“It became this surreal thing, being nomadic was normalised,” says Olivia Hally (The ‘OH’ in Oh Pep!) with a chuckle. “There was a point where all I could think about was four people in a van!”
The constraints of constantly being on the road did little to affect Oh Pep!’s signature style of writing intimate songs from their lives and relationships. “I think there’s a point where life happens regardless of what’s going on with the music,” says Hally about putting together new tracks. “There was a point where we had to come home and process all of that.”
But the songwriting process never works in such a linear fashion.
“The songs were written between 2015 and 2018,” Hally explains. “25’ was written, well the start of it, was written at the beginning of Stadium Cake; I remember the power went out and we were broke, so that became the second verse.
‘Hurt Nobody’ was written in New York with Doug Schadt, who does some stuff with Maggie Rogers. I went to New York in January for a writing camp; ‘Hurt Nobody’ was written during bomb cyclones and I was the naive Australian who was walking through the city whilst no one else
was outside.”
Hally believes that this latest album has allowed the duo to experiment more with their sound, while ensuring it still has those key Oh Pep! elements.
“I think it’s definitely consolidated the Oh Pep! sound; the song structures are simpler but they sound like Oh Pep! songs,” she says. “Because I write for so many people there’s a line where I realise it’s an Oh Pep! song; if it’s got this emotional thing going on, then I give it to Peppy to talk about and we head into studio.”
I Wasn’t Only Thinking About You… was produced by Joel Quartermain, who they worked with at all stages of the creative process, best known for his work with Eskimo Joe.
“We had ideas, the feel of it, or really fleshed out demos, and [Joel] would kind of work with what we had or change it. He definitely added heaps of energy to it.”
“All these songs come from a very genuine emotional place and [then] the creation of the songs become very practical. That’s why we like working with Joel, because he’s very fast and he gets it done, then we switch over to an emotional-banshee mode,” Hally laughs. “I don’t think that’s the right way to explain it, but the emotions switch on and off again.”
Towards the end of the production process Oh Pep! tested their tracklist before deciding on the final product.
“We had this little concert and we blindfolded everyone and played all the new songs, just taking away all other senses, so people couldn’t judge based off any visuals or other people’s reactions.”
“I think we made the audience feel as awkward and vulnerable as we did last week,” Hally says, referring to the two album release shows they played in Melbourne and Sydney. “We felt a real mix of being very comfortable on stage because we knew most of the crowd, but also terrified.”
The duo are sure to hit some raw emotions with the album release, and their tour coming up later this year.
