Currently available on music platforms (Apple Music, YouTube and Vevo) is the newest single “Keep Me In Mind” from actor Rome Flynn, best known for his role as Gabriel Maddowx on ABC’s “How To Get Away With Murder.” The video and track are Rome’s first offering from his upcoming solo debut EP, to be released later this year.
“Keep Me In Mind” was written by Rome Flynn and produced by Ye Ali (Chris Brown, Joyner Lucas), Bizness Boi (PartyNextDoor, Jessie Reyez, Wale), Fortune & Keyanos.
Flynn’s mark on the small earned him an Emmy Award for his performance in the CBS’s daytime drama “The Bold and the Beautiful.” That led to roles in both Tyler Perry’s TV series “The Haves and the Have Nots” and his film “Madea’s Family Funeral.”
Blackfilm.com had the opportunity to catch up with Flynn to go over his song and his time on ‘Murder’ as the series is coming to a close after six seasons.
Was the single always ready to be released around this time period?
Rome Flynn: No. I actually had another song that I was going to put out before the pandemic came about. It was a song called “Wave.” I put out a snippet of it out the end of last year, and then people hit me up to release the song. But then the pandemic happened and it’s just one of those songs that’s best heard when you’re around people. It’s a fun record. Then I changed my mind and put out “Keep Me In Mind,” which is more of a record you can listen to on your own and isolate your thoughts on.
Is the full album out or just the single?
Rome Flynn: I just have the single right now and I’m working on my EP right now and trying to figure out the strategy on how I want to put it out.
Why the single first and not the whole album?
Rome Flynn: I think had I just been doing music and not had this career in acting, I would have done that route. I just I want to make sure that I get people accustomed and let the song grow onto people as an artist as opposed to just putting a body of work out for people to may or may not listen to. I think what “Keep Me In Mind” has done really is just set me apart and get my own sound. And just being able to give people the opportunity to just focus on that record for now and how I sound in my message for that song. So that when I do put out a more fuller body of work, people can get behind it and they won’t feel like I’m forcing something on them.
How’s the music industry at this point? There are no concerts because no one’s going anywhere. So how are musicians like yourself able to promote songs or an album?
Rome Flynn: Artists make money off of concerts. It’s very rare that an artist can make money off of streams. Because there’s just not a lot of money in streams right now. There’s so many different platforms where people can get the music for free, basically. So yeah, I think it’s been difficult because the live aspect of it is something that you can’t really replicate. It’s just that live experience to connect with your fans is something that you can’t really get around. This has been difficult because I would have liked to do live performances and stuff like that and which I was already planning on doing before everything got locked down. But people are still working and trying to push their music and trying to hustle to be an artist. You’re a contractor. You don’t really have a salary pay. You just got to go out there and hustle and try to be as true to yourself as you can.
With How to Get Away with Murder, how bittersweet is it for you to know that in these few weeks, more folks got to see the show and get to know who you are before you venture off to the music industry for now?
Rome Flynn: As a relates to the show, it is bittersweet. I’m going to miss playing the character and miss people being invested into the show. And just trying to think outside the box with doing the show and doing this character. I’m excited to do it again on a different show or whatever that is going to be for me. I’m ready for people to see the ending of it and potentially, hopefully they’ll be happy. As it relates to music, interesting enough, just those two projects do bleed over a little bit, but they’re really two separate audiences for me. A lot of times, people know me from different stuff. It’s no different from music. I purposely let How to Get Away with Murder do its own thing. And then I push my music in a different way. So it’s just like a different part of me. I feel if people are following me or fans of what I do, they’re fans of everything that I’ve done.
Did you know where your character was going to go from day one? Or were you surprised from episode to episode?
Rome Flynn: Yeah, it was a surprise. I didn’t know. That’s the theme of the show. If you talk to the other actors, we never really know what was going to happen until we got the script, which was fun, and surprising. It kept it engaging, but sometimes it drove me a little mad that you didn’t know why you were saying things that you were saying. It seems more we didn’t know what was going to happen as a result of the things you were saying or, a lot of times for actors in particular. I’d like to know reasons why I’m doing things. And so it was difficult in that sense, but it was still fun. It was it was exciting.
Will Gabriel and Frank have a brother to brother moment?
Rome Flynn: I hope so. I can’t remember honestly, because I haven’t seen this episode yet. I want to see it with everyone else.
You’re one of the few black actors to win an Emmy Award from a soap opera series. Did you get more attention from the win?
Rome Flynn: Winning the award was an important feat for me personally. The route that I took in order to do the things that I end up doing which were scenes that I wrote; and scenes that I had brought to CBS about doing and then I just went through a crazy, really tough road to even be able to have those scenes air and then when they aired, I submitted them and then I ended up winning. It meant more to me internally than anything else that it came down for me, and especially to be to be black and Latino. The last time that a black person won that award in that category was over 20 years ago. It just meant a lot. And as far as career wise, I really didn’t get to see what the benefits of that would have been. Because once I won the award, I was already on the show with Tyler Perry, and then How to Get Away with Murder was around the corner. I ended up winning the award after I had already joined the show. So, the phone wasn’t ringing off the hook. I was already involved in some things. Honestly, I’m not really sure.
Going back to your music, how did you end up with the producers you have and did they give you advice?
Rome Flynn: No. Typically, producers will give the the singer a package with the instrumentals and sounds and stuff in it. They leave it up to you to do whatever it is you want to do with it. With this particular song, “Keep me in mind,” I work with a couple of different producers. This producer named Business Boi, who did a lot of the partynextdoor album. He really, really has good taste in the stuff that he makes and a lot of my stuff in my projects, he’s a part of too. He sent me that and I already had a concept in my mind about what I wanted to write about. I just needed to hear the song that matched what I was thinking about. So that’s basically what I did.
