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Roman Archard, born and raised in the sleepy Cambridgeshire countryside, spent the majority of his childhood and teenagehood riding the explosive fall out of his dad's suicide when he was just five years old. He picked up habits of joy riding, petty shoplifting and vandalism. Actions taken by school, parents and figures of authority didn't curb Roman's wild behaviours. His mother was at a loss with him, driven to despair by grief and unable to cope. The behavioural centre Roman was sent to by his secondary school scarcely coped with him after he incited the other children to misbehave along with him. After that, it was threats of juvenile detention centers and run ins with the police and still Roman didn't cease to kick out at the world every chance he got. It was a fractured home life and a sense of isolation that served as the foundations for a lot of the things he did. After the death of his father, his mum began a relationship with a man called Gary who never took a liking to Roman, as sullen and badly behaved as he was, and they clashed often. Arguments with his step-dad had a propensity to turn very aggressive and violent and it was one night after a particularly bad argument that Roman was arrested and spent the night in a holding cell. It was pretty easy for Roman to make a decision to severe his connection with his family after that. When he left his childhood home at 17, he didn't look back. That was the first in a long lifeline of ties he decided to cut.
Growing up and moving on, as the 80s and 90s of Britain blossomed, Roman found himself taken away by the burgeoning rave scene with it's euphoria, ecstasy and music. He became less concerned with committing petty crimes and more interested in taking drugs and learning how to DJ at the illegal warehouse parties held most weekends. Everything that Roman had been suppressing was channelled into raving and drugs, never bothering to limit himself where either were concerned. He made a life that was exactly to his liking where there was no need for him to answer to anyone but himself. While at university, Roman had a small social circle but was marked by his introversion and mood swings. It wasn't until the start, and subsequent end, of his long term relationship with an older university Professor, Alex, that he realised the extent of the trauma he had suffered and was now making others suffer through. He became sullen and jealous, withdrawing into himself and snapping, obsessive in his neediness. He was hopelessly obsessed and loved Alex almost dangerously, hanging onto them in the hopes that they could some how cure him. Their split came after a destructive time and he didn't respond well. When Alex filed a harassment lawsuit against Roman, his life crashed hard. The lawsuit was eventually dropped and Roman, aged 22, made a promise to himself that he would not enter into another relationship again. With this promise, he choose to abstain from relationships, both physical and emotional, for the sake of his lack of an ability to separate his emotions where either were concerned.
Graduating from Central St. Martin's with a BA (Honours) in Fine Art by the skin of his teeth, he made a sudden decision to take a slight U-turn with his career path. During his Fine Art degree, he'd become increasingly fascinated with designing and building and wiled away long hours in workshops. With this new found obsession, he decided to take a course in carpentry and joinery and found he had a natural talent. The course lead into an apprenticeship which lead into a full time role as a carpenter for a local company. Roman was a dilligent worker, obsessed with fine details and happy to zero in on a project with no distractions. It was this work ethic that meant he really flourished as a carpenter and began building a name for himself which was leading onto commissioned, bespoke work for a growing clientele. It wasn't long until Roman founded Archard Design, his own company specialising in bespoke furniture.
But the damage was long done by the time his company was blooming and Roman couldn't find any sort of comfort in England. He felt no connection to London and it was hard to fathom a time when he ever would. He struggled with depression and found himself waning and sinking back into old habits. In 2008 after his 27th birthday, Roman handed in his notice at the workshop where he worked part time and booked a flight to America on dual citizenship. Roman has not looked back since, severing those ties to England permanently. America provided the change and the ability to start again which Roman had craved since the end of his university relationship. First, he took root in New York which felt on a par with London in terms of the city landscape. It was here that he met Robert Wilson and the two began an unlikely friendship built on their love of dance music, art, drugs and partying. In 2014, their friendship took a romantic turn that neither man was quite ready for. Both marked by their traumatic childhoods and onset of mental health problems not helped by excessive drug use, it was doomed from the beginning. Their split came in early 2016 after Robert admitted to cheating with another man he would later go on to enter into a relationship with and Roman, feeling forever changed by the break up, uprooted himself in search of refuge. He was already in California when the break up happened, having taken the long trip across the country to recuperate. Here, he began working on a camper van conversion to distract himself from those rising feelings of desperation and depression. Always in need of a clean slate, he went on to move again. Tacoma, Washington was close to Seattle and Portland, just a border away from Canada and cold enough that the winters offered him the chance to go snowboarding. It brought about a new life, a fresh start. A random choice in places to move to but Roman was quick to pack his things and his dog into his camper van and drive the 914 odd miles from California to Tacoma.
In 2017, his closest friend and arguably the one person to ever understand him best, Charlene Choo, took it into her own hands to find Roman after his disappearance from New York. He's still not sure how she found him but it wasn't hard for her to convince him to move back to California after a long few days of intense conversations. The house Roman had been renovating was finished, his best friend was able to flip it successfully and within months, he was back in his camper van, moving himself, his dog and his business back down the West Coast to Huntington Beach, California, where he is currently settling in.
