snmag.com

"When Did Your Heart Go Missing"

I remember being in high school in 2002 and hearing their name move through the various cliques at lunch. “Did you catch their show this weekend?” “They’re so fun.” “Robert is so hot.” Yeah, they were the bar band of my high school years. Formed in Los Angeles in the early millennium, Rooney is a classic California band, hip to Beach Boy harmonies and great 80’s pop guitar. On their new single, “When Did Your Heart Go Missing,” the band again delivers their blithely catchy sound. It’s the kind of song you can’t stop singing as you dance around your house.

How did the band form?

Robert: We formed in high school. Two of us were at this school called Windward and the others were at Crossroads. We all just gravitated towards each other because we all liked the same music and we all didn’t really participate in high school activities, and we all loved music. We luckily came together in high school because we were young and it was fun. It’s a hard thing to find people who really love music and want to play music together. We were really lucky.

What were you thinking exactly when you wrote, “When Did Your Heart Go Missing"?

Robert: In this case, this song is about somebody feeling frustrated in a relationship and saying, “Where did you go? We had something great yesterday and now your heart’s missing—you’re heartless.” It’s that feeling of frustration that comes in a relationship sometimes. A lot of times I write more negative lyrics, but with a poppy fun sound, melodically, and I kind of like that there’s that contrast. You wouldn’t expect a song that feels that way to be about that. That’s the fun of writing music.