Tag: Take It Back

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: OMEARA Shares Sleek and Anthemic “Take It Back”

Montréal-born, German-based singer/songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Jasmin O’Meara can trace the origins of her music career to when she was a teenager: A 14-year old O’Meara removed a guitar off of her uncle’s wall and declared it her own.

The Canadian-born, German-based artist is an autodidact, who went on to join Montréal’s indie scene and collaborated with several different bands and experimenting with a multitude of genres. Taking a break from music to study design, a chance encounter in London led O’Meara back to music — and to playing bass in English bands Temposhark and Kill Electric.

Between 2008-2014, O’Meara played bass in synth pop outfit Zoot Woman. Writing and performing and under the moniker OMEARA, the Canadian-born, German-based artist stepped out into the spotlight as a solo artist with the release of her debut EP Desert Heart, which was released earlier this year. The EP sees O’Meara singing and performing all the vocal parts and almost all of the material’s instrumentation with the exception of harmonica on one song.

Thematically, Desert Heart examines the uneasy and harrowing quest of navigating love in the 21st Century, set to a richly layered and modern take on the music, which shaped her life — and is informed by her own professional experience in post punk, synth pop and indie rock bands.

Desert Heart‘s first single “Take It Back” is sleek post punk-inspired song featuring a relentless motorik-like groove, a supple bass line, gauzy guitar textures paired with rousingly anthemic hooks and choruses, a dance floor friendly bridge, and the Canadian-born, German-based artist’s punchy delivery. While sonically, “Take It Back” reminds me a bit of The Stills, The Killers and others, the song is rooted in deeply personal, lived-in experience — one that should feel familiar to anyone, who’s attempted to maneuver the awkwardness of human relationships.

“The song is about telling your lover that you never really loved them, that you felt pressured into saying ‘I love you’ back, and yet feeling no remorse about revealing this information,” O’Meara explains. But at its core, the song reveals a remarkably self-assured artist, with a penchant for crafting incredibly catchy, anthemic hooks.

Video by William Ruben Helms

Live Footage: JAWNY Performs “Take It Back” on Vevo DSCVR

Initially known as Johnny Utah, the rising Bay Area-born, Los Angeles-based self-taught bedroom pop producer, singer/songwriter and multi-instrumentalist JAWNY has begun to win over the blogosphere through restless reinvention: Since the release of “Honeypie,” JAWNY has released material, in which at one moment, he might be playing a funky pop banger and in another, a distortion-fueled ripper born of an instinct-driven creative process he describes as “very scatterbrained and manic and all-over-the-place,” that’s equally inspired by Luther Vandross and STRFKR.

Vevo, one of the world’s biggest music video networks recently released their complete list for their DSCVR Artists to Watch 2022 campaign: Vevo received over 500 submissions from a variety of acts across the globe — and Vevo selected 21 of them, who the video network believes will break through into the mainstream. Those 21 acts will film two performances in visually unique settings. Appearing on the Artists to Watch list help the artists and bands on it receive critical exposure and promotion that help propel their careers to the next step: All 21 ATW artists and bands will be marketed and featured on Vevo’s expertly curated music video programming — through playlists and editorial features across Vevo’s network. including YouTube and connected TV platforms like Pluto TV, Samsung TV Plus, and Apple TV. Rapidly rising Isle of Man-based duo Wet Leg was one of those 21 acts selected for Vevo’s DSCVR Artists to Watch 2022 campaign.

The latest artist on that list is the aforementioned Bay Area-born, Los Angeles-based multi-hyphenate artist. And for his live session, JAWNY performs the Local H-like “Take It Back.” Centered around a classic grunge rock song structure — quiet-ish verses, rousingly anthemic, power chord-driven choruses, thunderous drumming, “Take It Back” is a mosh pit friendly ripper, featuring a fed-up, lovelorn narrator tired of being played around. We’ve all been there and the song’s universality will likely lead to countless kids shouting along to the chorus in sweaty mosh pits around the country.

“Since taking the internet by storm with ‘Honeypie,’ JAWNY has held our attention by propelling himself into project after project where in one instance, he may be grooving through a funky pop banger and in another he’s shredding on a distortion-heavy, lovelorn track,” James Mecker, Vevo’s Manger/Music Programming, shares. “It’s hard not to be reminded of Beck’s constant reinventions, this time through the voice of a 25-year-old who has experienced global events and personal heartbreak in the span of two tumultuous years. With his first tour since the pandemic currently underway, we’re excited to watch the next chapter of the artist formerly known as Johnny Utah get written in front of our very own eyes.”