Honest Music -- OMNI Band Bio It's hard to come across people these days that are really just that -- people, not labels, not genres, not stereotypes, but just real people. When you sit down for a plate of extra spicy Thai food (or any other delicious gourmet meal) with OMNI, you get just that -- the real McCoy. No falsities. No two-faced personas, and certainly no lies. All of them being who they are, saying what their hearts have to say: Real people. They push the boundaries of expression where words hold depth; sound breathes meaning; and all that is in-between is static with the energy. Without the conception that this is the way music is "supposed" to sound, they are quite free to say everything that is inside and outside of themselves. And that is different. This is OMNI: Pat Allen on guitar; Will Andrews on drums; and Chris Cullman on vocals, bass and Warr guitar. Modern minstrels, craftsmen who take pride in the works they create knowing that anything worthwhile takes time, effort and a bit of blood. But how do we react to change when our craft changes? OMNI had to ask itself this question after losing their former guitarist/singer. How do we continue with the loss of a key element in our work? Give up? Pack our bags and head home? Or continue harder and more driven than before. That is what Chris and Will did -- focusing more intently, with more fervor than before. Change can be good. This time it was. Enter Pat Allen, a bright, quirky guy with a passion for music and a lust for life. Playing guitar from an early age, he honed his craft and drive to make music. He saw an ad in the paper looking for a guitarist. It seemed promising, as much as any other ad did, and so he answered it hoping for the best but not expecting anything. Then it clicked. Chris: "I just feel with Pat in the band we have a new momentum that we needed. I think that we just reached a certain point where we needed that momentum in the band, someone fresh, someone that was really willing to be self-motivated. And I just think that we need that positive energy in our band. Pat definitely brought that. And that's what we saw. That was one of the big things we saw in Pat when we first starting getting to know him." Will: "It was the attitude. And it was the fact that our music was a little bit strange to him at the time. He didn't really go and take a stab at, like a negative attitude. He pretty much just sat there saying, 'Okay. Well, let me think on how I'm going to work my playing into this.' You would see him thinking, and you would see him reacting towards it rather than just saying, 'Okay. Well, let's try one of my things here.' You could actually see him working; you could see him trying to fit something in." And OMNI was back on track again. Pat: "I guess what I really like about this music, too, is that it's just good, sincere, honest music. I was reading this biography about Bob Dylan, and he said everybody can play the chords, and everybody can play the folk songs. But there was no one like him because he was so honest and so sincere about what he was doing. It was his life pouring out of him. I think that good music is honest music and it's for the right reasons. It's changed everything for me. My outlook on music now is a complete 180 from where it was five to six months ago. I was playing in a different band before. The music was standard pop rock stuff. And when I met Chris and Will, they played me one of their songs and it totally blew me away. I didn't want to be lame, but I wanted to be cool though at the same time and not say, 'Oh, my god, that's f**king awesome.' But I was really impressed by not only the recording -- I mean the song was amazing. I was really excited." Though only together for half a year, OMNI, with this collection of musicians, has far-outstripped what they were. Building upon their collective influences and desires to be more, finding new influences, new ways of viewing the world and taking in the wonders that surround them. The air about them is positive, and it shows in what they are playing and creating, adopting a literal "nose to the grindstone" mentality that has kept them thriving when so many others in their situation would have fallen and disappeared; learning, teaching and reminding each other why it is that they love music and the ability to create. Pat: "One day I was talking to Will and he said, 'Just think about hearing Breakfast of Champions on the radio.' Of course I'm biased because I'm in this band now. But at the same time, I really believe in this music so much, and I can't deny to myself that I'm really psyched about it. I really feel like this is an amazing opportunity, you know. I want to do it the right way and do it the best I can." Will: "I find it interesting how these guys keep changing my musical tastes. I find myself listening to a lot of Miles Davis lately. I think that relates to our band in a lot of ways. Strangely enough, even though the stuff that I'm listening to is 30 years old or more, it's the same kind of ideas as far as improvisational stuff goes and writing compositions, unorthodox compositions and exploring things. I don't want to compare ourselves to Miles Davis, but I can take knowledge from that and use it inside of this band. I'm also listening to a lot of Beatles and stuff, just discovering a lot of new music, mainly because my mind has been the same for so long before Pat entered the band. For some reason, now more than ever, I feel the need to explore things that I've missed out on to benefit the band and use it and enjoy it at the same time. It's strange -- it's changing me." Chris: "Now I feel like we're at the start of our road. And I think all the stuff before this was just preparation for now. We're in a state now that I feel really proud of what we're doing... I think that if you're honest with your music, like Pat said, who you are comes out in the music. That's where we've been most successful. There's never been anything different that we've ever done that wasn't a part of us. We've never made something that was fake. The day I make ordinary music is when you know I'm done!" Real people. Honest people. Three friends who remember what it is to be curious; what it's like to explore; what it is to wonder. Their music speaks this in volumes. But more importantly, they do themselves. March 2005 TIM BATSON