Photo Credit: Jon Karr
Having been called “psych rock in its most pure and raw form” (Glide), it’s clear Oberon Rose is a band that is letting the music do the talking. Wherever the muse leads them, though, thought provoking lyrical image-ry and engaging melodic hooks are always at the forefront.
Made up of the songwriting duo of Tommy Oberon and Rebecca Rose, the band got its start in New York City. Now based out of Nashville, Oberon and Rose have found inspiration in the Music City. This can be heard on their new release, Purple, Blue & Crimson. Released via ThouART Records the record stays true to the duo’s writing style and in-fluences, yet it is imbued with a bluesier feel.
Purple, Blue & Crimson marks the 4th studio album for Oberon Rose. With Oberon serving as both engineer and producer, Oberon Rose has been able to write and release truly independently. The duo feels this freedom has allowed them to really shape their sound; they record in their own studio, produce the records themselves, and they release al-bums on their own label.
“We didn’t start out with the idea of self-releasing on our own label” says Rose. “As we really began writing and recording, we liked the artistic freedom that came with total creative control.” Oberon continues, “I rec-orded, produced, arranged and engineered this album in our home stu-dio. It’s just a bare bones project studio with a top-quality interface, some decent microphones, and good instruments. Preparation, attention to de-tail and a lot of patience was how I achieved a quality recording.” That obsession with detail and deep reserve of patience led to the creation of a finely polished piece of pop art.
Oberon says, “A recent review said that Purple, Blue & Crimson reminds them of a classic 70s rock album in the sense that each song on the al-bum is very different from one another.”
Apparently, so do others.
A “dynamic combination of folk, country, blues, glam rock and classic pop” is how BBC Radio 6 presenter Amy Lamé describes their sound. While Gary Crowley of BBC Radio London called their recent single “a real earworm for me this week” and said Oberon Rose is “clearly a band with impeccable influences.”
As the lyricist, Rose likes to give the listener space to use their imagina-tion. “Two people can listen to the same song and have two very differ-ent ideas of what it is about. That is what excites me about lyrics, the endless possibilities that the listener brings to them. I like lyrics that cre-ate a place for you to escape to.”
We hope that Oberon Rose will be inspiring imagination and offering es-cape for years to come. You can catch them at a show in and around the Nashville area this spring and summer.
