Omar – the pleasure of his company

With a new record company and a new album, ‘For Pleasure’, Omar’s looking to fulfil some of that oft-cited potential. Jacqueline Springer flitters her eyelids and listens attentively.

When I, and others like me, were bobbing our heads in bass-induced familiarity to Omar’s identifiable classics ‘There’s Nothing Like This’, and ‘Should’ve Known Better,’ at parties around North London in the summers of 1990 and’91, none of had any idea that the creator of said recordings was actually a trained musician. A musician, yes, but not classically trained…

Still all smiles by early afternoon with a day’s worth of interview promotion still to go in aid of this forthcoming LP, ‘For Pleasure’ Omar was happy to confirm.

“First I was at boarding school in Canterbury,” he said, before elaborating further on the route of his formal musical education, “As soon as you’d get up you’d be doing music, after school and at weekends; in essence 24 hours a day. I then went to college in Manchester to study percussion and piano, where I attempted a concerto and played in percussion ensembles; you know all the musical activities…” All credible stuff, but we all know that all things musically academic do not street soul man make. “What a big difference (to me) was that I was exposed to a lot more music that I would have been by listening to the music that other people – students – listened to. A friend who used to room next to me like Prefab Sprout and the Smiths while I was down with Jeff Lorber, Stevie Wonder and Bob Marley. By the end of it all we knew each other’s music.”

This mesh of experience and open-mindedness now finds its release on Omar’s album. Here he takes steps up more musical paths than on his previous efforts which has afforded him the freedom to express himself with sharper lyricism, which in turn, gives the listener a clearer insight into the man’s psyche.

Whether on ‘Little Boy’, a track which highlights and then ridicules the bravado that restricts men from expressing themselves openly within relationships, or the overt sexiness of ‘Confection’ with its refreshingly inoffensive word-play – and warming vocal presence of Mica Paris, all eleven tracks are varied in execution, and possess a range of instrumental delivery (and vocal styling) that cannot be fully appreciated in just one listen. Indeed, there’s enough going on to make each subsequent hearing different – maybe you’ll hear the bongos before the organ on ‘I’m Still Standing’ or the double bass before the deliberately faltered piano on ‘Little Boy.’ How intentional, I wondered, was this multi-laying sound?

“While I’m making the different parts of the song, whether it’s the backing vocals, the bass, the drums, whatever, I always try and make it so that if you played it by itself the instrument could stand out and hold its own. What is intentional is for me to create a melody – whether it be on the baseline or the lead/backing vocals, but that’s as far as it goes…” So much for my theory then!

Diversification, at the very last, did take place in the roster of artists who worked on the album. Sharing songwriting credits on two of the tracks with Lamont Dozier and Marvin Gaye’s former song arranger – Leon Ware, Omar added strength to his musical army with the likes of David Frank (formerly of the underrated 80s duo The System), Derek Bramble of Heatwave, with the sublime Opaz Productions, Nu Colours and the aforementioned Mica pulling up the ranks. The rumoured writing partnership with Stevie Wonder (“I was just glad to meet him, to work in is environment,”) did take place, but its fruits will not be seen on ‘For Pleasure’, as the song remains incomplete. One thing that’s certain about that track and those present on the album, is that they won’t be following the current sexually orientation that’s rebounding in R&B at present. Omar, however, is not too despondent about the current state of soulful lyricism, and sees a happy co-existence of his own product and its horny competitor.

“It’s not a conscious effort on my part to side-step those issues, but I like to focus on subjects that haven’t been dealt with. So many people have done the R Kelly/H-Town stuff – it’s a trend – and I’m hoping that my album will do well because it’s different to what’s out there now.” This should surely sound reassuring to those readers who think that black music is on a downward creative spiral – if an artist, whose job essentially puts him in direct competition with this form, is not despondent, what have to worry about?!

Strengthened by the ‘Coals to Newcastle’ syndrome where British artists are selling the US market back in the sort of music they used to make and sent us (the Brand New Heavies, being a good example), Omar agreed about the important headway this syndrome is making for British artists – and given the current trend that they are not too concerned with following, it may appear that British artists may now be seen as a breath of fresh air, even if that air is coming from across the Atlantic.

“I hope the Americans are gasping for something fresh like we’re doing,” he smiled. “We’re coming from a different stand-point (culturally and musically) although we all listened to the same music.” He went on, “the success of British artists over there has happened in dribs and drabs. The time difference between Junior (Giscombe), Loose Ends and Soul to Soul’s (success) shows me that we all have an ongoing struggle.” Hopefully that struggle won’t dictate that the purity of some of his songs will be lost if they’re given multiple remixes for any forthcoming releases?

“I bloody hope not!” he exclaimed. ‘Little Boy’ is about six minutes long (and they (the record company) were suggesting that I should cut it down for the 7-inch, I was like, ‘f**k that!’ How long was the Meatloaf record? If there’s mentality that you don’t need seven remixed for rock/pop tunes, how come I need that?”

The record company relationship is something that has played a major part in the evolution of Omar the artist. Starting out at the recently bankrupted Kongo independent label, before moving onto Talkin’ Loud, he’s now signed to a ‘major’. He back-tracked to illustrate the effect that this professional gypsy lifestyle has had on him, and invariably, his music.

“Kongo was very instrumental in starting my career off – my father owned it – and the reaction we got from ‘There’s Nothing Like This’ was that I was going toward the international market and Kongo wasn’t on that level (being a small indie based in NW10). That was when Talkin’ Loud and everybody else was fishing about, which is ironic now, because the major labels were uncommitted then!

“Giles Peterson and Norman Jay were there, and the kind of music they play as DJs is definitely what I’m into, while the Young Disciples and Galliano were there as well; it was the right place. What I found out later on was that the people who feel the passion for your music are not those in charge of what it takes to get you promoted and marketed. By then the Young Disciples’ ‘Road To Freedom’ LP was blowing up here and in the States, while ‘Apparently Nothing’ was the biggest single going! But a year after all the excitement, it still wasn’t even released in the States! The company was saying that it had to be remised first! I was at Talkin’ Loud for about a year and a half and did ‘Music’ there, but when I heard that stuff I thought that these people definitely don’t know what they’re talking about, and I left at the end of ’92…it wasn’t happening.” After a hiatus between labels, and’…Pleasure’s’ lengthy birth, Omar’s back – aiming to make his return as enjoyable for us, as it was and continues to be for him.