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Artist Interviews
Q&A: O’Death
By CMU Editorial | Published on Wednesday 8 June 2011
New York quintet O’Death have had an unlikely couple of years. After their drummer was diagnosed with Osteosarcoma, the group took a break for him to have ten months of chemotherapy and a shoulder replacement.
However, after a critically-acclaimed set at the Newport Folk Festival and their third LP release, ‘Outside’, things seem on the up once again for this New-York five-piece. Out this week through City Slang, the album is credited with being the band’s most accomplished work yet.
The group consists of Singer and guitarist Greg Jamie, Gabe Darling on banjo and ukulele, bassist Jesse Newman, violinist Robert Pycior and aforementioned drummer David Rogers-Berry, whom we caught up with to ask our Same Six Questions.
Q1 How did you start out making music?
We were all in bands growing up. Some of us studied music and played in school bands, or sang in choirs and choruses but others are almost completely self-taught, so we run the gamut when it comes to musical background. We were students together in a lively musical community when we started working together initially around 2003, but it was a few years later when we were living all over NYC that we started to work the project a bit more seriously.
Q2 What inspired your latest album?
We took about two years off from the band. I was in treatment for osteosarcoma, which is bone cancer, and we all needed a break anyway. We toured pretty hard between 2006 and 2009, so taking a step back gave the project a chance to breathe and regroup. When we came back to it, we let it build slowly. Just meeting occasionally and sharing demos of what we were working on. Greg and Gabe developed songs for a few months before we all began writing the arrangements. It’s much less frantic then our previous album, but I don’t think the elements sacrifice any urgency.
Q3 What process do you go through in creating a track?
Our songs generally start with one of our singers bringing an idea to the table that may be as little as a riff or as complete as a fully structured song, and everyone works together to bring it to fruition. On our newest record, ‘Outside’, our two singers developed material together and recorded demos that we passed around and added to. I really enjoyed taking more time in the composition process, and recording alone at home gave me more opportunities for trial and error that took us in some different directions than we would have gone in an 100% group effort.
Q4 Which artists influence your work?
I think it’s more fair to speak in terms of inspiration, because “influence” makes it seem like we are trying to make our work resemble someone else’s, which is not accurate. I know some of the guys in the band are pretty into David Lynch. Cormac McCarthy novels litter the van occasionally. I’m partial to John Cage’s school of thought and music, but I like to listen to the radio and see what other people are into. Jeez, is this answer pretentious or what?
Q5 What would you say to someone experiencing your music for the first time?
Stand back and no one will get hurt. There were a lot of mosh pits on our recent US tour, but we don’t usually see that much in Europe and especially not the UK. It’s great to see people move around and get into it, but it’s best when we see ladies dancing at our shows, because we’re not at all about being tough guys or anything like that. In fact, the new album is much more stocked with gentler moments, and it’s fun to integrate those to our high energy live shows.
Q6 What are your ambitions for your latest album, and for the future?
Make everyone think we are genius. Get paid accordingly. No, we just want to connect with people.
MORE>> www.odeath.net
