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OjOutLaw
By Kiley Stevens
Dan O’Brien, the lead singer and songwriter of Australia’s gritty rock group, OjOutLaw, has always had the music in him. “I wasn’t the most popular kid in school, or at home,” said O’Brien. “I couldn’t see the light at the end of the tunnel, but I had rock music.”
Beginnings
Referring to his teenage years, O'Brien, always felt that the superstars of rock were speaking directly to him through their music, and even calls them the soundtrack to his youth. As a teenager, O’Brien played the harmonica in various visiting blues bands, and began singing and writing lyrics in high school. He went on to say that “Music has always played a big role in my life. It’s a soundtrack and the place I escaped to from reality as a young kid.” Currently residing in the north east of Melbourne, Australia, O’Brien says the town he lives in inspires his sound: “(The town) has a very healthy mix of Irish bars and live rock venues with fantastic bands that play weekly. It has a grungy, free, feel that translates into our songs” he says. However, there is a deeper story behind OjOutLaw, which O'Brien himself reveals in the following Q&A session.
Q&A discussion from the eyes and ears of Dan O’Brien
Q: How did OjOutLaw meet?
A: When I was 13 in 1988, I was sent to boarding school. I met Jon, the bass player and guitarist, at a jam session night playing with samplers and a bass. Crissy (guitarist, keytar) was a photography and music day student. The three of us formed a band and would hang out at the local park on weekends to jam. We’ve had a few drummers over the years, Steve, our drummer now, would come to see us play in sheds and halls in the early years, and would fill in on drums during demo recordings until he became a full member of the band in 2002.
Q: Where did the name OjOutLaw come from?
A: Originally, we were more an industrial rap and punk outfit, and called ourselves “DemoDee.” I was a big fan of Alice Cooper and David Bowie and wanted to create a sarcastic “Dumb Luck” villain-eqsue type character for myself. In 1994, we changed our name to OjOutLaw, inspired from the news broadcast of Oj Simpson and the Los Angeles Police Department five-hour low speed Bronco chase down an L.A. freeway. The bizarre, “dumb”, outlaw actions seemed to fit the persona for the band. We became OjOutLaw from there.
Q: How has your sound developed since you started the band?
A:In the early years, we used a lot of keyboards, samplers, keyboard guitars, and added distortion. I wanted to fuse electronic beats and sounds with punk style vocals and lyrics. Ten years later, Marilyn Manson had broke through with the sound we were chasing, and the band was becoming more pop and rock in style and in my lyrics. In 2007, we traded the dominated synths and keys for electric guitars and a drum kit, and had enough money stored away to deck out our own studio, hire additional session guitarists and even small orchestra pits for a lusher pop sound in our quieter moments. This allowed us to create the “new” OjOutLaw into a hard rock/alternative style outfit that we are better known for these days.
Q: Tell me more about the transition between different genres.
A: We record a lot of our free jamming sessions, and play everything from 12-bar blues to punk rock and even some dance beat ideas. Some of those demos evolve into our tracks. We’re mainly known as hard rock because it’s hard to place us in a genre. Our first EP as the “new” OjOutLaw was called “The Third Degree” in 2007. For the most part, it was a stripped back acoustic guitar EP with a death metal track smacked in the middle to confuse the listener [laughs]. The same year, we released the EP “Social Psycho” which they called college rock and pop punk, but that album had a Lou Reed meats Meatloaf style piano ballad at the end and a few 12 bar rock tracks in the middle. Our 2011 release “Hellbound” opened with a classic rock style track and moved into hard, alternative rock, and our new album “Mojo Side Effect” has retro pop and synth grove tracks in the mix of rock and roll and grunge rock. I enjoy writing for a variety of moods and tastes as it reflects my own. Depending on what songs people have heard, we have been compared to Alice Cooper, Ozzy Osbourne, Green Day, The Clash, Nirvana and even Nickelback.
Q: I recently wrote an article about how rock these days has no teeth, music has been consumed by pop. I like that you’ve brought the angst back to rock music, but is it hard to get people to listen to something they’re not accustomed to?
