Q: Hey, can you tell us a bit about where you come from, and what made you want to start a career in music?
A: We come from nowhere really, we found each other through a shared burning to loosen the constraints this world places on every individual. Music is that channel where you can unleash yourself into the larger workings of the universe and become connected again to this earth, something the mainstream culture in this country is constantly trying to distract us from. I think all three of us latched on to the escape music provides at a very young age and it just took us time to find each other. We’ve been living together in New York for a while now though.
Q: Can you describe the musical style of OBOY! in three words?
A: Fluid, Hot, and Mournful
Q: How do you stay connected with your fans, and what role do they play in shaping your musical journey?
A: It really comes from live performances and engaging with people in-person. Seeing the same people come to our shows is a surreal experience and drives us to provide a different setlist each night to kinda create a sense of spontaneity and to keep people on their toes as we approach the end of the world. We love to talk to people at our shows and I think just having any kind of support from random people is super motivating although it doesn’t affect the actual music we make since we very much see OBOY! as simply pure expression and happening away from a larger societal gaze. We try our best to stay on social media but we’re not business people, we’re not trying to create community around marketing tactics or online trends, we’re more trying to find other souls who share this experience of feeling out of place with the world we’re in.
Q: You have just released your new EP, ‘RazorFun Demo’. Is there a story behind it?
A: We recorded it pretty quickly like under 6 hours with the lovely people at Nowhere Studios in Brooklyn. We had the songs for a while but cause you need money for everything, it took us a long time to save up enough just to get some studio time. RazorFun kinda encapsulates our general experience in the hyper-capitalistic world we’re in where fun is constructed through financial means and becomes something dependent on your ability to spend/make money, which makes the idea of fun spliced with pain or like an illusion where you think you’re experiencing fun but it’s actually something that is killing you. More literally though the title of the demo also refers to the first two songs, “Razorblade” and “Ain’t No Fun”, I (Mara) am detailing my experience with dysmorphia and subsequent coping mechanisms, and how a trans-identity can put me at odds with ideas of love, romance, and pleasure.
Q: What is your favorite track from the EP and why?
A: Ya, that’s definitely a hard question cause each song kinda holds it’s own unique sentiment so it becomes somewhat impossible to compare so I think we’d all give different answers.
For me (Mara) I’d probably say “Razorblade” even though it’s the most personal to me and kinda gut-wrenching at times to perform, I love the way each of us as a band come together in the song and how it unfolds into fast-paced chaos is reminiscent of the music I really enjoy listening to.
(Ben) – Working on the drum parts for Without Anyone was an engaging process. Whether recording it or playing it live, I feel like it’s the song where I’ve spent the most time trying new things out whether it be the quieter sections on the toms or the tambourine parts on the recording. I also like how the whole band really comes together through the ebbs and flows of the song, giving it a unique structure
(Cliff) –
Ain’t No Fun is my favorite off RazorFun. My all time favorite OBOY! song is not out yet but its’ already my favorite called “Dream Girl”& will be on the first record.
Q: Can you walk us through the creative process of producing the EP, “RazorFun Demo”?
A: The process was pretty much the same as our last demo ep where Mara will bring in these songs and Ben and Cliff will work to add the bass and drums parts so the song can come to life. I think I (Mara) was especially going through a difficult time when writing the songs for this ep so it helped to channel that through the writing process which kinda explains the more intense and kinda inward tone on this one. We knew “Razorblade” and “Ain’t No Fun” we’re going to be on the demo but we had this sort of bluesy jam for a while where I (Mara) just had a random verse on it and then we decided to turn it into a whole song called “Without Anyone”, which was certainly different to the last release since usually the songs were already fully figured out in terms of structure and parts. Then the Lana cover was initially just for our own enjoyment cause we just loved playing it together but we realized the way we play it is like very sonically different then the original so we felt it was appropriate to realize it as OBOY! since the sentiments of the lyrics also goes super well with the other songs.
Q: What has been the most memorable concert or performance for OBOY! so far?
A: (Ben) –
Touring New England, New York, and Philly last year and being everywhere from a typical dive bar, to an unbeknownst family establishment, to the warehouse section of a brewery with morgue lights blaring down and the drum kit falling apart
(Mara) – Every performance is super memorable for better or worse but one time in Binghamton, NY, someone asked us to play Fergie’s Fergilicious and I was super honored by that.
(Cliff) –
Last year, playing with Those Troublemakers and Queer Chaos at The Rusty Nail. This lovely spot welcomed our all-out lineup with a dazzling marquee!
Q: Reflecting on your body of work, each song holding its unique significance, could you share a particular track that stands out to you personally? What makes that specific tune special, and why does it hold a place of pride in your musical journey?
A: (Mara)I feel like our answers would be the same as the favorite track question but I guess for me I’d also say “Ain’t No Fun” because it kinda is two songs that were put together and lyrically I like how I narrowed in on some of my more despairing feelings into this idea of life being no fun because fun is constructed through means that I don’t agree with. The outro progression that builds up was also something I had for a while and wasn’t sure where to put it so figuring out how the song can unfold into this new progression was a lot fun and a real cathartic experience.
Q: Exploring the diverse creative processes within the music industry is always fascinating. Could you provide insight into OBOY!’s unique approach to crafting music? From the initial spark of an idea to the finished song, how do you navigate the creative journey and bring its musical concepts to life?
A: (Mara) I’m super lucky for the way Ben and Cliff receive the songs I write and how quickly they both are to latch on to the idea and general atmosphere of each song. (Mara) I’ll present the songs for them, usually on the acoustic guitar, and it always amazes me how fast they both start adding these different musical layers, which really makes the songs come to life in a band format. Usually during this process of showing them the songs, we’ll experiment with using a different energy for certain parts depending on the song like “Ain’t No Fun”, I remember we’d tried a bunch of different approaches to the beginning of the second verse before deciding on the sludgy vibe that’s on the release. Obviously, there’s some songs I present to them that don’t become full songs for the band, which is also really important for our process, but the amount of time that we just jam together also creates a lot of shared trust when practicing new songs.
(Mara) I can’t really describe how the spark works besides having to completely leave yourself behind and enter into a sort of interconnectedness with the universe that gives you life. A lot of times it’s something that comes instantly like an instinct like for “Razorblade” I just picked up the guitar one day and started playing that chord progression and the first couple lines of the first verse just came out instantly. The removal of the self is pretty critical to me when writing like I have no idea how I wrote some of the songs on the first demo, especially cause they were songs i mostly wrote when I was in high school, and can only really chalk it up to intensive practicing on your instrument every day and embracing a mental state that almost puts yourself as a separate character and you’re looking in on that character from a larger almost universal perspective. For almost every song, it’s started on the guitar and me finding progressions that don’t sound like everything else you hear, especially in what you hear in rock-n-roll music, I think only once has a song sprouted out from a line I wrote without any music in mind, which was the song, “Sugarcoated Love” on our first release.
Q: As we wrap up our conversation, looking ahead, what aspirations or dreams do you have for OBOY!, and what message would you like to share with your fans as they continue to accompany you on this musical journey?
A: We just want to able to keep playing music and keep our musical passions aligned with our plans for resistance and invoking social change. We have a tour coming up in March 2024 around the U.S. NE and are trying to become financially stable enough to record and produce our debut LP record, releases that are not just demos quality and is recorded up to studio mixing and mastering standards.
For everyone we’d say: don’t stay distracted by the tools of the corporate overlords in this world, embrace the beauty of your ugliness and remember the loving and healing force this Earth has for all of us.
