The band was started at the San Francisco Art Institute by Iyall and Zincavage. They released a single on the recently formed 415 Records before recording their debut album, which has been deemed a "masterpiece of American post-punk". The success of their 2nd release, a 4 song ep, "Nvr Say Nvr" resulted in a distribution deal with Columbia Records. The band continued to release music and tour until they broke up in 1985. The members have reunited briefly over the years. Iyall has continued to pursue music as a side project. The band's music was generally associated with the New Wave and post-punk movements of the early 1980s, but also experimented with danceable song structures and a saxophonist. Iyall garnered acclaim as a skilled lyricist who explored themes like sexuality and alienation from a female perspective with "dark intelligence" and "searing imagery".
Romeo Void formed at the San Francisco Art Institute in February 1979. Vocalist Debora Iyall occasionally visited the Bay Area to see Patti Smith perform. She decided to pursue an art education after reading a fortune cookie. "It was in the late '70's at the Indochina Friendship Booth at the annual Fourth of July streetfair in Eureka, California," she said. "I got a fortune cookie that said 'Art is your fate, don't debate.' That next January, I was enrolled in an art school in San Francisco." She began frequenting the Mabuhay Gardens, a popular nightclub, to see local alternative rock groups like The Nuns, the Mutants, Crime, and the Avengers. She also formed the Mummers and Poppers, a punk parody band that covered '60s tunes with guitarist Peter Woods, an English Major at SF State and drummer Jay Derrah, . Iyall was originally hesitant to perform because she was overweight: "After seeing Patti Smith, I still had it in my mind that you had to be skinny to be up there [on stage], but after going to the Mabuhay [...] you just do whatever you want, be whoever you want, just make it happen."
Romeo Void formed at the San Francisco Art Institute in February 1979. Vocalist Debora Iyall occasionally visited the Bay Area to see Patti Smith perform. She decided to pursue an art education after reading a fortune cookie. "It was in the late '70's at the Indochina Friendship Booth at the annual Fourth of July streetfair in Eureka, California," she said. "I got a fortune cookie that said 'Art is your fate, don't debate.' That next January, I was enrolled in an art school in San Francisco." She began frequenting the Mabuhay Gardens, a popular nightclub, to see local alternative rock groups like The Nuns, the Mutants, Crime, and the Avengers. She also formed the Mummers and Poppers, a punk parody band that covered '60s tunes with guitarist Peter Woods, an English Major at SF State and drummer Jay Derrah, . Iyall was originally hesitant to perform because she was overweight: "After seeing Patti Smith, I still had it in my mind that you had to be skinny to be up there [on stage], but after going to the Mabuhay [...] you just do whatever you want, be whoever you want, just make it happen."
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