A: I agree (rock has no teeth). Somewhere down the audio evolution we got watered down and fed Ritalin laced with Sacchin. [Laughs]. It’s not hard at all, in fact, it’s only the media, radio and music television stations that saturate us with pop. American Idol and X-Factor won’t even let a rocker in the door, but that’s a good thing. We have fans who are kids, and fans who are just like us. Rock music has always been the gritty underground sound. That’s what makes it “popular” and keeps its identity in tact. We don’t get the exposure a pop princess may get, but we hope records like ours will continue to rattle and challenge the white picket fences of pop, and sit in between Kylie Minogue and Madonna in household music collections and mp3 units. Sometimes we suck people in with a lil’ pop song and then hit them with a hard rocker [laughs]. Our music has found its way into some interesting places because it’s not saturated and done to death and we are blessed to be discovered and re-discovered by new and old fans of rock music.
Q: What do you feel is lacking about rock music in today’s music industry?
A: Balls. So many rock bands have watered themselves down to appeal to a greater market, which usually means they “pop” up their sound. Sadly, there’s a lack of raunch, sex, seedy and sleaze that used to make you wanna buy a rock record! Where did the fun go? Too many are afraid to offend, too. A good rock song should offend someone, somewhere. You can’t please everyone, it’s rock. It’s about pleasing yourself.
Q: What does OjOutLaw do to fill the gap?
A: We make the kind of records I hope inspires the kids with parents who played in the kind of bands that inspired us when we were kids. I grew up feeling like a misfit from a broken home. I write the songs that hopefully give kids in the same position a place to relate and a reason to smile and rock out.
Q: Similarly, how do you think you are doing these differently as a band?
A: We answer all of our emails from fans and listen to what they like. All our songs play out the story of the character OjOutLaw. Our albums are concept albums and the story is somewhat influenced by true events in my life and our fans.
Q: What is the most important thing that you would like your fans to know about OjOutLaw?
A: The most common question we are asked is if the songs I write are based on true events or fictional. Most of the songs I write are based on events of my past, stories from friends and even news stories.
Q: What would you consider your greatest accomplishment, as a band, or as an artist?
A: Throughout the years with my band I’ve learned to fine tune my song writing and gain technical experience as a sound engineer. Also, the first time we played a gig and the crowd was singing along to our songs was a real kick for us. We were still a young band, but gained some success with songs like “Tragic Move” and “Waiting for Yesterday.” When we played them live and heard the crowd sing them back to us, it was a moment we felt we had arrived.
Q: Where do you hope to be in five months from now?
A: We have released a new album this year, “Mojo Side Effect” to reverbnation.com, and just completed the tracks for our forthcoming album “Sneaky Meat” in 2014. In five months, I hope to be playing our Mojo tracks to a live and wild crowd. In five years? It’s always been hard for me to see that far. I guess I hope our band are still together and enjoying playing as much as we do now and the OutLaw fans are still with us, as strong and loud, supporting us as they do now.
Q: Are you excited about the new album?
A: “Sneaky Meat,” which will come out in 2014, is our best album yet. We were all in the zone for this one. It feels like a 1997 OjOutLaw album in energy, I’m vocally and lyrically at my personal best. It’s, for the most part, our most optimistic hand pumping album. There’s a raunchy tracked called “Millie Blue” with vocal screams that I didn’t think I had in me. And for the first time, OjOutLaw introduces…a love song; a tearjerker and some Springsteen like 12 bar rock. We also have soft rock and a Shock Rocker to keep the censors nervous [laughs]. All the elements are there—sex, tragedy and irony. It’s the OjOutLaw album I’ve always wanted to make.
Making music a reality
When Dan isn’t writing songs or working on the next OjOutLaw album, he engineers for other bands, promotes and DJs music events. For right now, O’Brien is enjoying getting in tune with his band mates, friends of his since boarding school in the late ‘80s. The band has toured both in Australia and other countries, making their first appearance in the United States and Canada in 2007.
“We loved Michigan,” said O’Brien. “They like their rock!” Accordingly, they would love to come back to kick off their “Sneaky Meat” album tour in 2014. “To be honest with you, we have always aimed our music at the states, you guys have embraced us, and the US fans treat us like one of their own. We’d like to thank them with a tour.”
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