Jake Oni On Oni

Not only is Oni’s debut album, Ironshore, packed with instrumental prowess and in-depth songwriting, but the disc shows plenty of ingenuity in the shredding.  After all, how many bands, metal or otherwise, can boast of playing a xylosynth in their music?

With Ironshore arriving Nov. 25 via Metal Blade Records / Blacklight Media, Oni was upbeat while conversing with Pollstar from his Cayman Islands home. Whether talking about opening for acts like Max & Iggor Cavalera, making new fans, or missing his family while out on the road, Oni painted a picture of a hard-working band that’s always seeking to reach new heights of musicianship with each and every show.

What’s going through your mind in the weeks leading up to the release of your debut album?

A lot of stuff.  This is the first impression that you have.  You only get one of them so you’re excited but nervous-excited. So far, a lot of people like it from what they’ve heard.  I’m pretty happy about that.  Stoked overall, man … [about] the whole band’s involvement. … More than just singing.  A lot of time went into the project.

What did you learn from the recording experience that you weren’t aware of before it began?

I’ve definitely learned a lot.  These things take time.  I think I’ve learned mostly about the album-making process.  I thought it was going to be out a lot sooner than it was.  It turned out to take a lot more time, just getting everything together for its release.  … Working with a producer, learned a lot about that.  A lot of give and take there. 

It’s funny.  People’s opinions change when it comes to recording with a band. Things that everyone thought we mutually agreed upon, all of a sudden spring up at the last minute.  Just learning how to deal with people … and things like that. Overall it was a really great experience for me.  It was a lot of fun. It’s something we can always be proud of that we think will stand the test of time.

A band’s debut album often contains the best songs a group has come up with at that time.  Did you have more songs than the nine tracks on the album?

We did.  When the producer came in to work with us, we redid a lot of the vocals that I’ve been practicing … my whole life.  In a lot of ways it was like a last-minute thing … even though it was our first record.

You have a very heavy touring schedule.  Do you play every track on the album while on tour?

We’re playing new stuff … Not doing any covers. … We like playing songs off of it. We don’t even play the whole album, depending on who we’re playing with.  We try to do a heavier set overall.  Depending on who we’re touring with, maybe a little more progressive set, some of the more out-there tunes.

It’s a lot of work, man.  I’d say one of our songs we play more notes than a lot of bands do.

One of the descriptions most mentioned with the band is “technical progressive metal.”  Can you go into that a bit?

Here’s the thing about progressive metal.  It’s not really a genre.  It’s not like how thrash metal is a genre.  A lot of thrash metal bands sound like this because they do these things.

Progressive metal doesn’t have that.  Tool and Meshuggah are progressive metal and Queensrÿche is progressive metal but none of them sound the same.  It’s much more a style.  They’re in all different genres. … You can argue that Slayer, Anthrax, they have moments of similarities.  Thrash or even nu metal … can kind of sound similar.

Prog isn’t like that. … Our genre is melodic death metal but we still have the progressive element in there and then it becomes progressive, if that makes sense.  That’s what we’re going for.  Basically we just want to be boundless and do whatever we want to do.  We don’t want to be tied down to writing songs one way.  For us it’s about art and we like to change. By being a progressive band, it kind of warrants change.  It’s all good. … We’re very much down with expressing ourselves at the time.  Like, we’ll never do an album that sounds exactly like the one before.

Does a song have to be a killer tune when performed live in order for the band to consider it for an album?

No.  We never really think like that.  We just write the songs, then learn them live. Our stuff is too technical to just write in jam room.  We do, obviously, but if one person has an idea or a riff, we’ll build around that … and it becomes something new.

We’ve all been in projects before where it’s been like the same thing.  That’s not how we do things in Oni.

How did Randy Blythe end up appearing on the track “The Only Cure”?

His producer, Josh Wilbur, produced our record and mixed it.  We wanted to get a guest vocalist on one of the songs.  We were shooting around ideas and he was like, “Man.  Ask Randy to do it and I’ll bet you he would.”

He was super-cool about it.  Just an awesome guy.  He recorded vocals, it turned out sick, a super-heavy tune.  Then he even played live with us.  A nice guy.

Did he come into the studio and lay down the vocal with the band or did he send you the track?

He recorded it in the studio with me and Josh.  I just let him do his thing.  I was like, “Whatever you want to write in this part.”  There’s a breakdown at the very end of the song that the band had cut. … I was like, “We should bring that one part back, it’s super-heavy.”  I just left it for Randy.  I felt he was the coolest, most vibe part of the song.  He liked it a lot, too.  He wrote all his own lyrics for it.  We came up with the concept together, about open-heart surgery and how gnarly it is.  That’s what we wrote the song about. We wrote it in a few days.

