I discovered Omotai a few months back after buying a Black Breath album and the site “recommending” that I check out Omotai. I was not disappointed and decided to get in touch to find out more. Hit up the player to check them out and have a read to see what they’re all about, they’re supporting Yob and Dark Castle in the US soon.
Metalgigs: Firstly thanks for taking the time out to speak to www.metalgigs.co.uk could you introduce the band – who does what?
Sam: Cheers! My name’s Sam – I do guitar & vocals in Omotai.
Anthony: My name is Anthony Vallejo. I play drums and share vocal duties.
Ed note(Melissa is the bass player, and third member)
MG: All original members or?
Sam: We’re all founding members, and I have yet to be fired, that is correct.
MG: How did everyone meet? I heard craigslist? Can you explain this for those in the UK who aren’t aware of this?
Sam: CL is like the universal online classifieds in the States. You guys should totally jump on that shit. But yeah, Anthony and I hooked up through CL, then Melissa contacted us through the HandsUpHouston message board (hooray for cranky hipster douchery).
MG: I have read you formed in February 2010 is this correct?
Sam: Right on the money. We had a couple of rehearsals and went in to the studio to cut the first EP. That was all inside a couple of weeks in February of last year.
MG: ?Wow that is REALLY quick, how long has everyone in the band been playing their instruments for, i don’t know of many bands that can record something so competent and awesome within a month of getting together. Did you all have the same vision for the style of music?
Sam: We’ve all been playing for years & years. I wrote the first four or five songs we played, and Anthony & Melissa actually had ’em learned before even showing up for rehearsals. Since then we’ve written as a band, tho. As far as vision goes, we all seemed to be on the same page from the get-go. We all wanted to explore different time signatures & note progressions, but somehow avoid sounding like we’re trying to crack one off, dig? It also helps that we’re familiar and comfortable with each others’ tastes.
MG: ?Is anyone in other bands now? I read that Melissa was in Sharks and Sailors, and Sam was in Kvalla and Anthony was in Subjugator. Are any of these still going and are you involved?
Sam: Of those projects, the only one that’s still technically active is Sharks and Sailors, but I think they’re done apart from a posthumous 7″. I’ve got a one-person electronics project called Seacrawl that’s still in its infancy. Dunno, tho, I may have to shelve it to avoid embarrassing Omotai, ha! Anthony also plays guitar in a fine new band called Hesh-Law, although they haven’t unveiled anything yet.
Anthony: I played drums in Subjugator but we broke up before I joined Omotai. And yeah, I’m currently involved in a project called Hesh-Law with a friend of mine named Brandon. I share all the instrumental duties in that band though, guitar, synth, bass, drums. Whatever needs to be played, haha!
MG: ?I can’t find any music by Kvalla just a lot of blog and live reviews going F***in hell they are awesome and loud.
Sam: Well, Kvalla only lasted a few months. It was really fun, but there were too many mismatched & competing priorities for that band to stay together, I think. Anthony & Melissa were super-indulgent, though, and let me bring a couple of the Kvalla tunes on board for Omotai. I’d be more than happy to hook you up with some of the unreleased Kvalla material, too, for sure. Oh, and if anything, Omotai is way louder. Just sickeningly fucking loud.
MG: ?It seems you’re all pretty grounded in the local music scene playing in various projects prior to Omotai. Do you have long term band plans, is this a case of trying something to see the world and get to play with other bands you love or……
Sam: Well, the main point is to have fun, obviously, but yeah, it’s kind of a combination of the two. I’d love to make enough money touring to not have to come back to a day job. Dunno how realistic a goal that is, but we’ll see.
MG: ?What does everyone do outside the band?
Sam: Melissa’s a web-design guru, and Anthony teaches drums, mostly to tikes. I worked as a private investigator for a long time, but I’m currently looking for a gig doing soundtrack work for film.
MG: ?Where did the name come from? Does someone have a Japanese fetish in the band from too many awesome films or comics?
Sam: Um…I’ve got a pretty voracious anime/manga appetite, but I don’t think I’d consider myself full-blown otaku material or anything. As far as the name goes, a couple of my friends did time on the teaching circuit in Japan, and one of them suggested using a Japanese phrase for the name. Who knows, the name may sound like hot sticky dee to a native Japanese speaker, but that’s payback for Coaltar of the Deepers! (Can’t stay mad at that band, tho. They fuckin’ rip)
MG: ?When did you start touring, who have you toured with and where have you toured?
