is the New Music Monday highlight!\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nDrama Queen is a new wave\/new romantic band from Salt Spring Island who, ironically, have released their debut album called <\/span>the Death of a Romantic<\/span><\/i>.<\/span><\/p>\nThe band is comprised of Knick Tomlinson and Pierre Vincent Forgues on synthesizers, Harley Dunn on bass and Ben Frey on drums.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nTomlinson says that he and Forgues used to play in a \u201cpsych-swing\u201d band called Superfeather, in which all members played acoustic instruments. When that band dismembered, Tomlinson sought a new sound and began writing.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n\u201cI was losing interest in that genre,\u201d Tomlinson told Victoria Buzz.<\/span><\/p>\n\u201cIt was really fun, but didn\u2019t really have the emotional weight that I was needing in music at the time, so we stopped that and I started writing on the synthesizer.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\nHe noted that it took him around three years to transition his writing effectively to the new medium.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nOnce he had a full set\u2019s worth of material, he brought together the rest of the band\u2019s members and Drama Queen was formed in 2023.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nWhile writing, Tomlinson says that he tried his best to avoid creating a \u201ccheesy\u201d 80s synth-centric sound.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n\u201cI was always very almost against anything coming from the 80s,\u201d he laughed. \u201cIt is all just cocaine fuelled, all choruses and it\u2019s just a shallow part of music history.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\nHowever, after going through a few phases of trying some different things, Tomlinson says he just decided to \u201chit the 80s super hard,\u201d but in his own way, and trying to focus more on some hidden gems of the decade he swore he wouldn\u2019t lean into.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n\u201cThe band and the album doesn\u2019t really have any really obvious influences,\u201d he continued. \u201cI really don\u2019t like whole albums of the genre, but I do like the intention of the genre.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\nHe says that after they released their debut record, <\/span>the Death of a Romantic,<\/span><\/i> he found it funny that the genre they landed in is an offshoot of new wave called new romantic.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nTomlinson says that their debut record is a concept album, which covers themes of romanticizing life, rather than seeing realities.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n\u201cConceptually, what the album is about is a big transition in my life where I was really a driving force and nothing could really attach to me or bring me down\u2014I was just pushing through life,\u201d explained Tomlinson.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n\u201cI was majorly living in a fantasy world, and not really attached to reality and was hugely romanticizing life decisions.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\nHe added that the album is about the last few years of his life in which he has been taking steps to \u201cre-ground\u201d himself, and rebuilding his life after everything seemed to have been stripped away.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n\u201cIt was a really difficult process, but I\u2019m a lot more realistic now,\u201d he continued. \u201cIts just about a huge life transition.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\nTomlinson says that the title track of the song best exemplifies these themes of transition and looking at life through a new lens.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nListen to \u201cthe Death of a Romantic\u201d below:<\/span><\/p>\n