BACK STORY
Oskar Milo is an Australian singer, songwriter and musician from Hobart, Tasmania. His musical journey began at a young age, inspired by the vinyl records his father played daily in the family home.
“I have very early fond memories of my Dad playing Beatles’ records on repeat, all filled with incredible songs. The particular sound that stuck with me as a kid was the intro. to ‘Being For The Benefit Of Mr. Kite!’ from the Sgt. Peppers album - I thought it was overwhelmingly strange and wonderful at the same time. This specific track has undoubtedly been a huge inspiration to me both musically and lyrically. (Thank you John.)”
Following his early introduction to music, Oskar started contemporary guitar lessons. “My guitar teacher Devon, was incredible. One of the things I remember most was learning songs from such a wide range of genres and styles, all within a short period of time. One minute, he’s teaching me a classic Rock ‘n’ Roll number. The next, he’s helping me to play Egyptian-style scales - during the same session! I found this really opened my eyes to the broad and more technical side of music, and I soon realised that this is ‘the thing’ I’m truly passionate about.”
Express myself
It was around this time that Oskar discovered the GarageBand app on an iPad. From there, he went on to invent multiple orchestral/instrumental creations as well as Pop-Rock cover songs. “I felt like I could finally express myself. All these sounds available to me, and the ability to create my own music, rather than just do covers of other songs. I’d come home from school and jump straight onto GarageBand with a new idea. That’s really how my career as a solo artist started - with an iPad, my guitar and some Apple earphones, recording in my bedroom. That was all I needed. I’m forever grateful I had access to those tools.”
In 2015 during his time at college, an opportunity arose that he quickly recognised as the missing link in progressing his musical career. “There was an opportunity to sign up to a two-day songwriting workshop with acclaimed singer-songwriter, Lior Attar, and Lachlan Carrick (Gotye’s producer). This was the most excited I’ve ever felt for a school workshop! To meet these guys was a huge privilege in itself, but working with them and gaining an understanding of the structural processes of songwriting and music production – WOW! I felt like I’d found the key to a secret door inside my head.”
Immediately after this experience, Oskar gained the confidence to start writing his own lyrics and in 2016, he released his first single ‘Don’t Want To Look Back’ on Facebook and Youtube. “I tested the waters by spreading the word around to friends at college, asking them to have a listen to a Pop song I’d written. They did and I got some great feedback. People seemed to like it and asked me when the next one was coming out, which naturally meant the world to me.”
SLOW RELEASE
Oskar went on to release another single in 2016 titled ‘Let Me Be Your Man’, followed by his first official debut solo album ‘SLOW’, released in 2017.
“SLOW received a generally good response. It was very roughly recorded, again in my bedroom, with me playing all the instruments. I was sort of teaching myself a lot of mixing techniques in the process. I remember just being in a very experimental and emotional mindset at the time, which reflected well in each song and I think people found some of the sounds I had on there interesting. So I carried on promoting the hell out of the album locally. Unfortunately, SLOW isn’t available digitally, but if you managed to grab a physical CD at the time, you’ve got a real collector’s item!”
first 'real' album
In 2018, Oskar released his second official solo album titled ‘COLOURS’.
“I call COLOURS my first REAL album. I paid a lot more attention to the production side of things. Even though my main goal was to still keep experimenting and looking for cool and unique sounds, I think I learned a lot from making SLOW. I was able to mix and engineer this album slightly better.
“I didn’t really care about what anyone might think of COLOURS because of course, still being a teenager, it was all about me just expressing my feelings in a profoundly raw way… and so I went a bit crazy on there. Looking back, I personally can’t stand a lot of it, but I’m also very proud of bits and pieces. There were several tracks on the album that exposed me at an international level, gaining a decent audience following in France and Germany. This was a huge musical milestone for me and all felt very exciting.”
During the COVID-19 lockdown, Oskar worked as a Security guard around Hobart. “It was a mad time for everyone across the world. Working in the security industry, I saw a lot of interesting sights, specifically during Covid - being the only one out in what used to be a busy street… and seeing normally people-filled buildings, now empty and dead silent. These moments flooded my head with both musical and lyrical ideas.”