Sam: Rubbed our first tour out in July of 2010. Did the entire western half of the US in two weeks. We’re planning on another tour this summer, heading out to the Northwestern US, spending a couple of days in Missoula, MT for Total Fest & then heading back. We’ve done a little regional touring with some of our friends, like Lions of Tsavo (Austin, TX). Razorhoof (Monterrey, CA) also accompanied us for a couple of dates on our West Coast tour.
MG: ?Any favourite places you’ve played to recommend bands coming in from the UK?
Sam: I think most of our favorite out-of-town experiences have been in smaller places – Albuquerque, NM, Monterrey, CA, Portland, OR, and Missoula, MT all spring to mind. Locally, Dallas & Austin are great if you can get the right show hooked up. Playing to a room full of drunk, crusty, screaming Austinites is always tits.
MG: ?Any interesting/funny stories from the road?
Sam: Melissa fell down an entire flight of stairs with an armload of drums in San Francisco. Her ankle was swollen up like a motherfuckin’ grapefruit, son. Believe it. I got Lyme disease from a tick bite in a motel in Los Angeles. Anthony & I jumped off a two-story bridge in Missoula, MT. Oh, and Melissa had an ill-advised naked-serial-killer run-in with one of our promoters.
Anthony: While we were driving in the mountains in Montana we saw this guy kinda swerve a little bit to and fro and then suddenly pulled over really fast, jumped out of his car and projectile vomited all over the place.
Sam: Hahaha! Ah, dude, I totally forgot about that until just now! That was a good day.
MG: ?Care to expand on any of these particularly the naked serial killer run in? Also what do you guys do to keep amused/from going insane on the road?
Sam: Ha, it’s not as bad as I made it sound, just an unfortunate miscommunication on whether a shower was free. Naturally, Melissa’s still trying to forget it, and Anthony and I have been ribbing her about it for the last ten months.
Staying sane on the road is fairly easy. Anthony usually assumes DJ duties, and he’s pretty good at it. Knowing where to find serviceable bathrooms is key. Also, you can take one shirt and one pair of pants on tour, but unless you’ve got a hundred pairs of clean undies apiece, tempers are gonna flair. Trust me.
MG: ?Although people always claim it as lazy journalism naming similar bands always helps as a reference point for people to have an idea of the band sound. I would site Kylesa, Baroness and Mastodon. How did the band sound develop, who are your influences?
Sam: More current bands might be Boris, High on Fire, the Locust, Meatjack (RIP) & Nile. Older influences would be Godflesh, Dead and Gone, Cherubs (excellent but now-defunct Austin noise rock), Zeni Geva, Melt Banana, Unsane, and a pinch of golden-age Today is the Day. As a guitarist, my biggest influences would be Kim Thayil, Rockey Crane, and Scott Ayers (not that I play as well as they do…). As far as the band’s sound, I think we just always wanted to be fast & loud, and somehow find a happy medium between noisy dissonance and tunefulness.
Anthony: The sound has just sort of evolved as we’ve kept going. Especially now since we’ve gotten more comfortable with each other and have been writing together. I feel like we’re starting to cut our own groove and grow more as a whole.
As far as personal influence I’d say Matt Cameron,Phil ‘Philthy Animal’ Taylor, and Brann Dailor. Those dudes fucking rip!
MG: ?How is the scene in Houston for metal?
Sam: It seems kind of like the pendulum has swung away from metal a bit. At least in Houston. I think kids here are more into indie-ish stuff, lately. There are certainly some great metal bands in Houston, but the size of the city and the labyrinthine nature of transportation here make a cohesive, supportive scene difficult. People here don’t like you to play out too often, ’cause it’s a pain in the arse to get to most venues.
Anthony: It’s alright, probably not as good as it should be for a city of this size but it’s getting better. This is where the Chopped and Screwed style originated and we’re (arguably) the rap capital of the south so you know…
MG: ?How are turn outs for most shows with the sheer size of places in the states and the lack of transport? I’ll moan when a bands not playing my local cities, but they might be playing somewhere 3 hours away but for us brits that seems a long distance! Everything is bigger in Texas or so they say :)
Sam: Yeah, Houstonians make the Austin drive to catch shows all the time. We get skipped a lot when touring bands are coming through, so you get used to it. It makes it a lot easier when you tour, tho, ’cause your senses are kind of dulled to the monotony. In most every other way, the “bigger in Texas” thing is a fucking joke. Bigger cars = shittier air, bigger portions = myocardial infarct, etc...
MG: ?Can you recommend any Houston bands (or other smaller US bands we may not know of in the UK)?
