Romeo Void hit in the 80s just as MTV was breaking into every home and taking over the minds of young music lovers. Some of us would even skip school so that we could watch music videos all day long. The band’s breakout song “Never Say Never” seemed to be on the channel all the time. The ride seemed to end almost as quickly as it started to pick up speed. Another hit followed, “A Girl in Trouble (Is a Temporary Thing),” but the band broke up in 1985. Fast forward to 2023 and suddenly news broke that the band’s first official live album called Live From Mabuhay Gardens November 14, 1980 was being released on Record Store Day (4/22). We were fortunate enough to sit down with Romeo Void lead vocalist Deborah Iyall to talk about this new album release happened and much more!
Hi Deborah! It is such a treat to get to talk to you!
Deborah Iyall/Romeo Void: Hi Johnny, thank you for saying that. I have to celebrate something with you because this is the news of the week. I did a voice in a preschool animation with all indigenous writers. It is just one episode but I play a character called The Great Salmon. The show is called Spirit Rangers and it’s about kids who are trying to take care of the environment. They are rangers in a park and they talk to all the different animal spirits who are trying to help them in their quest to save nature. The second season just came out on Netflix so now I might have to subscribe to it for just one month so I can see it. Oh yeah, I also get to sing a song in it.
So how did all of that come together?
There is a comedian who is a writer on the show, Joey Clift, and he is a Cowlitz Indian from where I am from which is Washington state. He grew up listening to my music on Seattle radio and that was the representation he saw of Cowlitz people doing stuff. Cowlitz, which is me and my family’s name, is well known in the tribe. Lots of tribal members have very important parts of history in the past 125 years. My grandfather went back to try to get recognition for our tribe in Washington DC. He was also there when they signed the Indian Voting Right Act in, I think, 1924. Our tribe did not actually get recognition until the year 2000, so my Dad got to see it but unfortunately my grandfather had long passed.
That’s a part of your background that I was completely unaware of. A part that I am aware of is the amazing music that you created for all of us in the 80s with Romeo Void. The band just recently had a previously unreleased live album called Live From Mabuhay Gardens November 14, 1980 released on Record Store Day. This live album predates the first studio album that Romeo Void released. Who would have had the insight to be recording a show of yours that early on?
Terry Hammer, the sound engineer at the club. If you look at Liberation Hall’s website you can see other releases which are live. He has been trying to get it released since sometime in the 90s. He sent me a copy of what he had and asked if he had my blessing to get it released and I said sure. Look how long it’s taken!
I wondered what took all this time and what triggered Record Store Day to make this happen?
Originally he was just doing it because he was the sound engineer and he loved the bands. He must have had some microphones hung around the room like you do for the drums often but because he was the house guy he had it wired so they sound pretty darn good. Liberation Hall was interested and I’m sure when he played them everything that he had it made him want to do the deal with them because it wouldn’t just be a one-off with one band because he would get more of his collection out there. I feel really lucky that people are interested and that there’s kind of an ear for it right now. I really feel kind of jazzed where fans who have heard the official album versions are now able to rock out and listen to the live versions which you know are different in some cases, pretty significantly.
It really can be two totally different beasts.
They are two totally different skills. Putting on a show in a performance is completely different than recording for posterity which was a bit of a learning curve for me. Oh you can’t just give it all the emotion as you can in performance because if we go a little too far then that moment’s over but when you know someone’s going to listen to this more than once then you know you have to nail every note every single time. So, it’s a little different; I had to learn how to be a recording artist.
I love the visual appearance of the album itself. Do they call that blue marble?
Blue galaxy; I love it too. Originally they thought they were just going to get blue. I’m not really sure because this was six months ago when this was planned but there was the opportunity to get the galaxy because the pressing plant made a mistake. I think that’s what it was because originally it was going to be solid blue but then they made a mistake and did it blue with white. It was accepted because that made it rather unique because the white drops differently every time. I love it how it looks.
Did they have to get your approval on things like that?
We worked a lot on the cover that and you really have to thank Frank Zincavage for that. He had that background texture on the cover, the paint color on cement kind of like plaster look thing was from a photograph that he took. The photos on the back are all from his personal collection and he used to take a lot of Polaroids. Some of them weren’t Polaroids but they were made to look like Polaroids for the design. The liner notes are great and are by Jeff Johnson who is still a good friend. I met him on a bus because he had wild salmon color hair. I had friends who had crazy color hair and it was really a rare thing. So, when I saw him with his hair I introduced myself. It was when we first started going to the San Francisco Art Institute. I think I was literally on my bus going to school and so was he. We’ve maintained a friendship over the years. He’s an artist and interesting friend and a great writer. He’s still very energized and he was able to recollect and get the energy of what was happening back then. He got that across really great in the liner notes.
