Otala on “Fire! To The River” and Moving To London

Interviews
All
Music
Cinema
TV
Comic Books

Otala

Otala on “Fire! To The River” and Moving To London

The London-based five-piece discuss their new EP, the band's formative years and subsequent relocation

Apr 02, 2025 Web Exclusive By Dom Gourlay

Meet Otala, the London-based five-piece whose music goes beyond any descriptives in terms of genre classification. Having originally formed in Nottingham, Otala quickly earned a reputation as one of the most exciting new bands in their adopted city. Debut single “Tell The Bees” highlighted their potential from the start, while the band’s live shows drew comparisons with Slint, Young Marble Giants and Black Country, New Road among a host of others.

Having graduated from university last summer, the five-piece - Oscar Thorpe (guitar/vocals), Rory Allen (bass), Charlotte Foulkes (saxophone), Jack McInnes (synths) and recent acquisition Jacob Wing (drums) - relocated to London which is where Under the Radar caught up with the band in the salubrious surroundings of Peckham where the band currently rehearse.

With a new EP out last month (Fire! To The River) and more shows and festivals on the way, it promises to be an exciting 2025 for Otala.

Dom Gourlay (Under the Radar): How is London compared to Nottingham?

Oscar Thorpe: I don’t know. I miss all my friends I used to go out with like Euan (Stevens) from Bloodworm. I lived 5 minutes from the Bodega so would end up there most nights. Whereas here I’ve got to get a bus or a tube for half an hour to get anywhere.

Jack McInnes: Nottingham is like the smallest big city ever!

Charlotte Foulkes: I do miss Nottingham.

Nottingham does appear to be at its most vibrant right now with so many incredible bands forming, including yourselves.

Charlotte Foulkes: I’m from London originally, so I was always moving back home anyway after I finished Uni. We all wanted to be in the same city and even then, Rory (Allen) moved to Sheffield. So it made sense for us all to move to London as all of us living in different cities would have been very difficult to coordinate.

How did the band start?

Oscar Thorpe: Me and Rory had a band at Uni which was kind of similar stuff to what we’re doing now, and then we played together in another band which disintegrated so we decided to carry it on. But playing similar stuff to what we’d been doing with our first band - “Tennov” was the first song we wrote. Then Jack (McInnes) joined as we had a drone synth that none of us could play and it also meant he could get into gigs for free! Charlotte we met through mutual friends, and Jacob has only recently joined us as we needed a new drummer after moving to London.

When did you play your first gig?

Rory Allen: The very start of 2022 was technically our first gig, but we’ve gone through a lot of different people since then.

Oscar Thorpe: The first part of that year was the disintegration of our other band, so I’d say the first proper Otala gig would have been in October 2022.

Rory Allen: The first gig as Otala was early October 2022.

Oscar Thorpe: We played for the Loughborough Music Society, and we’ve been trudging along ever since.

One thing that’s always stood out with Otala is how each of you brings something different to the mix, so I’m guessing you all have a wide range of influences?

Oscar Thorpe: We all like the same things or music from the same scenes such as Shame for example. But then we all like different things as well

Rory Allen: I’m a big fan of Ry Cooder and lots of Americana and folk.

Charlotte Foulkes: But then you’ll also listen to a lot of pop and electronic stuff.

Rory Allen: I think I’ve started listening to more of that kinda stuff since I’ve been working for a company that makes synthesizers. Like I need to revise to know what they’re all talking about!

Oscar Thorpe: I like some heavier stuff - Chatpile are one band I’m really into at the minute.

Charlotte Foulkes: I’m into most things but I think my main influences come from the early post-punk stuff with saxophones in like James Chance. Then I also like a lot of jazz even though I don’t really play it.

Another key facet with Otala is that every song has heralded a natural progression, from “Tennov” to “Tell The Bees” to “Commedia” and now the new EP. Is that something you were conscious of?

Charlotte Foulkes: Yeah. I think we definitely have been because we’re always thinking about the next step. So, each time we have a new recording its always a lot more thought out than the last time. I think that’s how we plan so when we eventually come to recording an album we’re totally sure about the arrangements and production side of things. We tend to refocus when we move onto the next set of recordings and that can often influence the direction we go in as well.

