Just as the seasons change, so too does Oso Oso’s Jade Lilitri.
A long way now from the band’s 2014 beginnings, Long Island’s Oso Oso released their latest album, an exchange of information, on November 6, bringing forth a fresh twist on the band’s sweet iconic emo-folk-indie medley. Now, if you hold a mirror up to Lilitri’s early sound, it’ll stare back with watery eyes, sounding just the way early ’00s emo-tinged-alt-rock ought to. Lilitri’s confessional lyrics and raw vocal breaks have transformed in the past decade, stepping into an elevated texture that still feels true to Oso Oso’s roots, with an evolved technique and sound. With a lot to draw from, Lilitri has noted that the band’s previous releases themselves served as influences for their latest work: a pop-punk croon that’ll knock you down and pick you right back up.
With a vibrant, if not ever-changing scene, Portland has come a long way, too. What was once the Analog Cafe (which closed after some exposure to its seedy underbelly) has since transformed into the High Limit Room, a heartening all-ages, alcohol-free space that supports youth culture and music for all. In the spirit of Portland’s own musical evolution, the city welcomes Oso Oso to the High Limit Room on November 11 with Michigan act Liquid Mike and Minnesota-based band Bugsy as openers. The Mercury had a chance to chat with Lilitri about his work, tour, and a mysterious affinity for giraffes.
MERCURY: I love this thing that you said about you being an influence for yourself, which is not something I’d ever really thought about. That feels like a very human thing, growing and changing, staying true to the core of your own sound. Are there any points in particular from your past work that you can point to that have inspired tracks on this album?
JADE LILITRI: Oh, definitely. I think sometimes it feels like we’re kind of like rewriting or trying to perfect songs that we’ve written before. There’s a song on this album called “Trace Me” that I feel is sonically super similar to a song called “Fly on the Wall” from two albums we had before.
An exchange of information is coming out on a new label, Feral Twin, and it sounds like it happened almost accidentally. What is the story behind releasing an exchange of information on Feral Twin, and how did you meet label owner Mark Quinlan?
He just hit me up on Instagram years ago. We were playing a festival that his band Hop Along was also playing, and he just said super nice stuff about our music and asked if we wanted to hang out. And then probably about a year ago, he had this idea to do the label and kind of just got linked up.
Nice, and initially his thought was to re-release some previous music? But did you already have this new music that you were looking to put out?
We didn’t have it recorded, but I had the new music ready to go, I had it written, and it was definitely the priority, as opposed to putting out older stuff that we had. There’s also some legal stuff with rights, who owns it, stuff like that. We don’t really have the rights to the older stuff, so if we wanted to put that out, it would be like re-recording it.
And how did you end up recording in Upstate? What was your connection with Birthday Land Studios—great name for a studio.
The dominoes just kind of fell that way. When Mark called me and we finalized the agreement that we were gonna work together, I started making some calls to a couple different studios and producers that I know. I was trying to get into the studio in about three weeks, and that’s kind of a very short time, because these people usually have stuff booked. And then my friend Dan, me and him were already planning on recording something for fun up at the studio he has, Birthday Land, which is where he lives up in Albany. I called him and I was like, “Hey, instead of doing that thing, do you want to do an Oso record?” And he was down, so that’s kind of how that got started.
Do you know why it’s called Birthday Land Studios? I’m just curious.
So, he’s Birthday Dan. I’m not really sure why he’s Birthday Dan, but that definitely has to do with why it’s Birthday Land.
I love that. I also really like the album art for this. What is the story behind this art, and the giraffe in particular?
Honestly, I just went on the internet—on Reddit— found this artist that I really like, and asked him if he was interested in painting something for us for the cover. He does a lot of landscape stuff, his name is Anthony Primavera. He was like, “Sure, I’d love to. Can you send me the album?” So he sat with the album for a week, then hit us back up and was like, “Hey, I still would love to do the painting for you, but I’m not really getting like my usual type of vibe from this. I want to do something a little bit more suburban. Is that cool?” And I was like, “Absolutely.”
One night, I was just hanging out, talking with a friend, just having a couple drinks. I was talking about how I just kept seeing giraffes everywhere in my life. Not actual giraffes, but like a giraffe sticker, a figurine, or a commercial with the giraffe. And while I was having that conversation, he sent me one of his rough drafts for the album cover. I was just like, “Hey, man, do you think you could put in a giraffe on the cover?” And it kind of just evolved over that. We were really gung ho on enforcing that there’s going to be a big giraffe on there.
Have you seen any giraffes since you’ve been on tour?
No, I have not. The first night of the tour, we actually stayed at this hotel that was attached to a casino, and I was just walking around. We were browsing the slot machine floor, and I was like, “I’ll play one of these slots if I can find one that has a giraffe on it.” But I didn’t find one, unfortunately.
Dang, I’m kind of surprised. How does it feel to be out on tour again? Do you have any particular routines or things that you do when you’re on the road?
We kind of become creatures of habit. The days blend into each other, but we’re a pretty chill band. Like, on an off day, we just want to go see a movie usually, or chill at an Applebee’s. We saw a soccer game on the first leg of this tour. Today, once we get to Wyoming, we’ll probably just chill and go see a movie or go get dinner or something like that.
I’m 34 now, and the older that I get, the more like I kind of realize not to take it for granted. I won’t always get to do this. The opportunity to play music almost every night to people who want to hear it is really something special. Something to be grateful for.
It looks like you played at Analog Cafe in Portland a while back. That spot is now the High Limit Room, where you’re about to play. I thought that that was kind of an interesting transformation. Do you have any particular memories in Portland, or anything that you’re excited about doing there?
I love the Pacific Northwest. I’m a fan of gloomy weather, like rain that you could walk in. You know, I’m a big coffee fan too. I think Portland’s pretty awesome. There’s an H Mart in Portland that I think is like one of the best H Marts in the country, honestly. So, I look forward to that.
I just remembered, there is a van somewhere in Portland that’s painted like a giraffe.
Really?
I hope it finds you.
Oso Oso plays the High Limit Room with openers Liquid Mike and Bugsy, 720 SE Hawthorne, on Nov 6, 8 pm, $25 adv $35 dos, more info here.