It really takes you on a journey when you read about those songs. I love liner notes and they’re sorely missing in this digital era that we are living in.
Oh yeah and you would always be staring at the album cover while you’re listening to the record. I remember Revolver coming out and my eyes couldn’t look at that drawing more.
I think I studied liner notes better than I studied for tests and exams in school. I did okay in school but I’m a huge tribute buff when it comes for information that you pull from liner notes. So all of that time that was put into this album other than just the recording aspect I hope people truly appreciate. The cover, the liner notes and everything.
My husband is one of those people who remembers who produced it, who played on it, who the band members were at that time.
Speaking of your husband, I heard that you guys have a covers band.
Yes, it is so fun. All my life I have loved singing. I remember my sister and I riding our bikes and having hand rhythms to go along to the songs. So when I got permission to sing being around the punk movement, I thought I can at least do that good. I really wanted to write my own songs because I was a poet as well a number of years before I tried to sing in a band. When we moved to New Mexico, I retired from teaching in public school in March. We wanted to have a house that we could buy with cash and fix it up so that the cost of living would be super low for the rest of my golden years. My husband’s childhood friend is also a carpenter so he started coming down sometimes five days at a time to work on the house with us because there was lots to do. We would play music every night and when we first started it would be like ‘what songs do you know’ so let’s just look stuff up. Let’s do this Neil Young song I’ve always wanted to learn and before you know it we were a cover a song band. We had to learn a hundred songs because when you’re a covers band you have to learn a ton of songs but it started just as a fun idea. We know at least 40 songs now from Johnny Rivers to Nirvana Roseanne Cash to Mazzy Star. We’re really focusing on the bands of the last millennium. We’re having a public debut in a little less than three weeks at our local park here in Red Town, New Mexico so I am really looking forward to it. I learned a song that I never knew from The Jayhawks and now it’s one of my favorite songs. Because of where we live we’re really leaning into the country/rock side of things. We’re doing Roseanne Cash, Johnny Cash, Jayhawks, and Neil Young.
For this release you also did Talk Shop Live and I love them. When I heard that you were doing that one, I knew that there would be a really good chance that it would be autographed.
Yes, by both Frank (Zincavage) and I.
I don’t know if they ran out but I got my copy!
I know that sales were good and they were really happy. Frank just lives a couple hours south of here down by Santa Fe. I considered it a pretty big honor that they asked us to do it considering some of the big people that they had on there. It was really awesome that they asked us to come on the show and do that. It was live and they were super nice.
Well, I see that our time is about up, but before we go we’d like to end it with a regular feature that we do called Three for the Road. Who was your first celebrity crush?
Ricky Nelson I am one of those who watched the show with the Nelson Brothers called The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet. He was an all American Boy but it was also really nice that he was a really good person. I really loved his songs.
What was the first album you bought with your own money that you had saved up?
I’m not sure but the first one I really remember buying was one I had never heard of it before. I think it may have been my birthday and I had some money and I was able to go by a record. I saw the cover and I really liked it and I heard of them before. It was Fleetwood Mac when it was still with Peter Green and it’s the one with the garbage can on the cover. It’s a very blues rock kind of record. Around that same time, I bought Country Joe and the Fish and Absolutely Free by Frank Zappa. None of these were on the radio. I would look at album covers and I was sort of aware of Rolling Stone Magazine.
That’s funny because I used to do the same thing! Our last question is if you could have anyone (cartoon character, actor, actress, famous person) be your inner voice, who would it be?
Wow, that’s an interesting question.
But, not always the easiest to answer.
It really isn’t! What was her name? She was that actress in Casablanca?
Was it Ingrid Bergman?
Yes, that’s her.
Well Deborah, I hate to say it but our time is over. This has been such a treat for me and so much fun. I had a really tough day at work today and you have lifted my sprits and made me feel so much better. Thank you so much for doing that.
That means so much to me. To think about our band from decades and decades ago and our music is resonating with people and affect you so much that you’re thrilled to talk to me makes me really glad. It’s a really nice thing to hear. You know, we all struggle but we still need to celebrate the good things. I told someone the other day that I may be pessimistic like it’s the end of the world as we know it but on the other hand I’m still absolutely grateful every morning.
Interview: I’m Music Magazine Owner/Editor Johnny Price
Connect with Deborah Iyall: Instagram
Connect with Liberation Hall: Bandcamp