The new EP Fire! To The River consists of seven songs of which two (“Patchwork” and “Everything But The Hate” ) had already come out as singles. Both show very different sides of the band and EP. Was that your intention with releasing those two songs beforehand?

Oscar Thorpe: “Everything But The Hate” being the first one was a lot slower than anything we’d released previously.

Rory Allen: We were quite conscious of putting out something quite different so people didn’t just think it was more of the same.

Charlotte Foulkes: It’s quite melodic and very different to something like “Tell The Bees” for example. “Everything But The Hate” was one of the newest songs we’d written at that point. We only wrote it a couple of months before recording the EP whereas some of the other songs we left for later had actually been written two-and-a-half years earlier.

Jack McInnes: It was the newest song I think.

Charlotte Foulkes: Whereas some of the other songs on the EP are quite reminiscent of our older stuff.

How do the songs come together? Is there a level of improvisation involved? Do the songs change over time as you play them live?

Jack McInnes: They kind of form themselves after a few renditions or practices where one of us might play something slightly different and it sticks.

Oscar Thorpe: Sometimes we might play something slightly different live and if we think it works we’ll stick with it. Of course the flipside of that is we might also try something different that ends up sounding shit, in which case we then realise the song was just fine as it was.

With so many songs to choose from and an array of different styles and sounds within them, how do you put a live set together? Does it change depending on the setting and the audience?

Oscar Thorpe: It can be quite hard figuring out what to play and where. Recently, we’ve been putting in a lot of introducing pieces between songs.

Jack McInnes: By creating story lines around the EPs, we’ve put in more ambient sections that bridge songs together.

Oscar Thorpe: It makes the live show more of an experience for us as well rather than have to keep stopping and starting, or having awkward conversations in between the songs. Hopefully, the music is something people can get lost in so we don’t have to keep stopping before the next song starts.

Charlotte Foulkes: I think that’s how those interludes came about - “The Seamstress” and “A Reflection” - more as ways of bridging songs together live but also letting things play out.

Rory Allen: Even the songs themselves as well. We start a lot of sets with “Plates From The Kiln” because its an ambient piece that then builds up while “Daisy” is more of a triumphant finale. I think they’ve become good first and last songs on the EP purely because of where they sit in the live set. Even if we hadn’t record them in that order I think they would eventually have ended up where they are on the EP based on how they work live.

Charlotte Foulkes: We always try and bridge everything together live so that’s how we ended up recording this EP by tracking it in a row rather than breaking up each song individually.

Rory Allen: The whole b-side of the EP was recorded in one take, which is how we play them live as well.

Do you often try and replicate the way you play live in the studio or are you always experimenting with different ideas and techniques when recording?

Rory Allen: It was a very new experience recording the EP with Nathan Ridley (Plantoid, Blue Bendy) as he was very vocal - not necessarily about what he wanted us to do, but what he thought we were trying to do. He was always right about what we were trying to do but we didn’t necessarily know how to do it. So, the songs ended up how they did partly because Nathan was always pushing them in the right direction.

Charlotte Foulkes: We want to carry on moving forwards in the future with producers that would help us figure out the best ways to make our stories work.

There are a number of bands coming through that use unconventional instruments and arrangements as key elements of what they do. Man/Woman/Chainsaw and Black Country, New Road being two, as well as yourselves. Do you feel a bond or kinship with any of those bands?

Charlotte Foulkes: We do feel a kinship with Man/Woman/Chainsaw because their keyboard player Emmie is our drummer Jacob’s girlfriend. We’ve played with them twice now - they supported us in Nottingham then we supported them in London - and even though we’re not the same musically, people do compare us so there is a kinship. Same with Opus Kink who we’ve also supported a few times. We don’t really sound alike but they’ve also got a trumpet and sax which we naturally identify with.

Rory Allen: I think it definitely ties in with our influences as well even though you wouldn’t necessarily be able to tell what they are just by listening to us. For example, Opus Kink are influenced by a lot of South American music and even though they’re a 2025 post-punk band, you can tell there’s a lot more going on because of those instruments than just a standard guitar band.

