A Conversation With: Otala

Navigating the cacophonic labyrinth of spoken word and augmented jazz, Otala have truly redefined the term ‘underground’. They’ve orchestrated a soundscape unlike any other in their latest single Commedia.

We caught up with bassist Rory Allen, drummer Fin Hills, and synth-player Jack McInnes ahead of an exciting year…

Welcome Otala! And I must emphasise it’s ‘Oh-taah-la’. I feel like it’s the Northerner in me that wants to say ‘Ot-uh-luh’. 

Rory: That’s fine, we’ve heard all kinds of pronunciations; we’ve had it spelt in a lot of interesting ways too. As long as it’s written right. I suppose it makes a lasting impression. 

It really does! Is there a story behind the band name? 

Rory: It’s actually a snail breed. No special connection to it. 

Jack: Sounds quite nice though, and you wouldn’t really know that without being told because we don’t have any snail related art. 

Rory: And it’s not a very popular snail breed either, so we’re hoping that we can overtake it and reclaim the snail in Google search results.  

Well, you’re already on the Google and making a name for yourselves. I first found you when you supported Fat Dog in November and you’ve most recently toured with The Blinders. Congratulations!  

Fin: Thank you! They were fairly last-minute gigs, too. Only about a week before did we get confirmation The Blinders was happening. We had to move everything around for that one, but we really wanted to do it because we’ve been coming to Rescue Rooms for as long as we’ve been a band and seeing other bands play here, it’s a nice venue. 

And opening for Fat Dog, they’re just incredible and I think we matched their vibe. 

Rory: We rarely end up playing with bands that are similar to us in terms of sound, but there’s usually a big crossover with fans. A lot of people will like us that like a lot of different music even if the style is different. 

How would you describe your sound then? 

Rory: People will come up to us and say you’re this, you’re that, when they’re writing a review, so we take whichever one we like the most. 

Fin: We just repeat whatever people say for promotion because we don’t really know what we are. Super Sonic called us ‘jazz punk’ the other week. 

Rory: I’d say we’re very experimental, post-anything at this point. 

If you could describe yourself as a biscuit, what kind would you be? 

Rory: Chocolate Caramel Digestive. 

Jack: Malted Milk.  

Fin: Viennese Swirl.  

I ask because I think you’re like a tray of biscuits, you’re an amalgamation of sound. The fact you can’t pin yourself down into a specific genre is quite cool. 

Fin: Ahaha! We’ll use that for the next promotion! A Foxes biscuit tray analogy. Every future interviewer needs to ask us what biscuit we are because now we’ve got a really good answer. 

Hopefully there’s more interviews to come as you grow. You’ve been on the circuit for a while now, how long have you been a quintet? How did you all meet? 

Jack: About a year and a half as the current lineup. I’ve been mates with Oscar forever, and he met Rory at university. We were a trio for a long time. 

Fin: I was a random appearance. 

Rory: We emailed the Sheffield Jazz Society asking if they had any drummers. Weeks and weeks later, we got this random number from Fin saying, ‘Hey bro! Here’s your drummer!’. 

Jack: Charlotte lives in Nottingham. Oscar had been messaging her about a jam session, but I first met her at a gig. 

Fin: Yeah! We all met on stage for the first time at our first gig together. That was weird, looking back. The Washington in Sheffield is where we came to be. 

Well, that’s one way to do it. I take it you all really connected on a music level. 

Rory: The thing is, as soon as we formed, we released a few songs that we’d already recorded to get us out there on streaming platforms but it’s not really us. It’s the direction we want to go in, and it definitely sounds more cohesive when we play it as the five of us, but our new material will have a different sound to it. 

Fin: I’m not on those recordings, for example; neither was Charlotte, so with new members added to the band you’ve got a broader music taste and inspiration to work from. And now, of course, new music. 

Speaking of new material, you have a new single out ‘Commedia’. What should we expect from the track and future projects? 

Rory: They’re definitely more considered. The other ones we did slap together and came up with half of it in the studio – which can be fun, but we were not really seasoned musicians yet to be working like that.  

Fin: These recordings are live takes too, it’s not like we’ve hatched and spliced them together. That’s a big part of our process because it’s playing with each other live; sometimes we’ll have a song that we’ll rehearse once and play on stage, to test it and the band in a way. 

Rory: Definitely! It’s nice that now we’ve been this unit for a long time we can just go into the studio and do that. We can play like we would on stage. 

As you’ve grown through the Nottingham scene, you frequented The Chameleon Arts Cafe regularly. It unfortunately closed down at the end of March and you of all people understand the importance of grassroot venues.  

Fin: What’s underrated about The Chameleon is that the sound there is probably the best on-stage sound I’ve ever heard, in the whole time I’ve been playing music.  

Rory: And you end up playing better because of it. Everyone can hear each other so clearly, which can literally make or break a set. We’ve played there five times now and they’ve probably been our best gigs so far. 

Jack: The venue itself is a lovely place too. Not just for the sound, but the people and the culture. It’s such a shame it’s closing. 

Rory: It will definitely have an impact on the music scene closing. Nottingham is quite fortunate that it has a wide range of venues, but The Chameleon has always been our go-to place to play. You never hear anyone complaining about a gig there, both audience and artist, because the acoustics are incredible there. 

Heavy question to conclude – what’s the dream for the band? The end-goal here? 

Fin: Personally, I can’t speak for the rest of the band, I would love to inspire other drummers. 

Rory: I think I’d just love to be able to go wild with it. Produce a thirty-minute song. Get to that stage in our career where we’ve made the albums that define us and just go wild with everything.  

Keep up to date with the band here: @otalaband 

Interviewer: Talia Robinson

Featured Images: Otala