What sparks an Oni song?

So many different things. Me and the bass player [Chase Bryant] write all the lyrics and name the songs.  We’re the ones going into the concepts of it and everything.  But I wouldn’t say this album is a concept album, necessarily.  Our next one will definitely be a [concept album].  It will all be about one thing.  This one is more like a set of … dark ideas or whatever, that don’t necessarily make sense together but we’ve thought long and hard about all the songs. … There’s a [song] about Friedrich Nietzsche’s philosophy.  Like if you lived every day again for the rest of your life, would it be a blessing or a curse? Then Chase, on “Barn Burner,” he wrote a song about a dream he had that is all super-crazy and weird.

[Inspiration] can be anything.  One song, where our bass player was tripping super-hard on acid and shit, wrote a song with that. … It’s just from things we’ve done, stories that have happened between us.  Shit we have to exorcise in our own ways as well.  So many different things.  I can be inspired by a movie, like a horror film. I’ll find an old podcast, learn something weird, gnarly alien documentary stuff.  It can be anything. … Then the lyrics just flow out of me.

And Chase, too.  We go for different styles.  I definitely go for the more kind of grindy, out there gnarly stuff.  And he’s definitely a bit more about painting a picture, a little more abstract.  It’s just different styles but they work really well together. It’s fun.  I love writing lyrics.  I’m always writing.  When we’re on tour, we still write on the road.  If we have time before we play we’ll just hang out, remember some riffs and … [create] some stuff.  We’re always writing, trying to make new stuff.

The new album comes out while you’re on the road.  Will the setlist change once it’s released?

I don’t think so.  We’re only playing stuff off of our record and we only have, like, a half hour. … I still think live is always going to be a little different. … We incorporate things from the album in a different way, live.  We’ll take a part of a song and make it the intro for the whole set but not play that song at all.  Just different ways we can incorporate the whole album as much as possible, given our time limit and the fact that we’re the opening band. 

We just pick our favorite songs that day.  We have sets One, Two and Three.  Different songs, different orders that we’ve rehearsed vigorously.  We’ll pick a set and go on stage, throw it down and rock ’n’ roll.

Life as the opening act – is it something where you’re rushed to get on stage, rushed to get off and into the bus and head to the next gig?

It’s definitely rush, rush, which is fine.  Some days we have to cut a set where our rigging is intense.  We have a lot of gear.  There’s six dudes in the band and it’s hard, sometimes, to get everything up and running. …  A lot of days you have to cut a few songs, that’s life.  But then there’s days we go on early and play a whole set, take our time, whatever.  It’s just one of those things you have to prepare for.  A lot of rushing.  We totally embrace the rush. It’s fun.

What about the band’s presence on social media?  Are you trying to balance accessibility with a mystique about the band?

I don’t even touch the social media stuff.  Chase does the Instagram. That’s not just my thing.

Are you doing meet & greets with fans?

I don’t know if the fans want that, but we hang out a lot with them, some days more than others.  Almost every show was like being in the crowd afterward, kind of wandering around. 

Regarding the fans who come for the headliner and experience Oni for the first time: what do you think is their biggest takeaway from catching that half-hour set?

We give them a lot of the underground uppercut, to be honest.  The type of music we do is so shreddy and technical that even if they don’t like the songs, they have to appreciate the shred.  It blows you off from out of left field.

We’ve been on two tours so far with The Devil You Know, and Max & Iggor Cavalera playing Sepultura songs, which are f***in’ awesome, but are not in the same style that we are at all. And the fans that are there might not be into progressive metal.  So I feel that we definitely bring the aura of shred … from a different world.  Like they’ve never seen a xylosynth in a metal band.

Our rule is, if we’re not in any pain after the show, then we didn’t do it right.  We didn’t give it our all. We’re going out to take no prisoners.  We have that guideline.  No one person in the band wants to be the weak link, ever.  The practicing is obnoxious.  We’re really tight and I feel people definitely appreciate that.

Are you a perfectionist?

I would say no.  I’m probably the least perfectionist of the people in the band.  Guys in the band?  Yes.  They are perfectionists, for sure.

No matter how good the album sounds or how great the night’s show was, are you and your bandmates  still thinking about how it could be better?

