Getting to know O & the Mo

Words by Hannah Powell. Images taken by Liv, Alvin, and Oscar Keys.

Amongst native birdsong and evening light, Yo Vocal had a chat with local band O & the Mo. On the phone with Alvin and Liv, we talked about their new album, their upcoming tour, and their Titanic-esque sound.

Currently based in the sunny Tasman region, the duo gives a rundown on what they’ve been up to of late. “The focus has just been getting the album recorded this year – recently we’ve just been finishing off getting all the design plans and release work done,” Alvin says. With an upcoming tour of their first album ‘In Transit’ next month, the two have been prepping for some fun times ahead.

Although usually with their Wellington-based band in tow, Alvin and Liv have also been exploring their duo performance, having played a few sets around the Tasman region as a pair, including two intimate album preview shows earlier this month).

“We’re living and volunteering at a historic house in Nelson called Fairfield House,” Alvin tells me. Playing fly on the wall at events, as well as booking some things of their own, “It’s a really interesting place to be based and just watch a really eclectic range of people and events come and go,” adds Liv. Previously based in Delaware Bay, it was through meeting a Hawaiian couple that the two were inspired to work at Fairfield House. Run by a community trust, both feel connected to the building and the ethos behind it. “Providing spaces for artists and communities is important – it’s a thing we’re really conscious of,” Liv says. She explains how the values that are enshrined in the place have been values they’ve felt when writing their latest music.

Known as dreamy, romantic, and melancholic folk, both Alvin and Liv laugh when I ask how they would describe their sound. “We were chatting the other night, and we thought, it’s sort of music you’d happily go down in the Titanic to,” says Liv. With the Titanic being both a melancholic and romantic boat, “I think we would’ve slotted in perfectly,” they laugh.

With Hugo Olsen-Smith on bass, Josh Brown on the drums and “synth wizard” Laurens Burger joining for some of their shows, expect a full band bonanza for their upcoming Album Tour. Both Josh and Hugo are busy in the Wellington music scene, playing in other local bands such as Heavy Chest and HUMMICIDE, as well as working on their own solo projects, so it’s Liv and Alvin who do most of the songwriting and management. The band is involved in the recording process, Liv says. 

“We present songs to them, and they often go and compose their own parts.” 

Liv and Alvin met with an interest in music, but they didn’t write together for about two years. Instead, they spent much of that time sharing albums and artists they liked. “[It was about] understanding each other’s tastes but having a lot of shared bands and albums [that] we really liked,” they said. Two years ago, they began to write songs together, heading along to songwriting open mic nights to hone in their skills.

For their latest release ‘In Transit’, I ask the two what they were most proud of in the process. “The recording process for this album,” Alvin replies. “This is our first body of work, and we’ve learnt so much.” 

For Liv, she initially felt quite intimidated by the prospect of recording music. Once she got her head around gear, as well as shutting down the wormholes of recording the songs themselves, the process became more enjoyable.

“Songwriting is still my favourite part of the process. Especially when you first bring the songs to the band, and it all just comes together and sounds better than you could’ve imagined,” she says.

With influences including Infinite Bisous, Connan Mockasin, and Neil Young, it’s life factors too that have inspired much of their music. Describing both adulthood and this year as a “turbulent time”, ‘In Transit’ is very much about turbulence, transience and living as a twenty-something in the twenty-first century. Mentioning how there is a lot of pressure on young people to go down certain paths of success, Liv admits it can be overwhelming most of the time. “You feel you’ve got to keep up with an unsustainable pace of life, I think, [with] that being the struggle,” she laughs. “It’s really easy to let the way society works shape the way that you work, without ever questioning that.”

One factor that significantly influenced their new music was their want to live life at a slower pace, in a way that reflected what they valued and cared about. “The pressure of twenty-first-century living has definitely influenced us to go a certain way with our music,” Liv explains.

Describing their sound journey as a way to showcase a variety of different moods and feels, both agree they wanted to have fun with the album and not take it too seriously. With the track ‘Take Off’ a cinematic introduction to their album, there’s a balance of both a bright playfulness and a soft intimacy to their dream-folk sound. For ‘In Transit’, they wanted to express the transience that exists within the pace of life. The track ‘Honey’ actually motivated the two to change things up and move to the Nelson region for something new.

For their upcoming shows, Alvin and Liv are hoping to present an exciting, dynamic set. “There are gonna be really upbeat moments, and there’s gonna be some really stripped back moments,” Alvin says.

“It’s been really nice to play these preview duo shows, like the one in Christchurch, because that was a chance to play the songs in an intimate setting,” they say. Both are excited to play in a bigger setting, looking forward to performing the moments that are big, playful and silly.

For summer, catch them at the New Plymouth Festival of Lights, Tora Bombora, and a private festival in Whangarei. For those looking for a souvenir to take away from their night, hit them up for some Kamo Kamo. Plant-mum Liv assures me there are many seedlings to give away on tour.