Sam: Fuckin’ tons, mate: Lions of Tsavo (Austin), Razorhoof (Monterrey), Baring Teeth (Dallas), Big Fiction (Dallas again), Cavernous (Houston), Defending the Kingdom (Houston), Side Arms (Houston), Black Budget (Portland), Bitchwizard (Oklahoma City), Sharks and Sailors (Houston), etc…
Anthony: Off the top of my head in Houston: The Wrong Ones, Cavernous, Machinotaur, PLF, Helstar, DRI, Female Demand, Giant Battle Monster, Fox and Cats. They aren’t all metal bands but check em out! Bands not from Houston: Lions of Tsavo, Baring Teeth, Sun Hotel, Razorhoof, Bitchwizard, Big Fiction, Raging Slab.
MG: ?Lions of Tsavo are awesome, i have no idea what they put in the water over there but damn!
Sam: Oh, totally. There are some great fucking heavy bands in Austin. Like I said, I don’t think there’s quite as much of an appetite for metal in Houston right now, so it’s always good to know that there’re similar bands and a market in a nearby city. Austin does have some tasty-ass water, too, I must say…
MG: ?You released your EP and it’s available to stream on bandcamp. How has the reception been for this, I heard some crazy story you recorded it in a day or something? Is this the only release thus far?
Sam: So far, Peace Through Fear is our only release. We took a bit of a recording break after that because we wanted to be really sure that the songs we wrote for the follow-up record were well-conceived & executed. We don’t do a ton of extemporaneous songwriting – we try to put as much thought into things as possible. So far, the reception has been limited but great, although I think we’re pretty well due for another release. And yeah, all the tracking was done in one day. We roll.
MG: ?What formats did it come out on? I actually discovered it on emusic (music download subscription service kinda like music version of netflix) when purchasing Black Breath it recommended Omotai to me
Sam: It’s available in digital format on iTunes, Amazon MP3, Spotify, MySpace Music, MediaNet, eMusic, Zune, Nokia, Shockhound, Napster, Thumbplay, & IMVU. Basically any vendor serviced by Tunecore. We also have CDs available for mail order directly from us.
MG: ?A big part of my childhood was spent getting home opening up the cassette/vinyl and reading through all the lyrics whilst listening through the album. This has sadly been lost in the digital age as I only purchased the digital download – what do your lyrics deal with?
Sam: We all write & perform some of the lyrics. My lyrics are all over the place – I get influenced by writers (mostly Philip K. Dick), paranoia, insecurity, shame, anger, frustration, Cold War conspiracy shit, you name it. I think we’ve done a pretty good job of leaving politics out of our lyrics, tho. If it’s in there, it’s mostly just anger over politics, not the politics or issues themselves.
MG: ?Ok seeing as you mention writer influence could each member of the band name some books they feel everyone should read at least once in their lifetime? Whilst you are at hit, what about films, and albums?
Sam: Book – Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail ’72 by Dr. Hunter S. Thompson; Movie – Hana Bi by Takeshi Kitano; Album – If I had to recommend an album for everyone, it’d be Excitable Boy by Warren Zevon. A few records that’ve blown my mind over the years are Heroin Man by The Cherubs, Wonders of Giardia by Creeps on Candy, Days of Fire by Meatjack, and Emissions from Green Sessions by Dragon Green.
Anthony: Book – 1.Brave New World by A. Huxley a good friend recommended this book to me and it totally blew my mind. Films – 1.Detroit Rock City, 2.My Dinner With Andre, 3.Predator “If it bleeds, we can kill it.” Albums (In no particular order) : 1. The Doors- L.A. Woman, 2. Robin Trower- Bridge of Sighs, 3. The Misfits- Collection I, 4. Rush-2112, 5. Soundgarden- Loud Love/Badmotorfinger
Melissa: Book – Giraffes? Giraffes! by Dr. and Mr. Doris Haggis-on-Whey, Film: City of God, Album: Polvo ‘In Prism’. A recent recording I’d sit in on would be Jawbox – For Your Own Special Sweetheart.
Sam: Jus’ want to give a +1 on Huxley and also add his Ape and Essence to the list.
MG: ?Corleone Family Promoters in Bristol asked a question on facebook a while back to all their followers and it brought up some seriously amazing debates and answers so i have to ask it because it has had me thinking. If you could have sat in on any recording session for any album past or present what would it be? I have deliberated for this over the last day or two thinking of all the classic albums, master of puppets, arise, altars of madness, symphonies of sickness etc…..but i decided i’d have to go with Led Zeppelin IV.
Sam: Oh, wow, good question. If I was gonna sit in on Master of Puppets, it’d be so I could high-five Cliff Burton, then dick-punch the rest of ’em and say, “In twenty years you’ll understand.” My serious answer is that I think I’d wanna sit in on Climbing! by Mountain, just cause I’d have to see Leslie West record “To My Friend”. That track is a fucking deal with the devil!
