Welcome to another Tiny Desert Concert — that's when we bring local Arizona bands into the KJZZ studios to play a couple songs for us and talk a bit about the music.
For January, we hear from Nanami Ozone.
Comprised of two guitarists, a bassist and a drummer, the band’s soul is in garage rock, but their sound is a mash of beachy chords that would fit well at any summer party. The band’s members say the ease of their sound comes partially from their friendship, which you can hear in their writing.
The Show started by asking guitarist and vocalist Sophie Opich how they came together.
You can hear all the band's music on their Bandcamp page and stay up to date on their latest news on Facebook.
Full conversation
SOPHIE OPICH: Definitely, we have all been in several different projects, and we've known each other all for years, but not all of us had played together as this quad, and it kind of came at like a moment where some of our other bands were dissolving, and some people were moving out of town and coming back into town, and so we just got really lucky, where we had known each other for years. We're all four best friends, and now we get to make music together all the time.
STEVE GOLDSTEIN: Yeah. So does the best friend thing help you, in terms of from some standpoint of like actually finishing each other's sentences in kind of a musical way?
OPICH: I think it definitely helps, because we're already used to being vulnerable with each other, or feel comfortable shutting someone down like it's not going to be something that is life-changing or heartbreaking. We're used to kind of talking shop with each other, and there's a precedent that was set already with our friendship that definitely translates to writing lyrics and songs and having a lot of the same taste too in other music.
GOLDSTEIN: So I’m someone who grew up listening to a lot of music in the let's say, ‘80s and ‘90s. And when I look at the makeup, not your sound, but the makeup of it, I see two guitarists, I see the bass player, and I see the drummer, which is sort of the classic sort of rock lineup, for sure. How does that work for you guys?
OPICH: It works, actually, pretty well. All of us have played all the other instruments that we don't play now, actually, there's like, a funny thing that we do sometimes at practice where if you get into a rut, it's like, OK, now move to the instrument to the right. So it's nice that it is two guitars with bass and drums.
It feels accessible to us, you know, it is interesting to think about. We've talked about this before, too. Like there isn't a ton of super popular stuff that is guitar music. Hopefully we're catching a future wave, you know, hopefully this is gonna be coming back. And even if it's not, we still like it, you know.
GOLDSTEIN: OK, Sophie, why don't you and the rest of the band play a song for us?
OPICH: Great. This is a song called “Wet Mouth.” It's from our first album “Desire.”
[MUSIC]
GOLDSTEIN: Some people, and maybe a lot of people, would describe this as sort of a breezy sound, but with other influences, maybe, maybe a little bit of psychedelic, maybe a little bit of sort of British music from, you know, mid-last-century kind of thing.
OPICH: I can hear that.
GOLDSTEIN: What is the inspiration for that kind of combination?
OPICH: I mean, I think that it's the sound that we have is born out of a lot of garage rock, is what we all really got into playing, and from that, we all kind of wanted to try to do something softer, because we'd done the same thing forever, and now we're all sort of back into the tones that we missed we've been listening to, like Smashing Pumpkins and stuff lately.
We're reaching back into that ‘90s alternative a little bit. And so just combining what we like about the dreamy, like, surfy sort of pop that has been popular lately, and then combining what our personal tastes are, that's kind of how this is born.
GOLDSTEIN: When you talk about dreaminess. See, I identify the desert with dreaminess. And I wonder, is there any creative juice that comes from being in a place that, you know, it's a kind of pretty unique place?
OPICH: Absolutely. I think that a lot of the desert is dreamy, just how wide open it can be. And something about being real sweaty and everyone else is real sweaty, and there's less inhibitions, you know, than when you're in Chicago or something and you're all bundled up. And I think that being able to, or being forced to, I guess, walk around outside so you're not inside all day in the middle of the summer, kind of like starts to get to your brain and be allow you to not be as closed off as other places might need you to be, and even when you are stuck inside, then there's like an opportunity to just buckle down and work on a ton of stuff, because it is sometimes terrible to go outside you know.
GOLDSTEIN: OK, Sophie, why don't you take us out on a song?
OPICH: OK, thank you again for having us. This is a new song that we're working on. It's gonna be on our upcoming album.
This performance was filmed at KJZZ's youth media center, SPOT 127.
If you’re in a band or know of one you’d like to hear on air, send us a note at [email protected].
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