OTALA:
Everything,
but the hate
Words: Elias Serghi | November 1st 2024
Undefinable and undefiable, Nottingham’s cherished quintet Otala are grabbing 2024 with their throbbing hands. They have written their own checklist, with homemade ideas of specific crafted post-rock, sinister twists on jazz, wall-crashing heaviness, single teardrop delicacy, life plot stories and spoken word drama that implies the narrator has seen it all.
In 2023, Otala posed a group hug with their local community in Nottingham while processing and releasing their debut EP ‘Tell The Bees’, eventually lunging one leg across the UK, and the other leg across Europe. Staying true to themselves, to the love of music, and to the people - this year is not their victory lap, it’s their second rodeo. Their latest achievement has been releasing their own 7” record of two new singles, ‘Commedia’ and ‘Guatavita’, with Lil Chop Record Shop.
I took guitarist/frontman Oscar Thorpe and saxophonist Charlotte Foulkes out for coffee on a hot Friday morning - waking them up enough to reflect on the past year as a band, share their excitement for where they are now and what’s yet to come. They gave us their wisdom, experiences, dreams and what makes their own personal culture as a team of writers and composers.
Your music seems to draw from a wide array of cultural and historical references. What are some key influences that have shaped your sound?
Oscar: Matching the tone of the music with the lyrics, creating something you can get lost in. The lyrics have a poetic sense, and the sound encompasses that.
Charlotte: All five of us have different musical influences. Generally, our sound is shaped by the variety of them coming together. Jazz, folk, rock music, just what we all listen to.
Your lyrics are often introspective and narrative-driven. Can you share the inspirations behind your storytelling approach?
Oscar: I like poets with dark imagery and brooding. Some take simple things and make them quite horrible, like Charles Baudelaire and Charles Bukowski. I try to apply that concept to my own experiences with life.
Your sound blends diverse genres and intricate arrangements. How has your musical journey influenced this eclectic mix?
Charlotte: We all make our own parts of a song, which will stem from our own influences. Fin, our drummer, pretty much only listens to jazz and not much of what the rest of us listen to. He will always get it when he listens, though.
Oscar: Our wide variety of influences, from jazz to hardcore. As long as the music is good, it’s nice to be able to bring in parts of everything. We aren’t stuck to one genre.
Charlotte: We figure out our songs when we jam together. Some songs take a long time to come to their full form.
Oscar: We’ll play some of our songs live, then wince at it and go back to work together and make changes during our sessions.
Charlotte: Gradually learning each other’s styles helps the songs come into their full form.
Your music often touches on deep philosophical themes. What philosophical ideas or questions are you currently exploring through your art?
Oscar: Currently, the whole ‘Man eat man’ thing, and how the world has the potential to be beautiful but we wreck it all. Whether it’s innate or under influence.
You’ve recently released a 7” record of your two latest singles with Lil Chop Record Shop. What was it like, working with the label to take the step towards physical pressings?
Oscar: Ol is awesome! He came to one of our shows in London and he was starting up a label. He saw us, liked it, and took us under his wing, like ‘This is how you should do things’. We were just playing gigs everywhere until he came in like ‘Do it properly!’. He saw potential in us and helped with pressings and will be helping with recording soon.
Charlotte: He’s like a mentor figure for us, not like a wider thing when labels have tons of artists and might not be able to help as much. He was giving us advice, timelines, and general help before we even made the decision to put anything out. He’s a great guy to work with.
Do you think working with them has made recording more of a comfortable or regular practice?
Oscar: Well, well, well… We might have some announcements soon!
Charlotte: We’re definitely working on more things. Before we recorded ‘Commedia’ and 'Guatavita’, we hadn’t recorded anything in over a year. Now, it’s definitely going to become more of a regular thing with timelines and releases coming up.
You toured outside of the UK for the first time last year for the Super-Sonic Block Party Festival. How has touring outside of both Nottingham and the UK becoming regular practice been for you?
Oscar: Free holidays! It’s a lot of fun. The first time we went to Paris, I didn’t expect us to get a good reception, just play the show and see what happens. We got a good reception. We went back again and people were wearing Otala T-shirts. It’s really cool. It’s always nice to see the team at Super-Sonic again. It’s fun making friends across the globe.
Charlotte: When we play in cities like Nottingham, Sheffield, Manchester, London, etc. where we know a lot of people and see them in the crowd - it’s lovely to see people you know. This was completely new, playing to a crowd of people you have never met in your life and they found out about you in another way, rather than personal knowledge. The Block Party was the most surreal experience for us. Playing Left of the Dial in The Netherlands was another experience when I thought “Wow, I’m actually in a band!” The friends we make there are always willing to give advice and help us out when we go back.
What is your next ambition for the band?
Charlotte: It would be great if we could go on a tour as a supporting act. We don’t have any plans for that, but it would be fun to go round cities and reach a new audience who aren’t just coming to watch us. We’ve seen other bands do that and it’s worked out really well for them and helped them grow.
Are there any bands you’d want to open for in the future?
Charlotte: caroline or deathcrash.
What advice would you give to yourselves last year, who released music and played gigs for the first time?
Oscar: Well, everyone goes through the phase of having the worst music you’ve ever put out but I don’t regret it. Even if it feels embarrassing to listen back to it now, it’s given me good experience with playing gigs and the industry side of things, leading up to what we’re doing now. I can walk into a gig without being too nervous.
Charlotte: I picked up the saxophone in 2022. By 2023, I didn’t feel that confident. I was only playing for three months when I joined Otala and was already playing on stage. That was my first time ever playing in front of people. It was a learning curve. I would just remind myself that I will have the confidence at some point and not stress. What helped me at the beginning was to have a few beers before getting on stage. Now, I’m able to play sober. As someone who was not as experienced with playing in front of people; you don’t know if they might be judging you, or you could slip up. You just need to keep it up with confidence.
