Oshima Brothers

Add links
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Dugan Murphy (talk | contribs) at 21:22, 31 May 2022 (Added a photo and moved the other one). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

Oshima Brothers
The bust of a man in a black shirt looking solemnly at the camera with the profile of another man looking to the left over his right shoulder
L-R: Sean and Jamie Oshima
Background information
OriginWhitefield, Maine
GenresPop, folk
Years active2015 (2015)–present
LabelsOshima Brothers Music
MembersSean Oshima, Jamie Oshima
Websitewww.oshimabrothers.com

Oshima Brothers is an American folk-pop duo. As siblings raised by American folk musician parents in rural Maine, Sean and Jamie Oshima are self-taught musicians who started singing and playing music together as young children. Performing together as a band since 2015, they attracted a fan base within Maine following the release of their eponymous debut album in 2016. They developed a larger national audience with their 2019 EP Under the Same Stars and subsequent national tours. Though the COVID-19 pandemic kept them from performing live for over a year, they put out a second EP, Sunset Red, in 2020 and returned to touring in 2021. They released their second album Dark Nights Golden Days in April 2022, by which time they had over 115,000 Spotify followers and almost five million streams on the platform of their song "These Cold Nights".

The brothers' music is generally described as a mix of pop and folk, though their 2022 album incorporates more genres like dance-pop. They are known for each playing multiple instruments and looping their own samples on stage to create a complex soundscape as if they were more than two. They share responsibilities based on natural proclivities, with Sean in charge of external communications and songwriting, and Jamie focusing on mixing and production. Almost every song is paired with a music video, which they produce on their own.

Origins

Sean and Jamie Oshima are brothers who grew up in the rural community of

Beatles songs.[6] He started learning guitar at five.[7] The brothers learned to sing harmonies with their mother while driving to school as young children and also sang Beatles songs with both parents at the dinner table.[8] Sean began writing songs at thirteen.[7]

Career

Sometimes described as "a self-made boy band",[9] Oshima Brothers officially formed in 2015.[7] They recorded their first album at home[3] and released it the following year, when Sean was twenty-two and Jamie was nineteen.[10] By 2018, the duo had developed a following throughout Maine[10] and they started working with booking and marketing agents around this time as well.[11]

At the Marathon Center for the Performing Arts in Findlay, Ohio, January 2022

The brothers started touring nationally after the release of their 2019 EP, Under the Same Stars.[12] That year, their song "Ellie" was featured on the NPR Music Heavy Rotation ten-song playlist[11] and "These Cold Nights" reached one million streams on Spotify. They are the third musical group from Maine to reach that goal.[13] Before Under the Same Stars, the duo had fewer than 1,000 monthly listeners on Spotify.[14] By April 2020, they had over 100,000.[14]

Oshima Brothers had planned their biggest tour for 2020 when the COVID-19 pandemic caused all concert dates to be canceled.[10] Organizers across the country canceled over thirty of their concerts in 2020[5] and the duo played no live performances from March 2020 until summer 2021.[7] According to Sean: "We lost a gigantic tour and really all income — but we couldn't let it stop us".[15] The brothers focused on recording new songs, producing music videos,[7] and releasing their second EP, Sunset Red, in late summer 2020.[5] They also performed livestream concerts for audiences in multiple states.[5]

The duo returned to touring in 2021 with their first concert outside Maine since the start of the pandemic in May of that year,[6] followed by performances across the Northeast.[16] On March 18, 2022, "Lost at Sea" from Under the Same Stars was featured on episode 765 of This American Life.[1] The following month, Oshima Brothers released their second album Dark Nights Golden Days, which combined their digital EPs Dark and Golden, plus seven new tracks.[9] They promoted the release on a tour through the Midwest, Florida, and East Coast, which included live performances for Acoustic Café and Mountain Stage. Both were syndicated on 140 and 200 radio stations, respectively.[1] By April 25, the duo had over 115,000 Spotify followers and their song "Cadence" from Dark Nights Golden Days had been streamed more than 330,000 times. "These Cold Nights" had been streamed almost five million times.[17]

Musical style

Oshima Brothers' genre has been described as "

Americana".[5] The musicians themselves consider their genre to be fluid and open to interpretation by the listener.[5] The brothers claim that Maine's rural landscape is a major influence on their work.[21] Musical influences include albums by the Beatles and Gillian Welch they heard at home growing up, plus music by Ed Sheeran and Lake Street Dive they discovered later on.[7] Over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic, they started incorporating dance-pop sounds into their work.[10] Some tracks on their 2022 album are described this way.[22]

Musicianship

At Maine Craft Distilling in Portland, Maine, May 2022

Both Sean and Jamie are self-taught musicians and have received no formal training.

kick drum, and snare drum.[25] Jamie often operates multiple instruments at once, playing one with his hands and a percussion instrument with his feet,[2] then sampling and looping himself and Sean to create a complex soundscape as if there were more than two members.[17] According to Sean: "It culminates in what we hope is the sound of at least three people".[7]

The brothers share band responsibilities based on their own natural proclivities.[3] The more gregarious of the two, Sean handles external communications and is the primary songwriter.[26] More comfortable at home, Jamie specializes in recording, mixing, and set building.[27] Their songs often start with an initial concept from Sean that gets more fully developed with input from Jamie.[28]

Jamie also leads on producing the duo's music videos.[7] According to Sean: "All the videos come from Jamie's own brain and vision".[5] Almost every song is paired with a music video,[4] which they choreograph, direct, record, and edit on their own.[9] Like his musicianship, Jamie's video production skills are self-taught.[5]

Personal life

Having grown up in Whitefield, Maine,[1] the brothers later relocated to the coastal community of Belfast.[10] By 2021 they had moved to the state's largest city of Portland,[29] which Rolling Stone magazine had recently described as being home to one of the country's eight best music scenes.[10]

Discography

Albums

  • Oshima Brothers (2016)
  • Dark Nights Golden Days (2022)

EPs

  • Under the Same Stars (2019)
  • Sunset Red (2020)

References

Citations

  1. ^ a b c d Dow 2022.
  2. ^ a b Horyczun 2021.
  3. ^ a b c Gerbasi 2018.
  4. ^ a b Oshima 2022.
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h Yee 2020.
  6. ^ a b Klein 2021.
  7. ^ a b c d e f g h Colson 2021.
  8. ^ Horyczun 2021; Dow 2022.
  9. ^ a b c Frahm 2022.
  10. ^ a b c d e f Grunewald 2022.
  11. ^ a b c Wienk 2019.
  12. ^ Grunewald 2022; Yee 2020.
  13. ^ Ponti 2019.
  14. ^ a b c Grunewald 2020.
  15. ^ Abrams 2021.
  16. ^ Colson 2021; Abrams 2021; Horyczun 2021.
  17. ^ a b Ponti 2022.
  18. ^ Ponti 2019; Gerbasi 2018.
  19. ^ Klein 2021; Abrams 2021.
  20. ^ Staton 2022.
  21. ^ Oshima 2022; Yee 2020.
  22. ^ MileHighGayGuy 2022.
  23. ^ Colson 2021; Abrams 2021.
  24. ^ Yee 2020; Ponti 2022; Colson 2021.
  25. ^ Ponti 2022; Colson 2021; Yee 2020; Horyczun 2021.
  26. ^ Colson 2021; Yee 2020; Colson 2021.
  27. ^ Colson 2021; Gerbasi 2018.
  28. ^ Clark 2020.
  29. ^ Abrams 2021; Ponti 2021.

Sources

External links

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Oshima_Brothers&oldid=1090868508"