Anthony: Any of the first six Black Sabbath albums but seeing as how I have to choose just one I’d say Master of Reality. BLACK FUCKING SABBATH!
Melissa: Past records, that kind of blows my mind to think about…probably something Led Zeppelin or maybe The Police – Outlandos d’Amour.
MG: ?What are your thoughts on the whole digital age – do you have plans for vinyl and tape releases or….
Sam: We’ll probably have some vinyl & cassettes for release as soon as the cash starts rolling in. I’m one of those guys who can’t really tell the sonic difference between an mp3 and high-quality vinyl, if it’s there. As far as I’m concerned, the whole “digital age” debate just breaks down to what formats people prefer in order to access the music, balancing quality and efficiency, etc.
MG: ?What release(s) do you have for the future, can we expect splits or a debut anytime soon?
Sam: We’ve got a couple of festivals to knock out, but in a month we’ll be in the studio to do our first full-length.
MG: ?s this self financed or are you signed based on the ep?
Sam: The Peace Through Fear EP was self-released. We’re pretty green (only been around for a year & change), so we’re still at a point where the DIY ethic is easy & makes sense for us. We’ve been kind of quietly building up our resumé, playing with a bunch of bigger bands & doing our best to impress, so that we’ll at least have some measure of cred when we actually start pestering labels to sign us. I think the full-length we’re about to record may be a smart jumping-off point, as far as label shopping, so fingers crossed!
MG: ?What direction is this heading in? I’m going to go out on a limb here but try to not offend. I really dug the ep but I felt the instrumentals were too short and they could have definitely developed further – they’d build a little and just as you start getting into them they finish. This was my overall feeling on the ep as a whole – I loved what I heard but everything was so short, 12 minutes and 5 tracks were over…maybe I ‘ve just been listening to too much Neurosis and expect every song to be 7 minutes or longer…
Sam: That’s a fair criticism, and we’ve gotten it before, but the songs were brief by design. Usually we’ll end up with five or six riffs that we know are going into a given song, and the discussion will be about distilling the song and making it effective and hard-hitting without being long-winded. Neurosis has always done the long-song thing pretty successfully, but I think a lot of derivative bands have kind of run wild with it and sucked a lot of the flavor out of it. We’ve gotten a lot more comfortable with writing & developing vocal parts, as well, and that’s helped to facilitate longer songs.
MG: ?i totally hear what you are saying about bands sucking the flavour out of it….
Sam: Yeah, I think it may just be an outgrowth of the doom-metal aesthetic. Who knows, maybe I’m not enough of a substance abuser to really appreciate it. There are some doom bands that get it right, tho. Brainoil is one example that springs to mind (and if you don’t know them, gentle reader, you really fucking should). In my opinion, it’s better if your listener thinks your song is too short. The last thing I wanna see is someone in the audience checking the time. I can think of dozens of bands (without naming names) who would go from good to great just by trimming the fat. Say what you’re gonna say, then get the fuck out!
MG: ?You mentioned a tour with Year Of No Light in your emails, is this still happening and if so when?
Sam: Well, that was something we were hoping for, but it’s not certain. A friend of ours put our name in the hat with YONL’s booking agency, but we’ll see. Not even sure if I’m supposed to be running on about it.
MG: ?When are you hoping to make it to Europe?
Sam: 2012.
MG: ?Will you be covering much of the UK if you get over? It seems a lot of bands come over and just play London and then head off to Europe. There are big scenes all over and some great promoters out there like Whiplash in Liverpool, Mutiny in Manchester and Corleone Family in Bristol putting gigs with amazing line ups on. I think a lot of bands miss out only hitting up London, Scotland has some great venues too and the crowds are nuts.
Sam: Sounds like you guys are ripe for some much-needed love, then. We’ll take it into heavy consideration when booking time rolls around. I fucking love the UK, but I haven’t visited near enough of it, so I’d be stoked to play wherever there’s a call for it.
MG: ?If people want to buy your releases/shirts where can they head online?
Sam: BandCamp. iTunes, eMusic, and any of the other outlets serviced by Tunecore. T-shirts & CDs are by mail-order directly from us.
MG: ?Do you have anything else you wish to add…
Sam: Thanks to MetalGigs! Have a pint for me. Maybe six.
MG: Thanks for taking the time out to answer our questions
Check more on the band here:
http://www.myspace.com/omotai?
and buy their EP for a mere $5 here:
like em on facebook here:
https://www.facebook.com/omotai?
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