The positive of that is that bands who don’t become compartmentalised into a scene end up having the most longevity. Is there a long term plan for Otala?

Rory Allen: Not really, or certainly not before now anyway. We’ve started writing more music and playing it together since moving to London. Improvising and jamming more in practice then seeing where it goes. Which is something we’ve never really done before.

Charlotte Foulkes: Living in the same city helps us with that as well because we can practice more often. I don’t feel like there’s currently any timeline or plan but we do have milestones we’d like to achieve over the next few years like a big headline tour, playing some major festivals, going over to play some more EU countries, and definitely recording an album in the next however long.

Do you find European audiences are a lot more receptive and appreciative than those in the UK?

Rory Allen: France and the Netherlands are the only places we’ve played outside of the UK but the audiences there were both really receptive. They seemed to warm to the fact we’re not from there as well. I don’t know if that’s because we’re a UK band but they definitely made a big fuss of us.

You built up quite a large and loyal fanbase in Nottingham. Does it feel like you have to start all over again now you’ve moved to London?

Oscar Thorpe: I think when you’ve played a few shows in different cities - not necessarily London specifically - new people are often coming to the shows that haven’t seen us before. So, it’s not completely starting from zero as we’ve always tried to branch out to other places even when we were based in Nottingham.

Charlotte Foulkes: I think by the time we left Nottingham we’d gotten used to playing to a whole crowd of people we knew, whereas definitely in London it’s less so. We’ll have a few friends we know or people we’ve met along the way, but it is nice reaching out to a new group of people as well. It can be quite daunting not knowing who will show up or even whether anyone will.

What are your plans for the rest of 2025?

Rory Allen: We’ve got a couple of festivals lined up for April and May, then we’re hoping to put together a headline tour later in the year.

Oscar Thorpe: The EP’s just come out so we’re focusing on getting that out to as many people as possible. We’re looking forward to the two festivals - Outer Town in Bristol and Wanderlust in Southampton.

Rory Allen: Mainly because it will be the first time we’ve ever played either of those cities. I feel like we have more chances to play cities we haven’t played before now we’re London-based than we did before. It’s way easier to get from London to anywhere else.

Charlotte Foulkes: Especially in the south. When we lived in Nottingham we’d play in Manchester and Leeds quite a bit or Sheffield a lot, whereas now we’re in London it’s time to start playing Brighton and Bristol. There’s more opportunities to reach other cities we’ve never played in before which is quite exciting for us.

Oscar Thorpe: We will have some more music ready later in the year.

Rory Allen: Which hopefully means more gigs. We do want to come back up to Nottingham at some point and play there again as we haven’t been back since we moved to London.

What advice would you give to a new band that’s just starting out?

Charlotte Foulkes: Play as many gigs as possible. That’s how you really find your sound, what works and what doesn’t.

Jacob Wing: On that note, play as many as you can without shit, corporate landfill promotion companies because I’ve played with bands who’ve fallen into the trap of let’s do as many gigs as we possibly can, but there’s a consequence with that in you ending up taking so many awful shows in Shoreditch basements where if you don’t bring a minimum of 30 people the promoters won’t pay you. It just puts you so many steps back from where you started.

Rory Allen: We’ve learned to only play for promoters that care about the music and are going to be there on the night.

Charlotte Foulkes: Knowing the promoters in your local area - and particularly the good ones - is essential. That also comes from going to shows and learning that yourself.

Jacob Wing: Also, meet as many other bands as possible. 90% of the shows I’ve got whichever bands I’ve played in have been through having mates in other bands. The result of that is a band like Shame might come to the Windmill, see you play, then offer you a gig as they’ll always put a mate’s band on regardless of who they are because their ethos is always about showcasing their friends’ bands. Just knowing the right people is so important when it comes to getting the right gigs.

Oscar Thorpe: Don’t be a dick! Always try and make friends with other bands.

Charlotte Foulkes: Definitely this, and not just to get anywhere. If you want to stay part of your scene and have fun for as long as possible then you should make friends.