Tag, You're It: Singer Justin Suitor From Railroad to Alaska Interviews Singer Brandon Seger From OMAHA

Tag, You're It is Heard Mentality's weekly interview feature. The concept is simple: One local artist picks another local artist to interview, then the interviewee becomes the interviewer of an artist of his or her choice the following week.


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Justin Suitor: How do you feel about heavy rock getting positive attention in Orange County again?

What made you want to start screaming for OMAHA?
When we started, the first tune we wrote was “Evil Eye.” We had all of the music for it. It came to a point where either I was going to sing it, or we were going to have to find a vocalist.
The fear of having to deal with getting a singer and the potential personality conflicts drove me to try really hard. I had a sound in my head, and I knew what I wanted to do. So I went to the studio. It was a rainy day. I was singing over the instrumental in the car on the way down, and it wasn't coming out the way that I heard it in my head.  So I turned the music up louder. I remember the windshield wipers going back and forth. I was in Vernon, and I just fucking let it go. The chorus for “Evil Eye” is what came out.
I've been finding myself ever since.
 
All of the lyrics I've heard from you have been really straightforward. Why have you favored straight talk as opposed to the more abstract and surreal styles of writing lyrics?
It seemed like at the birth of the alternative scene, Nirvana re-popularized obscure lyrics that were hard to figure out. Initially it seemed very artistic and interesting because there was a meaning behind it. But what that turned into was people being able to just spout words and say, “I'm obscure, I'm an artist.”
I'm sorry, if there's no substance behind your obscurities, there's nothing to it.
For me, I really wanted our lyrics to be straightforward. So all of our lyrics are pretty much plain and out there because the motives behind them are true.”
 

What's your personal connection to the anger involved in OMAHA?
I'd say that the time period between age 25 and 30 was the genesis of that anger. It was a time where I was making a lot of bad decisions and wasting a lot of time. It's hard not to look back on that period and feel like I could have been doing this then. It's not healthy to do that, but feeling like I wasted the prime of my youth making bad decisions makes me angry. 
If I could say one last thing, it would be to young musicians who are thinking about putting bands together.  Try playing some heavy shit.  It's honest music, the bands you end up meeting and playing with are down to earth and the audience reaction reflects and feeds the intensity of the live performance.  There's nothing quite like it.

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