Artist Of The Week #253 - Otto ADay
This week’s Artist of the Week is singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Otto Aday - who has just released his debut album ‘Persona’ via Bay Street Records.
From a converted old post office in the tiny Welsh valley town of Ferndale to recording his debut LP in Nashville with Eurythmics' Dave Stewart, Otto Aday's life is characterful to say the least. Agnostic of eras and genres, London-based singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and producer Otto Aday's music could be uncorked in any decade and still resonate.
Blissfully nostalgic melodies, British rock 'n' roll energy and cinematic scope spiked with a bit of sixties psychedelia anchor his debut LP, Persona. "Each song on the album is about a moment or a person that left an impression on my life," Otto affirms. "These songs are the breadcrumbs of these moments that I'm leaving behind.”
He took a moment to talk to us about how the album came together.
Hey there Otto Aday - how are you? So your album is out now - how does it feel to have it out there in the world?
I'm excited, I've flown past the moon & stopped by mars. Just finished playing the Cardiff album launch show last night. Really buzzed to have this record in the world. I've come from a small village town in Wales busking in the street, to releasing this album with some of the best session players on the planet. Feel like a king.
It is called ‘Persona' - what is the meaning behind that?
A lot of the album is written about growth and some of the persona's that take hold as you grow. Most of the songs started as folk songs which is where my love of music is rooted, but when going into production we wanted the songs to sound larger than life and take on a persona themselves. The name encapsulates that grand sound that those small folks songs turned into.
Where was it recorded? Any behind the scenes stories from the creative process you are happy to share with us?
I worked really closely with Dave Stewart (Eurythmics) who helped produce the "Persona" album, we were working remotely on these songs for a while, it started out as a six track EP and while waiting for production to kick in I'd written more than enough for an album or two. The majority of them started in my home studio, then got sent to Dave either in his studio in the Bahamas or Blackbird studios in Nashville, TN. While in the Bahamas Dave played the songs in their old state to Bob Geldoff and they talked about recording it in Nashville. Cut to a month later & I was in Addiction Studios with some of the best Nashville session players, and we tracked the rest of the album in two days.
We also mastered "Persona" at Abbey Road Studios which was dreamy & had a session in Strongrooms in Shoreditch for "Hearts". The making of this album is chokablocked with stories. Let's start with "Star Crossed Lovers". I met a young lady in a hostel in York while I was dressed as Charlie Chaplin. We went on a wild adventure across the UK stopping in every town that we passed that looked like it had a story waiting for us. That adventure inspired the lyrics but it was a horrific night in Nashville that inspired the chords (p.s I adore Nashville). I was heading to a waffle house with a friend while we were trying to get rid of my really bad jet lag before the studio sessions started. We ended up witnessing a gang shootout. Waking up the next morning I sat at a piano and those chords came out of me. On the light side, the inspiration behind -STOP- was buying an old vintage typewriter; those noises are running throughout the song. A funny moment that sticks out is Dave trying to make a shaker sound with a bag of panettone when we were making "Hearts". It was fitting because that song is about falling out of love with the journey & the journey of creating that song was a joy from start to finish. There were a few vodka martinis fueling the creative fire throughout the album.
What are the key themes and influences on the album?
I look at songwriting as storytelling, all of the songs on "Persona" are the best stories that are in my life so far. Some of the songs are very literal while others cover the narrative of finding myself, losing love and growing into the person that I am today. The album has been influenced by both the people in my life and discovering who I am now, compared to who I used to be. Sonically, they started as folks songs and then went on a journey of their own into a much larger cinematic sound. Working on the album with award winning music icons from the 70's definitely left "Persona" sounding classic yet refreshing. I think what makes it refreshing is taking a British style of songwriting to Nashville and meshing the two worlds together to create something rather unique.
If the album could be the soundtrack to any film - which one would it be and why?
I had someone say that the songs would be amazing in a Baz Luhrmann film. I could see them fitting in something like "The Great Gatsby" or "Romeo & Juliet". This album is cinematic through and through, it's larger than life in its movements but also very personal so I think it would work perfectly with those types of films.
Do you have a favorite lyric on the album - if so, which one and why?
"Westcoast lost girl, in a hostel". I think great songwriting can sum up a situation in the least amount of words and that lyric sums up the moment that inspired that song perfectly, I also love an interesting rhyme.
Now the album is out there - what next?
I'll be playing a bunch of festivals, first up is M for Montreal 2023, there's a couple others lined up that I'm really excited about that I can't say yet. I'm then touring across the UK, & then hopefully the US in 2024. I'm keeping my eyes peeled for a manager & an agent. I've already started writing the second album and can't wait to see what's to come.
