Teetering on the intersection between post-rock, spoken word poetry, and new-age jazz, Otala have garnered local interest for their unique tapestry of creative inspiration. Their latest single Commedia marks the beginning of an exciting year for the band. We sat down with frontman Oscar Thorpe, saxophonist Charlotte Foulkes, and drummer Fin Hills to talk about their upcoming record…
How did Otala come to be? How did you guys meet?
Oscar: Rory and I had a different band at uni, it was a goth band that sort of dissolved, and then we got the other guys together.
Charlotte: Otala emerged from the ruins of that band.
Oscar: Jack joined because he didn’t want to pay for a ticket to the gigs, so he just started getting in on the synths and it stuck.
Is there a story behind the name? I had to google what Otala meant before this.
Oscar: We were all just spitballing names. One of them was Slug. Otala is the name of a type of snail, and it just sounded cool. There’s no deep meaning behind it.
What does your creative process look like?
Oscar: Normally, one of us will come with an idea…
Charlotte: Usually Oscar
Oscar: *laughs* I’ll have it set out the way I want it, with a guitar part and lyrics after, in whatever way it feels like it should go. Then everyone else just adds their own stuff.
Charlotte: We all make our own parts of the track as we go along. Sometimes it takes a while for a track to reach its final form, some can take over a year or so. We gradually change things, especially as we’re all still working out our parts, and by the end, we all decide when it feels like a final product.
Oscar: It helps to play it live. Sometimes we’ll play something and think ahhh *cringes*, and wince a bit. When something doesn’t hit properly we can then change it.
So gigs act as an experiment for you guys to gauge whether a track is going to work?
Oscar: Yeah, we did a gig on Wednesday where we played a track for the first time in sound check.
Charlotte: It’s definitely a bit of trial and error. It’s sort of our method to play as many gigs as possible, it’s a bit more old-school.
Fin: Authenticity!
Every single take is completely different, just like every show is completely different. It’s just a snippet of a moment, that’s all a recording ever is, and there’s no point in perfecting it
Any gigs that have stood out?
Fin: When we went to Rotterdam we played three shows across two days, they were all sick. One of them we played on a boat, which was mad.
Charlotte: Left of the Dial was probably one of the most affirming gigs we’ve done. It really felt like ‘we’re a proper band’. We realised that we’re not just playing in our home cities, we’re playing outside of the UK and people are actually coming to see us and listen to our music. It was a nice feeling, to feel valued as a musician.
Do you notice a difference between hometown and international shows?
Charlotte: Yeah! I absolutely love Nottingham, but a lot of the time it’s our mates coming to the shows, so it can be hard to feel that people are there because they love our music. Our first international show was in Paris and the room was full of people I’d never met. It was so nice to hear them clapping at the end, especially when nobody actually needed to enjoy it. It was such a lovely experience to see people who’d probably never heard of us before enjoy the music.
Oscar: I was more nervous beforehand though. On the first show, everyone went down to soundcheck and I was just like, ‘Please just give me two minutes on my own to breathe’.
Fin: For me, it’s always the lowest-stakes gigs that make me most nervous.
Speaking of nerves, any pre-show or onstage disasters so far?
Oscar: We’ve had a few tech issues.
Charlotte: Every gig has tech issues.
Fin: Yeah, many many times.
Charlotte: It gives us resilience though. We have a great capability to just play on.
Oscar: We’ve had to learn the hard way.
You have a record out on 28 May… anything you can tell us about it?
Fin: First things first, it’s sick.
Charlotte: It’s a 7” vinyl. The A-side is Commedia.
Oscar: The B-side is Guatavita which is out on 30 April. Fin mixed Commedia, and then he also did a mix of Guatavita. We also have a second mix of Guatavita produced by Josh Finerty, the bassist from Shame. It’s exciting to have an actual, physical thing that we made.
Charlotte: I’ve been collecting records for so long, and to have myself on record is crazy. We picked up the test pressings last week, and Rory, Jack and I went back to my house and played it. It was just the most insane feeling.
Oscar: We worked with Ol at Lil Chop Record Shop, and he’s just so good, he’s amazing. Big up to Ol.
Fin: It’s special too because we did it all ourselves, it’s all DIY.
Is there anything you’d like listeners to take away from the record?
Oscar: I think it’s a taster of what’s to come in our EP coming later this year, which is going to have a lot of story behind it. It’s a way to dip your toes into us as a band.
Charlotte: It’s our first time recording as the five of us, and it’s a year on from our first EP. It shows what our sound is now and who we are.
Fin: For us as well, there’s not a huge difference between performing live and recording the track. Every single take is completely different, just like every show is completely different. It’s just a snippet of a moment, that’s all a recording ever is, and there’s no point in perfecting it. So the record is truly authentic to us as a band.
What other exciting stuff have you guys got coming up this year?
Charlotte: Gigs, hopefully,
Oscar: Playing with Keg and POZI in May. Dot-to-Dot in Nottingham.
Charlotte: Maybe a tour as well towards the end of the year, and some new music coming out.
Any last words?
Fin: Listen to Commedia!
The Commedia / Guatavita 7” is out on 28 May, and is available for pre-order.
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