Pop Culture News

Robert Schwartzman’s Rooney Shares New Single “Do You Believe”

Rooney has released a new single “Do You Believe”, which is available now on all digital platforms. “‘Do You Believe’ is a pensive, optimistic track with maximal beats and a catchy synth line,” write Paste Magazine. “It picks you up when you’re feeling down and makes you feel hopeful that something better is on the way.” The song also made its world-wide radio debut this past weekend on Los Angeles’ famous KROQ, and leads into Rooney’s the A Cosmic Interlude Tour 2018 which kicks off Saturday night in San Diego. The tour will see the band founded and helmed by Robert Schwartzman playing dates across North America through September with special guest Mating Ritual, and will draw from their nearly two decades of releasing albums and playing live.

Stream “Do You Believe” https://RED.lnk.to/DoYouBelieve

Following the release of the 2016 LP Washed Away, which saw Rooney perform on Today, Late Night With Seth Meyers, and was praised as “incredibly catchy” by Nylon and a “kick-ass” album by Paste Magazine, Robert Schwartzman’s more recent approach to Rooney’s music has embraced the freedom gained from ripping up the rulebook for how to succeed as a musician and band. “We live in a time of exciting new technology that makes music, tv, films readily available, and can help artists keep the flow, find a groove, so I’ve enjoyed embracing those tools,” he explains. “The success for me, is just being able to make the music and release it on our terms in the first place,” he explains, “the rest of this is gravy.”

No longer feeling constrained by a need to follow a stale 20th-century album cycle approach, Schwartzman has sought to meld his passion for songwriting and recording with his equal talents in the medium of film. He got his first taste of this intersection while scoring the soundtrack to the movie Palo Alto with Dev Hynes of Blood Orange fame. Rooney’s latest single, “Do You Believe”, takes the next logical step on that path as one of a few new Rooney songs that will appear on the soundtrack for Schwartzman’s forthcoming directorial effort The Unicorn. Produced by Schwartzman as well, the film was debuted at SXSW 2018 and stars Nicholas Rutherford, Lauren Lapkus, Lucy Hale, Beck Bennett, Dree Hemingway, Kyle Mooney, and Beverly D’Angelo, among others. The Unicorn is set for release in 2019, and its soundtrack will feature a selection of new Rooney songs.

Schwartzman is also excited about the freedom the evolving nature of the music business gives him to release new Rooney songs on a consistent basis without years-long breaks in between full-length albums. An added benefit being the ability to tour more often on fresh material, and do so on his own timeline when space between film projects allows. For Schwartzman, the rare musician that actually loves to tour, it feels like the perfect way to operate. “I’m not sure that I could ever get off the stage” he says, “I’ve been writing and recording songs for half of my life – it’s all I know, and the same can be said with touring.” It doesn’t hurt that he’s also a self-professed “travel addict” who “can’t stay in one place too long without going crazy.”

“In the beginning years of Rooney and putting our first records and albums out, I was made to feel like a failure – by not only the label, but also by the people we worked and their high expectations –  in hindsight,” relates Schwartzman, “I am really proud and feel very lucky to have been part of a project that has seen success and still loved by fans to this day.”

ROONEY’S UPCOMING TOUR DATES:

Tickets at www.rooneymusic.com

AUGUST
18 – San Diego, CA – The Casbah
19 – San Francisco, CA – August Hall
21 – Seattle, WA – The Crocodile
22 – Portland, OR – Doug Fir Lounge
24 – Salt Lake City, UT – Urban Lounge
25 – Denver, CO – Levitt Pavilion
26 – Santa Fe, NM – Meow Wolf
28 – Phoenix, AZ – Rebel Lounge
29 – Las Vegas, NV – The Bunkhouse
30 – Los Angeles, CA – The Regent

SEPTEMBER
13 – Kansas City, MO – Recordbar
14 – St. Paul, MN – Turf Club
15 – Davenport, IA – Daytrottter
16 – Chicago, IL – Lincoln Hall
18 – Toronto, ON – Lee’s Palace
19 – Albany, NY – The Hollow
20 – Brooklyn, NY – Brooklyn Bowl
21 – Boston, MA – Brighton Music Hall
22 – Washington, DC – Rock & Roll Hotel