Listen: Echo Ohs - You Don't Mind (UTR Premiere)

Auckland three-piece the Echo Ohs are one of our favourite locals acts to catch live but to date their recordings have been pretty thin on the ground, so we are absolutely over the moon to present the online premiere of their new cut 'You Don't Mind'. The striking psych-surf tune is surfacing as the group toil away on their debut full-length record which is being laid down on a somewhat temperamental reel-to-reel tape machine - but judging by this new track it will all be well worth the wait. Take a listen below, and while you do read our interview with bassist/vocalist Yolanda Fagan...

First up, who are the Echo Ohs and how did you get jamming together?

Echo Ohs are Yolanda Fagan (bass, vox), Guy Forks (guitar/tone man) and Emlyn (Slater) Williams (drums). Guy and I have been playing music together since we first met in the early 00s. Maybe 2003 or something. Guy taught me how to play guitar - along with our other friends at the time. We met at a Sonic Youth concert through a friend. We really truly had our first jam (my first jam of all time) that night. I'd never ever played bass before. Emlyn we met more recently. Our drummer left and I was looking for someone for us to play with and I brazenly asked him. I used to buy coffee off him all the time and knew he was a drummer. I was really nervous asking him. To be honest I don't think he was that keen at first? We are so lucky he did say yes.

Yolanda your voice is amazing… when did you discover you liked singing?

I'm not one hundred percent sure I do like it. I think a lot of people enjoy the act of singing. Singing in the shower and the car and stuff and I do like that kind of singing. I'm not so sure about what I do. When we started playing as this band we didn't have anyone else to do it. I really wanted to play the songs so I just tried not to think about it. I'm a bit brazen and foolhardy like that. I'm growing into it. I get a lot of encouragement from the band and that's why I do it.

You and Guy are also both also at the core of another band called Bozo. How do you separate out those two bands, especially when it comes to songwriting?

Bozo is really sideways. It's washy and jangley. Echo Ohs is more open and has a lot of space. It's got a much different groove. That'd be the different drumming styles.

Our approach to writing isn't that different. We work by feel. Mostly interested in tones and textures and really simple things that we concentrate on and work into. We do that with both bands but because of the different personnel the result is different. I drum in Bozo. Clearly it's a rudimentary style that I have. Naturally the songs have a different feel. It's little things that I guess because we pay so much attention to them make big changes to the way the sound comes out. That's my take on it anyway. I'm trying to think more about it but really I'm not that way about music. With the ideas I bring to the table for either band I just have a feeling that it's either a Bozo song or a Echo Ohs song.

Lyrics wise there's really no difference. A little bit on nonsense and rhyming and a little bit a hard truth'n and quite rightly it's hard to tell the difference.

What’s next on the cards for Echo Ohs?

We are making a full length album and Guy's recording it. It won't be too long though, its about 3/4's finished. We do it all in our studio to tape on an old Teac reel to reel. We've just got four tracks to work with and the machine is a bit touchy. It takes some love to get it working right. It's all we know how to do.

You can catch the Echo Ohs this Saturday 9th July supporting Invisible Threads at their 'Oxide' album release show, head over here for more details - and keep your eyes peeled for the Echo Ohs own release shows coming up real soon.