"Finding the tone for the lyrics, it’s like performance art. The way you read the lyrics out with emotion changes the meaning of them."
– Oscar ThorpeWhat advice would you give to your peers in the music scene, and those who are working towards joining?
Oscar: Keep on grinding, buddy.
Charlotte: The way we managed to do it was just to do as many gigs as we can. A lot of bands will go through different routes and work on recording an album before they do many shows
Oscar: Recording while playing gigs in different cities builds a wider audience. You play a small show in a different city, you go back in six months and play a bigger stage there.
Charlotte: Even if the show isn’t very good, if we don’t like the band we’re supporting that much, if the pay isn’t very good, just do it anyway. It’s all going to help. If there’s ten people in the crowd, we can at least say we played that venue and move onto the next venue. They don’t need to know how many people were in that crowd. It’s important to make friends with the venues, they all keep in contact with each other. Be good to sound engineers, promoters and bookers because they will help you out when you stay in contact with them.
Oscar: It’s building up a CV. Even if you just get £20 and a few beers for playing and if travelling to a different city is hard, it’s all worth it and it’s all experience. It takes a while to figure out our songs so practising them live helps us figure out what goes well and what needs developing.
You credited your father as the artist for the cover art of your latest single. What is the story behind it?
Oscar: I liked the idea of the depersonalised figures. I asked him to listen to the music and create something inspired by how it made him feel.
You lean towards the specific in your songwriting. Can you recall any specific emblems, places or people that you felt the most inspired to expand on?
Oscar: In ‘Commedia', I mention my dining table at home. It’s a small thing but a lot of different things happen around it. You have nice times, sitting around the table. You have bad times, being told bad news. You eat there, so you sit at the table to eat, to survive. I took that and made it a bigger thing.
Charlotte: There are a few specific themes and motifs that carry on throughout the songs. For what we are working on next, the writing will link together more and be a cohesive piece of work. The motifs will go through each song.
Your instrumentals tend to have a darker, heavier and experimental approach. Your arrangements fall into place like multiple screams on the track. What was it like to learn and become confident with portraying anger, vulnerability and relief through sound?
Oscar: Finding the tone for the lyrics, it’s like performance art. The way you read the lyrics out with emotion changes the meaning of them. Sometimes, I’ll be shouting, or screaming, or sounding defeated. Having the music behind that as well, whether it’s heavy or eerie, it further portrays it for the audience to get lost in it.
Charlotte: When I first started playing with the band, I was just playing things over. Once I got a better understanding of the emotions that the others were trying to portray, I learned to portray it too. The saxophone is an interesting instrument because it can sound guttural, or like shrieking. I definitely channel that through emotion myself.
Oscar: You can have parts that sound pretty and contrasting parts with screaming that sound like breakdowns.
You’ll be ending your big year with a homecoming show at The Bodega on 14th December. What has changed in your headlining repertoire since your first headline show there last March?
Oscar: I suppose with show repertoire as a whole, as we’ve all played together longer, we’ve got more comfortable on stage and more used to each other’s playing styles. So we’re able to jam things out together better and because we’re more comfortable with the playing side; it’s easier to put on a bit more of a show and get into the emotion of the songs.
Shortly after your latest release, we already have ‘Patchwork’ to look forward to. What about this song are you most excited to share with everyone?
Oscar: Patchwork is an old song we used to play about a year and a half ago that we weren’t happy with at all, so we dropped it from the set. Then, I can’t really remember why but we jammed it, messed about with it and now it’s back and we’re actually happy with it. So I suppose we’re excited to share how we’ve developed together and been able to refine our sound to what it is now. It’ll most likely keep changing as time passes but that’s all part of the fun.
Your new single ‘Everything but the Hate’ flows like a river in an impending storm, both sonically and emotionally. Is there any backstory behind the creation of that song that you’d like to share?
Oscar: The lyrics for the song were originally a poem about feeling home sick, missing time with family and friends, before we grew apart. Whilst I suppose, also being envious of those who get to grow up and stay safe and happy with their family and friends, their whole lives. The song, musically, has this slow, pretty start and builds to a crescendo, which whilst noisy and angry, still has beauty in its own way, which goes hand in hand with the lyrics and meaning of the song perfectly, for me anyway.
If flames stole the hate and left something else in your hands instead, what would you want it to be?
Oscar: If the flame stole the hate I would love for it to leave me a lifetime supply of vegetable samosas in my hands.
Is there anything about being a band that you still have questions about and would want to learn more?
Charlotte: We don’t know how to be a big band yet. How we engage with companies, for example. There’s a lot of things we haven’t had to do yet at our level and can learn as we expand.
How did you all collectively make the decision to move to London after a success in Nottingham?
Oscar: We’ve all reached points in our lives where we want to try something new so it’s really exciting that it’s worked out this way, where we can carry on playing as Otala. It’s the first time we will all actually live in the same city so hopefully it’ll let us write and gig more and keep growing as a band.
What is another passion of yours that you enjoy, or would like to pursue, outside of making music?
Oscar: A lot of poetry I write goes into the music. Maybe my own poetry book.
Charlotte: I want to go into the music industry side of it, that’s what I’m pursuing at the moment. I really like music journalism, writing about music, DJing, vinyl, etc. Everything music related, I try and dip my toes into.
Are there any musicians distinctive to your sound that you’d be open to drawing inspiration from in the future?
Oscar: Charli xcx
If you had to choose one song from BRAT to inspire an Otala song around, which song would it be?
Charlotte: I think we should cover ‘Apple’. Otala’s ‘Apple’ cover at our next gig.