Nearing the end of a very successful year, DeathbyRomy has released her sophomore studio album TEENAGE FEVER DREAM. From opening for Limp BIzkit, to her own headline European dates, to playing Warped Tour and Riot Fest, commanding stages across pop, metal, and rock. Distorted textures and gritty electronics blend with euphoric pop hooks that feel nostalgic but also fresh. TEENAGE FEVER DREAM serves as a love letter to DeathbyRomy’s younger self. She reflects on her younger self and explores themes of girlhood, body autonomy, mental health, and feminine vulnerability. We talked with her about her writing process for the album, fashion influences, and her refusal to be placed in a box.

Hit Parader: How has your year been so far?

DeathByRomy: My year has been a really scary non-stop rollercoaster. So many high highs and low lows. Filled with so much introspection, self-inflicted torture and regimens, and many glamorous moments full of childlike wonder. It’s honestly been a very ‘what the fuck’ year. It’s been a year I could not have gotten through without the help of my friends. 

HP: This summer you opened for Limp Bizkit during their European tour. That is so cool, I’d love for you to tell me a bit more about it!

DBR: The Limp Bizkit shows were great. Biggest live platform I’ve ever been given, and the whole band was so incredibly kind and really esteemed, boasting of my performance and artistry. They also had some of the most vibrant and incredibly passionate fans I’ve ever seen. I was very honored to share their stage. 

HP: Alexander McQueen has been a lifelong inspiration for you. During an interview from the HOLLYWOOD FOREVER era, you cited McQueen and Harajuku fashion as inspirations for the visual world. Do these inspirations stay the same for TEENAGE FEVER DREAM’s worldbuilding, and is there anything new you pulled from?

DBR: Teenage Fever Dream was intentionally curated and not all at once. I returned to dress-up and messiness and girliness more than I have in years, and it felt so good. It’s what an album set in my teenage brain needed and deserved. The influences were much less editorial and much more imaginative and rule-less. 

HP: I was listening to the album, and although your music is in the vein of alternative and rock, I was hearing a lot of 2014 pop in some of the hooks that I wasn’t expecting. Almost like a “Pure Heroine” Lorde vibe or Ellie Goulding. What were the pop influences for this record?

DBR: Some of the influences for this album were directly pulled from the music I loved as a teenager, and the newer music I’ve found that makes me feel the most fun and playful today. From Rihanna to the knife….bass victim to MIA. The influences were very broad and not so specific to genre more so time and evocation. 

HP: There’s a lot of stylistic range on this record, from metal and industrial influences to pop, EDM, and hip-hop. What was the creative process like bringing all those different sounds together, and how did you make sure the album still felt cohesive?

DBR: I’ll be so honest in that very little attention or intention went into making this album cohesive whatsoever other than that the stories I was telling and the window of time they all came from. I feel so blessed to say that my team of collaborators are so fucking locked in to what DeathbyRomy is that we all know how to make a DeathbyRomy record and it’s almost like this connection to an unspoken source that allows what that is to bend and form so freely. My influences have really always stayed the same though. That helps. I knew what I wanted to say and I allowed the songs to write themselves. 

HP: There’s sometimes resistance from metalcore and post-hardcore fans when artists experiment outside the boundaries of their genre, especially when heavier music intersects with pop. As someone who pulls from so many different sounds, how do you approach those expectations, and do you feel any responsibility to challenge them?

DBR: I feel no responsibility to fit into any box or expectation ever. I’m not a metalcore or hardcore artist. Never have been and never will be. It’d be very disingenuous of me to brand myself as such. However I am constantly so incredibly honored and simultaneously baffled at how welcomed and accepted and championed I’ve been by these scenes. I think it speaks to the fact that we’re all human and we don’t all just like one thing. I’m the softest artist on any metal fest I’ve ever been on. I don’t try to be anything else. I believe people respect and resonate with my music so much because it’s honest and passionate. I like to think they can feel that. Also – I did start making 36 mafia influenced rap, to then releasing a mostly pop first ever project that first put me on the map. 

HP: This album shows a softer side to your music that fans maybe haven’t seen before. And although this album just came out, do you see yourself continuing to explore this sonic landscape, or are you already feeling pulled toward something different?

DBR: I’m just gonna keep living and writing about my experiences and however I feel that day. I’ve been a lot angrier lately, and with good reason, so I don’t know what that will sound like…but we’ll see.

HP: You’ve released songs with Wargasm, Princess Nokia, and Palaye Royale. Who’s still on your dream collaboration list, and what would you want to explore with them creatively?

DBR: I’d like to work with NIN, Halsey, and Brutalismus 3000. I’d like to work with my little sister soon too. 

HP: Favorite album of 2026?

DBR: 30 Self Inflicted Gun Shot Wounds to the Head, bodyimage 

Listen to TEENAGE FEVER DREAM, out now.