We recently caught up with OMYO to catch up after an amazing few months for the band chat about their upcoming shows and what else they coming up this year.
OMYO are Tom and Will. Both from Oxfordshire. They met in a pub on New Years. ” bumped into each other and instead of apologising we discussed music and made a promise to write one song.” That promise turned in to OMYO.
OMYO was a name they had to make up quickly, pronounced Ohm-Yo, an acronym for ‘Our Music Your Opinion’ “The second song we ever wrote was used by New Look for an advert so we had to make a name up quickly, guess it was just a frank name, and I’m quite visual so the way OMYO flows works nicely.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ayNrTM0qQ5I
Both come from musical backgrounds and are inspired by classic songs. “Both our families are musical, toms dad and grandad were soul singers so it’s in his blood, wills dad works in music so is the same. we both grew up listening to classic songs and it’s just something that inspires us every day.” They admire artists whose songs capture emotion. “The weekend, machine gun Kelly or JP Cooper, all inspiring in their own ways and incredible writers, all capturing moods and emotions ways that many cant.”
Their promise of just one song has spiralled and seen them go on to write more together. “We are releasing 3 EP’s and then packaging as an album, plus singles in-between such as a single onMay 4thin support of young minds youth mental health charity, and a collaborative single with a hip-hop artist out in June. so we will probably have nearly 20 songs by the end of the year”.
The duo’s latest release “Goodbye is Easy” came about by a chance meeting. The collaboration with Newton Faulkner when Will shared a bunk bed with Newton’s manager 10 years ago in Australian hostel and much to his surprise followed up all those years later.
We asked them what was their favourite songs they had written together, for Tom its Poster ” poster (just a special song that is really uplifting, it’s his girlfriends fave too) ” Will leans towards Days With You ” It’s just a special moment at shows that everyone joins in with, somehow its just magic no matter the size of venue, whether its 20 people in an acoustic set or 10,000 at Silverstone everyone knows the chorus by the end and has their hands up waving. it’s quite surreal.”
They excited for their upcoming gigs in Oxford and London as it’s something they’ve always wanted to do and as independent artists have organised themselves. “our goal is to sell them both out, especially as its something we have organised ourselves. Prove to many industry people that even as independent acts we can compete with the majors.
“Our first Oxford (home) show too so will be very special to have all our families in such a legendary venue. when we first started we were Sofa surfing opposite the Oxford academy and always said we would play one day.. now we are!”
OMYO play O2 Academy2 Islington on Thursday 31 May and O2 Academy2 Oxford on Sat 02 June.
Let us know if you love OMYO as much as us and if you are going to gig over on @CelebMix, and also check out our writer Sofia who was such a big help with this piece!
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