a sea of
UNDEFINABLE
STUFF
“otherwise, you're
just getting in the
way of the music.
You have to give
up the security of
your elegance.”
Photo Credit: Gaya Feldheim Schorr
W
hen I met O Mer—or
Omer, something we’ll
get more into later—for
the first time, he was
performing in the back room of Alphaville,
a trendy bar in Bushwick that doubles as a
venue. The spot has become a fan-favorite
among emerging NYC-based acts, hosting
eclectic three- or four-band bills on a nearly
daily basis. He was the closer of the night,
following the notably more indie-rock
oriented Secret Crush and No Ice. By the
time he began playing, everyone was
sweating; it was the middle of July and the
back room lacks air conditioning. But,
somehow, there was something chilling
when he and his band took the stage. The
58
semi-electronic band pulled together soulful
and eastern influences to create a
performance unlike anything I had ever seen
before. He only had a couple of singles out
on SoundCloud at the time. When I sat down
with him again in anticipation of the
upcoming Refugee EP release, we
reminisced about that night.
“How long has it been since that
Alphaville show?”
“That was when I had just started
interning, so I think it was May or June.”
Actually, I was wrong; it was definitely in
July. But the rapidity of time passing was
evident, regardless.
“Wow, it’s been a sec,” he laughed.
The passage of time was surely more
www.clichemag.com
noticable for him than it was for me; we
discussed how I had been away at college,
while he had been working on his music
amidst record label complications that
derailed his progress multiple times. We
were still on the topic of Alphaville when
he brought up the road bumps: “The album
[Refugee] was supposed to be released then;
that was the initial plan.”
When he began telling me about why
the release was postponed so severely, it
turned into a story that—unfortunately—
many artists know all too well.
“We wanted to release it independently,
and we released the first single in February.”
He was referencing “Now I’m Alive,” the
breakout single that led me to his show in