Get to know OMYO, London’s hottest new pop duo

OMYO have had a whirlwind of a year – from supporting soul legend Jocelyn Brown and touring overseas to fashion collaborations with huge brands for television campaigns. The London based pop-duo are tipped to be a success and if you haven’t heard them on the radio yet, then you definitely will be soon! We managed to catch up with them to chat about music, fashion and exciting plans for the future.

You’ve just released your video for ‘Mysterious Girl’ which had been used on the Accessorize SS17 Festival Fashion TV Campaign which is huge! How did that come about?

Thanks! We were playing a gig in NYC (whilst filming our first video) and the brand manager from Accessorize was watching. We opened the show with ‘Mysterious Girl’ and he came over after saying he loved it, then a few weeks later contacted and said they were going to use it in the campaign! It’s been really well received and even made the sync feature in Music Week – which we have always wanted to be in!

Fashion is something that you’re closely linked to with the Accessorize/New Look promos that you’ve been involved with and your modelling. Do you think you’d like to continue with projects like this and are there any specific brands you’d love to work with?

Yes, absolutely –  fashion and music are so interconnected and they are the main ways that people can express themselves in style; creatively or emotionally. For example, when playing a show, the music is only one part of the experience – the visual side can also have a huge effect on how the audience will enjoy the show. We love such a wide range of brands and have been very lucky to work with so many. It would be great to perform live at an actual fashion show, like they do with Victoria’s Secret. Italian streetwear brand GCDS always do really unique shows and campaign videos so that would be cool, or high fashion like Versace. Sportswear like Adidas and Puma have a big music scene and also Dr Martens do some great projects.

You’ve worked with VAHNI on ‘Mysterious Girl’ – are there any other artists or producers that you would love to collaborate with?
For William, it would probably be Timbaland – such a long and interesting career and responsible for so many unique sounds and styles in the music industry that a lot of people don’t realise. That or Machine Gun Kelly – his music is brilliant, the passion and big tunes! Tom loves a wide range of artists; Ty Dolla $ign is really cool makes some great tunes alongside JP cooper too, who makes some beautiful music

Who are some of your favourite artists in or out of the charts at the moment?

The Weeknd, JP Cooper, NF, Machine Gun Kelly, Sam Smith, LOOP, Khalid & Post Malone.

You had a set at Wireless which is amazing – what’s your dream festival slot?

There’s so many! It would be amazing to do Glastonbury, we went this year and the atmosphere is magic. Pink Pop in Holland has always been on our radar as a target, so many bands we love have played it and you know you’ve hit a great level when you’re asked!

What’s your favourite show you’ve ever played and why?

We played to 10,000 people at Silverstone in the summer as part of a line up of rock bands and us! We got the best crowd response (they had a competition to come back and play the second day which we were chosen for) which considering they were all motorbike fans in leather was incredible. We supported Jocelyn Brown at a sold out XOYO and it was amazing, she had a 9-piece band with her of unreal musicians and we really learnt a lot. Or we won a competition to go play at a big Polish festival on a beach by a beautiful lake, it was incredible, the sun was setting as we performed and it was really beautiful

Do you have any advice for young and aspiring artists looking to break the industry?

Work hard. Think how hard you need to work and then double it. You have to be willing to give up on a lot of things and remain focused on your goal. The value of networking – you honestly never know who you’re going to meet, even at the smallest thing. But on the other hand, never forget the value of helping someone else. We have been given so many opportunities that now we try to help others who are in the positions we used to be and I think that really comes back to you. Don’t be afraid of change, if something isn’t working then you need to adapt and move on, usually, the thing you’re most scared of doing is actually the path you need to take and once you make that choice it’s amazing the other opportunities that come with it.

Lastly… What’s next for OMYO? Any exciting news you can share with us about or anything you’re working on?

We just joined AWAL (Kobalt) and so have been working with them on getting our huge catalogue of music ready to release, so there’s going to be a lot of OMYO coming through in the next 6 months, which we are really excited about. We are hoping to show our sound and keep growing. We have a track we wrote with Newton Faulkner coming out too! We’ve done some writing for Armada Music and they are releasing one of those songs as well. Plus we’re off to tour Germany in the new year and we just confirmed an NYC show last night. All a bit mad for an independent outfit!

Watch their newly released video for ‘Mysterious Girl’ here