes from her non-conformist philosophy which can be summed up by an inscription inside a CD cover describing their music as “absurdist afterthought.”
“If you buy the product or if you look like this or if you go on the weight loss program," she said. "You become part of the industry of self absorption... That’s all social control... That’s just a way to try and get money out of your wallet.”
Debora Iyall on Rebellion and Isolation
Punk rock acts as an outlet for her rebellion. If you tell her you don’t like what she's signing, her typical reaction might well be, “Okay, I’m going to sing just a little bit louder. You don’t want to hear uncomfortable feelings. Well let me say this uncomfortable thing.”
Iyall grew up in Fresno with her share of struggles. Her parents divorced at an early age and today she looks back at her childhood and recognizes that she missed out on something. She just didn’t realize it at the time.
“As a kid, it was just the way we lived,” she said. “We didn’t live with Dad. We lived with Mom, so it wasn’t like as if we didn’t have anybody.”
In the midst of her success, there were also problems. Iyall said that she experimented with drugs and alcohol back then.
“You're communicating with this huge crowd and then you go back to your hotel room and you’re by yourself.”
What Have They Been up to Recently?
Romeo Void has yet to completely fade away. In 2002, Never Say Never was featured on the Grand Theft Auto, Vice City soundtrack, and in 2004 they appeared on VH1's Bands Reunited. While Iyall does get some royalties from her past life, it’s not a reliable source of income.
In recent years, she’s been a Cultural Arts Educator at the American Indian Charter School in Oakland. She contributed as a visiting artist at Norfolk University in Burlington, Vt. As a Native American, from the Cowlitz tribe, her work has taken her to elementary schools where she talks to children about aboriginal art. She is also a freelance artist specializing in erotica. You can find out what Romeo Void is up to today by visiting them on Facebook and MySpace.
Not long after our 2003 conversation, she held an exhibition of her own artwork. Emails reminded fans and friends about the exhibition mentioned that small and large collectible posters of her art were available for purchase. If that wasn't enough to convince you, the message also included the hook phrase, “I'm experiencing a real need for income right now.”
Sources:
Personal Interview with Debora Iyall in March 2003
Romeo Void's official Facebook and MySpace Pages
Electric Guitar Volume Knob
|
What do you think about this article?
Latest Articles