Oh Dear: ‘We always want to place life, friendships and family above music. Happiness comes first’
Katie King and George Parnell, formally of Valeras, are indie synth-pop outfit Oh Dear – we catch up with the duo and talk influences, self-producing and t-shirt competitions (not that kind).
First of all, how do you usually describe Oh Dear to people who haven’t heard you before?
George: Well we both come from a background of playing in a five-piece rock band [Valeras], but we never experimented much with production or self-recording. So when we got out of that band we saw it as a chance to do something completely independently, seeing how far we could make it just us and our friends, getting our mate to mix it, then another to master it. Make it without an expensive producer or mixer, as great as they are. So it’s bedroom poppy, experimenting with electronics and mad samples but from a background of people who like guitar bands.
Katie: It’s fun as well. We’re doing it because we enjoy it and love to write music. This is my first time properly writing lyrics and then singing them. It’s free and open and it’s fun because if we play in Birmingham [where George is based] the live line-up is slightly different to if we play in Liverpool [where Katie is based]. It’s whoever is around – anyone can be in the band if they really wanted to… and knew the songs.
George: When we started we didn’t want to force anything too hard. We like writing songs with gigs in mind, if we know one’s coming up we can try and write a song for that. We love creating situations that allow spontaneity and where fun random things could happen – the people playing with us can play the songs in their own style.
Katie: Giving people space to be themselves.
George: We’re usually quite faithful to the original tracks, there are no mad psychedelic jazz versions. But we do often have fun members. In Birmingham, we had my friend playing the tambourine — and beer bottles!
Katie: We don’t have a drummer either.
George: That’s very much inspired by Her’s [Liverpool-duo tragically no longer with us]. They played just the two of them. Such an inspiring, creative, original, bright and shining band.
Katie: Also it’s easier logistically not to have one. Drummers are sometimes harder to source… and also it’s nice to be able to hear your vocals.
Did you form with any idea how the music would sound?
George: Really we just made our first track [Everybody’s Moving] and we were just so chuffed that we were able to record it all ourselves. But, after that, we had a bit of a manifesto. From that song there’s a verse that goes: “Gotta keep it moving / it’s about spontaneity / you’ll never catch me writing instead of getting good sleep” – so we always want to place life, friendships and family above music. Happiness comes first.
What are your best gig memories?
George: We love doing our t-shirt competition — we buy loads of white t-shirts then draw logos and stuff on them and at every gig we give away a t-shirt. Everybody’s Moving is usually played last and the best dancer gets the t-shirt. It’s a bit of a strategy as it gets everyone dancing.
Katie: So you can’t buy the shirts… you HAVE to win them! I choose who the best dancer is but I don’t really have any credentials. (Laughs). It’s just the most beautiful thing to watch from the stage – obviously, these people had these moves in them but it gives people an excuse to loosen up and show them.
You guys had a gig last night, right?
Katie: Yeah it was amazing, we were supporting Holodrum at Future Yard, Birkenhead, over the water from Liverpool. Literally one of the best venues. We’d never played in Liverpool before and that’s where all my friends are. So everyone I know and love was there. What was our first gig? Was it Boiler Room?
George: It was Wokingham Town Centre.
Katie: No it wasn’t. Boiler Room was first.
George: No, it wasn’t!
(Both laugh)
What were those early gigs like?
George: We had a drummer! They were great but that was before we had any electronics or even a band name – playing in a power trio format.
So where did the name Oh Dear come from?
Katie: We just made a list of names and decided it was the best! I was surprised it wasn’t taken.
George: We rated them all on a spreadsheet and then added it up to see who got the best score. And it does to an extent represent the band because it’s funny but also slightly sentimental and romantic… and self-deprecating.
Katie, you’ve been touring with Pixey for a little while now, how did that come about?
Katie: When I moved to Liverpool in lockdown I didn’t have any friends around. So I was on Instagram and saw an ad for her music and thought ‘Wow, she plays everything and she’s a producer — I gotta meet her!’ So I messaged her and we met up for a coffee and we became good friends. Then she asked me to join her band. But she’s the best person ever — she came to the Future Yard gig last night!
Did you produce before Oh Dear formed?
Katie: Our first song was born from me doing a remix competition. And we pieced together a lot of songs we had already written. So we’d dabbled but I’d never made like a full song before. Also, I study it at Uni — I’m doing Music and Technology.
George: In our old band we saw a lot of great producers working and what they did was almost always a mystery to us but we loved it. Then in the last couple of years we decided to really give it a go ourselves and just sort of hash it out on Logic.
Katie: I think coming out of lockdown meant people were coming up with fun solo projects more than they were before. It inspired us to think ‘yeah, of course you can just make music yourself and put it up!’.
George: That six weeks where it felt like anyone could do anything… if there was ever a time to give something a go and it might not work, this was it, you know?
What are your biggest influences for Oh Dear?
George: Metronomy… also that sort of 2007/8 Hot Chip Alt-Pop, Alt-Dance era.
Katie: Where it’s minimal but all the elements are really good. That’s sort of how I see Metronomy.
George: You can tell they’ve come from more of a guitar-y band then gone down the rabbit hole of technology.
Do you use much hardware or do you mostly use software like Logic?
George: The live show is basically recreating the tracks with whatever we’ve got. We’ve got a MicroKORG but it doesn’t feature too heavily on the actual songs. It sounds cool, but we use it as more of a Swiss Army Knife to get lots of different sounds – it’s very wide-ranging, the stuff you can emulate, for a digital synth. For the tracks we often use the KORG Minilogue, we just borrow the one from uni – it’s become the new MicroKORG, in terms of THE accessible synth that every guitar band wants to have because it’s £300 and sounds cool straight out of the gate. We like sampling synths too, if you find an old synth on an old track. We don’t sample musical ideas, just little textures. Often if you create a synth patch from scratch, it can sound a bit dry – but if you sample some weird synth that’s got a bit of dusty record noise on it you get a really vibey sound.
Where do your songs evolve from?
Katie: Usually a musical idea. And when we’ve basically written the song, I’ll go away and write the lyrics. I like to write lyrics to a song that’s pretty much where it’s gonna be. When I’m writing, similar to the spontaneous thing, I want what I write to probably be the final thing and not have to jumble it around and make sacrifices.
George: Katie tends to write more of the lyrics and I do a bit more of the music. In the past, I’ve tried to force myself to write songs and it’s like the worst thing ever. Sitting down with a guitar and saying “I’m gonna write a song today” for me just seems a bit painful. What’s really nice is if you get some weird synth going [mimics the ‘dodododo’ of a synth line] and you hear one preset or sound and suddenly it generates great random moments.
Katie: I remember singing a Steve Lacy song and singing it completely wrong. And then George was like ‘What are you singing?’. I said ‘Steve Lacy’ and he went ‘No you’re not!’… but I was like ‘Well, I like that, shall we write it?’ (Laughs)
Oh Dear’s latest track, Silver Lining, is out now.