OOMASOOMA X Fresh Off The Scene
Interview by Esosa Zuwa and photos by: JARID BLUE
What has been your journey since starting music until now?
I started playing the drums when I was 11, and the guitar at 13… but it wasn't until after I got to college that I began to actually consider trying to play music seriously/professionally, as that's when I discovered the circuit of punk + "indie" clubs that had sprung up all over the states in the mid-late 80's . + Somewhat randomly, in NYC I ended up connecting with friends of (BEATLE John Lennon's son) Sean Lennon, and developed a collaboration with him....which led to me recording and touring as a multi-instrumentalist with his mom (Yoko Ono) which in turn, led to me playing drums for 6 years in the Japanese avant hip-hop band Cibo Matto. And when Cibo Matto naturally wound down, I more or less simultaneously started my own band (@nethrock) and a production company producing music for TV/ brands/ other artists....and basically have been constantly performing, recording, and producing music ever since! + More recently I've been a part of recording and touring ensembles in Joan As Policewoman, Spacehog, and I'm about to play drums on a US and Canadian tour with Baltimore feminist punk rock killers War On Women.
What was your creative process in making "ENDLESS FUTURE"?
ENDLESS FUTURE was made basically the same way I make all my records = entirely spontaneously/ "seat of the pants"! I personally don't really believe in "inspiration" and have very rarely experienced it overall; basically I just show up and start grinding, that's how I've always worked ;) Technically, most of the time this process consists of starting off with drum figures, gradually layering in other instruments, and then doing vocals and lyrics last, which for me is usually the hardest part, because they're the most emotionally demanding to actually make good (IMO.)
"ENDLESS FUTURE" is a very experimental album that is very genre-fluid? What are some of the sonic themes and messages evoked from the album?
ENDLESS FUTURE has several different styles of songs/ music throughout, and the goal for me is just to make the whole sequence emotionally and psychologically seamless...IE to have listeners not actually notice how "genre diverse" the record actually is ;) ! + Thematically it is also somewhat varied, and overall the record is pretty personal = I just tried to write evocative poetry/ lyrics that reflected my mood at the time (as well as tonally worked with the music itself...like the songs YOU and BLANKET THE STARS) ...along with a couple of songs that are more explicitly political (STAY DOWN LOW and SOUL, SOLD)
What is your favourite song off "ENDLESS FUTURE" and why?
…this is a hard question to answer, as all the songs are very dear to me, so to speak ! ;) haha ... but if I had to, I would maybe pick SOUL, SOLD as IMO it's extremely effective in creating a mood...and also just sounds fukin DOPE / beautiful! It's a deep, dub-by-downtempo disco jam that slowly develops in intensity, and is thickly layered with soul-esque vocals (and also has fantastic keyboard playing on it by the great @baeseflateef )
You have toured and collaborated with so many different kinds of artists, like Yoko Ono, Sean Lennon, and Yuka Honda, to name a few. What does collaboration mean to you and who would you like to collaborate with next?
I’ve had the great fortune to connect and collaborate with so many incredibly brilliant artists over the years, and who from time to time I can call up to record stuff on my own records - but on this record I only had one special guest, the great Paul Wilson (@baeseflateef) who played keyboards on two songs...otherwise, I actually played all the instruments on ENDLESS FUTURE myself. + In terms of future collaborations, that's also kind of hard to say- there are so many incredible artists who I would love to work with- ONEOHTRIX POINT NEVER, LORI SCACCO, FELICIA ATKINSON and HORSE LORDS all come to mind, just as artists I really admire.
Many of your songs have scored placements in short films and commercial TV? If you were to have placements or compose a soundtrack for a film, what kind of film would that be?
Over the years I’ve done a reasonably huge range of different types of music for commercial purposes; for clothing companies, tech companies, food, and beverage brands... pretty much anything you can think of! Style and genre-wise, every project always has extremely specific musical demands…so it's actually been extremely helpful for me to be able to create music within a huge range of styles, which could mean anything from classical music, to hard rock, to disco, to hip hop, to electronics, to salsa music; in this industry one has to be ready and able to do almost anything (and deliver it super quickly!) in order to successfully land jobs. + Personally, I would love to do the soundtrack music for some kind of conceptual sci-fi movie! ;) … Which (at least theoretically) might enable me to have more creative freedom than in (many) other film genres
What does music mean to you?
Music means *everything* to me! it's my whole life, my vocation, and I believe my sort of "spiritual purpose" as a human (this time around ;) + I personally believe music is the most powerful, and most important of ALL the arts! But that's just my (deeply biased) opinion ;)
In making your music, who do you hope to inspire and what message do you spread?
I just hope to provide listeners with aesthetic pleasure/ joy/ to evoke + provoke deeper emotions and imagery... enabling people to transcend their consciousness in that moment and be transported. IMO that's kind of the best I believe any musician (or even any artist) can hope for. + Personally, my larger picture message as an artist (and a person) basically is "life on Earth is miraculous and beautiful…so never let the bastards/ the man bring you down/ EVER let them kill your spirit or your capacity for love and communion!" ETC.