That’s actually what happened.  We got the album and we were already kind of upset with some things.  We can’t help it.  That’s just how we are…. Like the master’s a little one way or the other, you’ll hear one way in the mix.  Then it will go, get mastered and come back, and a few things are different. … It just gets under our skins that much more.  Just one of those things. (laughs)

With the new album just weeks from release and a pretty full touring schedule, are you having the most fun you’ve ever had?

Definitely. … There’s a certain amount of give-and-take for me, personally.  I have a very young family at home. I have an 8-month-old daughter and I’m missing a lot of precious time with her.  But at the same time, I’m fulfilling my dream, I get to sing every night with my friends.  That’s uncommon for someone my age.  I’m the youngest person in my band.  I couldn’t be happier. I’m super-lucky to be where I am.

While growing up, were you the kid that was always singing songs, commercial jingles or anything you might have heard on radio or TV?

Yeah. I was singing from a young age, or whatever.  15 was when I kind of started wanting to take lessons and stuff.  I never thought it would be what I would do. I went to school for film.  I thought I’d do something completely different with my life.  I didn’t think it would work out for me to be a vocalist.  Funny how things change.

Do you think there might still be an opportunity to combine your passion for music with film?

I would say  I have my whole life to figure that out.  Right now I’m definitely focused on this band.  We just got signed to Metal Blade for a two album deal.  We have some proving to do, for sure.

If you could talk to the Jake from five years from now, what would you ask him?

I would ask him how our daughter is doing.  That’s the first thing that comes to mind.

What would you ask about the band?

How many albums have we done?  I feel it would be more than two.  That would be cool. If was three or four in five years, that would be awesome.

Upcoming Oni shows:

Nov. 17 – Oklahoma City, Okla., Thunder Alley Grill & Sports Bar
Nov. 18 – Kansas City, Mo., The Riot Room
Nov. 19 – St. Louis, Mo., Fubar
Nov. 20 – Indianapolis, Ind., 5th Quarter Lounge
Nov. 21 – Westland, Mich., The Token Lounge
Nov. 23 – Quebec City, Quebec, Imperial Bell
Nov. 24 – Montreal, Quebec, Metropolis
Nov. 25 – Toronto, Ontario, The Phoenix Concert Theatre
Nov. 26 – Chicago, Ill., House Of Blues
Nov. 28 – Cleveland, Ohio, House Of Blues
Nov. 29 – Milwaukee, Wis., The Rave
Nov. 30 – Minneapolis, Minn., Mill City Nights
Dec. 2 – Denver, Colo., Summit Music Hall
Dec. 3 – Salt Lake City, Utah, The Grand @ The Complex
Dec. 5 – San Francisco, Calif., The Regency Ballroom
Dec. 6 – Santa Ana, Calif., The Observatory
Dec. 7 – Phoenix, Ariz., Pressroom
Dec. 9 – Dallas, Texas, Gas Monkey Live!
Dec. 10 – San Antonio, Texas, The Aztec Theatre
Dec. 11 – Houston, Texas, House Of Blues
Dec. 13 – Atlanta, Ga., Heaven At The Masquerade
Dec. 14 – Charlotte, N.C., Neighborhood Theatre
Dec. 16 – Baltimore, Md., Baltimore Soundstage
Dec. 17 – Philadelphia, Pa., Theatre Of Living Arts
Dec. 18 – New York, N.Y., Irving Plaza
Dec. 19 – Brooklyn, N.Y., Warsaw
Jan. 10 – Milton Keynes, England, Craufurd Arms
Jan. 11 – Norwich, England, Waterfront Studio
Jan. 12 – York, England, Fibbers
Jan. 13 – Birmingham, England, O2 Institute 2
Jan. 14 – Manchester, England, Sound Control
Jan. 15 – Chester, England, The Live Rooms
Jan. 17 – Glasgow, Scotland, G2
Jan. 18 – Newcastle, England, The Cluny
Jan. 19 – Nottingham, England, Rescue Rooms
Jan. 20 – Sheffield, England, Corporation
Jan. 22 – London, England, Underworld
Jan. 23 – Swansea, England, Scene Club
Jan. 24 – Bristol, England, Bristol Fleece
Jan. 25 – Southampton, England, Engine Rooms

Supporting Exmortus through Nov. 21.  Supporting Children Of Bodom Nov. 23-Dec. 19.  Supporting The Devil You Know Jan. 10-25.

For more information, please visit Oni’s website, Facebook page, Twitter feed, YouTube channel and Instagram account.

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