Music Industry Spotlight: PAUSE Meets Omar+

From Brandy and SWV to Drake and Tim Burton, your inspirations are as eclectic as they are expansive. How do you navigate and translate those worlds into your own sonic universe?

I think I just go through different waves of listening to completely different styles of music. One day, I wake up and I’ll be listening to house music, and then another day I’ll be driving, and it’s normally at night time on my own, and I’ll be listening to R&B. I’m just constantly in this cycle of listening to these different sounds all the time.

Then when I sit down to make music, I have different melodies and ideas from R&B, but then I also have these rhythmic ideas from house so it’s all kind of just bubbling away in my head, and when I make beats and sing and record my vocals, it all comes together.

Let’s talk about foundation. You have roots steeped in Punjabi and Gujarati heritage. How do you honour that lineage while pushing into a futuristic, genre-defying territory?

I wouldn’t say it’s really a super conscious thing necessarily. I’m not really thinking about that when I make music, but in general I think it’s definitely ingrained into me because from such a young age, I’ve been going to India and my parents, my mum especially, love Indian music. Rhythm is such a key part of it so I think naturally that’s something that becomes such a key part of my own music, just through what I’ve been surrounded by. It’s certainly not conscious, but definitely subconsciously happening, purely from my experiences of being in India and being around music.

You’ve been described as carving out your own lane, how would you define the Omar+ sound, and what emotions or environments do you want it to evoke?

It’s hard to put into words, especially because I’m still learning and discovering my sound. I want to give people the feeling I felt coming from an R&B background, and then discovering dance music and the feeling you get on the dance floor when you hear music that you’ve never heard before. It just pricks your ears, and it kind of opens a whole new musical world to you. I want people to feel that when they hear my music.

With your DIY house party series “Planet Plus”, you didn’t just build buzz, you built a real community. That’s something nowadays. What did those early intimate gigs teach you about connection and crowd psychology?

Yeah, a lot, especially because I used to throw a lot of those parties with my friends. I kind of knew most of the people there, so it was a very community driven scene, so the connection I had with people when I was playing there, or when I was just being in those environments, was really, really strong. I could see how people reacted to different kinds of music, and what kind of experiences people want to have at a party. Through that, I kind of built on it, and playing bigger gigs now, I feel like I have an understanding of the community in dance music and what people want, I guess.

We have to touch on this. You’ve caught the ears of everyone from Peggy Gou to Chris Stussy, what does it mean to have your tracks circulating through the sets of some of the world’s most respected selectors? Full circle I’m sure?

I’m so grateful, it’s such a surreal feeling. Especially if I’ve been out with my friends and we’ve been seeing DJs that we’re just fans of and then suddenly we’ll hear my own voice coming on, it’s such a surreal feeling. Even now I haven’t really wrapped my head around it. So yeah, I’m just grateful, really.

How do you choose who to work with? Is it about sound, who you vibe with, or something less tangible?

I’d say really it’s just about the music that these producers and DJs are putting out. I’m so inspired by them. In fact, everyone I’ve worked with really has been an inspiration behind my own music in some way. I’ll always jump at the opportunity to work with artists like that. Luckily I’ve been able to work with loads of them.

What was the energy like creating ‘Back It Up’ with Josh Baker or ‘Lose Control’ with bullet tooth?

With ‘Back It Up’ with Josh, we didn’t actually make it in the same room together, it was all done remotely. It was great energy when I met him though and we just got stuck in straight away, sending each other stuff back and forwards.

With ‘Lost Control’, there was great energy in the room with bullet tooth, even though it was so quick and spontaneous. We were literally just talking about Ibiza and how we wanted to make music that would work in rooms at one of the clubs there, and almost straight away we ended up making ‘Lose Control’. We made it so quickly to the point that we didn’t even really think much of the song at first. It took us a few months to realise how good it was!

You’ve spoken about one day singing and playing live at the same time, what’s the ultimate Omar+ live setup in your head, and how close are we to seeing it?

For a while, I definitely wanted to incorporate singing live, but recently I’ve just fallen in love with DJing so much that I want to put my all into that, so essentially I’d want it to be completely DJ-based. I think my dream live setup would just be at a venue which just has, like, a beautiful interior, amazing acoustics where you can hear the music really clearly, and also something visually beautiful as well. I love it when watching a DJ and the visual aesthetics match the music, so I’d love to replicate that. I’m not really sure exactly how it’d look and feel, but something interesting through lighting and stage visuals. I think I’d definitely want to explore that and see what I could do.

With Junction 2 and a packed live calendar on the horizon, what’s the one thing you want people to feel when they hear you live for the first time?

I guess I just want them to get a different feeling to a usual DJ set they might be at, hearing music that other DJs might not be playing, and stuff that I’m currently making so they can get an insight into my current musical process. I think that’s why I like playing new music I’m working on, keeping it super fresh. I guess with my vocals as well it’s a different style of house music to what most people will be used to, so I definitely want people to hear those vocals and catch their ears.

From walking London Fashion Week to starring in a JD Sports campaign, you’ve clearly got a strong sense of visual identity. How does fashion intersect with your music?

Fashion to me is quite important. I’ve always liked dressing a certain way from a young age. Especially with DJing, you’re always in front of people so I think that the way you dress … you can really express yourself through that as well. There are definitely moments where the two worlds become connected.

As we look ahead to the future, what kind of legacy do you hope to leave behind, not just in music, but in culture at large?

I think the dream is to … almost create a new sub-genre, which then becomes bigger than me and other people are making a certain style of music,  inspired by the music that I’ve made in my career. I think if I could do that, then I’ll have made it at that point!