On Romi Wrights, Who Does The Work

Selected Works is a weekly (usually) newsletter by the Te Whanganui-a-Tara, Aotearoa (Wellington, New Zealand) based freelance music journalist, broadcaster, copywriter and sometimes DJ Martyn Pepperell, aka Yours Truly. Most weeks, Selected Works consists of a recap of what I’ve been doing lately, along with some of what I’ve been listening to and reading, paired with film photographs I’ve taken, plus some bonuses. All of that said, sometimes it takes completely different forms.

In my latest for Rolling Stone, I profiled Lisa Wright aka Romi Wrights. Her debut album Andy is out now via Mānuka Recordings.

Five years ago, Lisa Wright, the big-voiced singer-songwriter better known as Romi Wrights, packed up her life in Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland and moved her young family home to Upper Hutt, 26 km north-east of Te Whanganui-a-Tara Wellington. She began studying carpentry at a community polytechnic in nearby Porirua to help renovate her parents’ home and took a job as a cleaner at an early childcare centre.

“That was one of the most depressing points in my life,” she admits on a phone call. Having previously run a vibrant multi-purpose studio called After Ours, being back in Upper Hutt was jarring. “I’d come off the high of running this space and being surrounded by a community, but I was broke and really struggling,” she continues.

While she was working in the evenings, Wright would often listen to the Tāmaki Makaurau student radio station 95bFM online. “One night, I was mopping the floor and my song ‘Bring It Back’ came on,” she recalls. As the song’s retro orchestral soul sound poured through the speakers, something locked into place. “I remember tearing up and thinking it was a sign that this wasn’t the end,” she says with a warm tone. “It was like the universe was reminding me things were going to be alright.”

Read the full article here.