London-based one-man-band, singer-songwriter, and musician Oats is making his comeback to the music scene with a trippy and dazed-out single and music video entitled "Mad Hatter."
Oats had an obsession with music since a very early age, and since then, he's been heavily experimenting with sounds of psychedelia and the spine-chilling soundtracks of horror films. Making music from the comfort of his homey bedroom studio, Oats prides himself on explorative neo-psych sounds that capture the forever-curious artist's musical approach.
Now releasing his heavy and trippy single, "Mad Hatter," Oats shows us what he's made of through the song's beaming psychedelic undertone and alternative-rock edge. The song's music video is a whole other aspect that quite literally looks like what you'd see after dosing mushrooms; just Oats' floating head and bright red hair letting loose to the song's rhythmic instrumentation.
Expanding on the new single, "Mad Hatter," the track begins with a soulful acoustic guitar alongside light cymbals and percussion. As Oats makes his velvety and soft vocal appearance, his echoed and delayed vocals start pouring through our speakers with the utmost emotion. There's a beautiful contrast between Oats' soothing vocal performance and the heavy-hearted instrumentals that continue to expand.
A bright and luminous electric guitar beams its light through our speakers on the song's second half, perfectly upping the energy and vibe. While Oats continues his heartfelt and psychedelic-inspired performance, he leaves it up to the instrumentals to take our listening experience to new, thrilling, and authentic peaks. The song is rather short but so effective, and we can't wait for more dazed and transcendent singles like this from Oats in the future.
Catch Oats spiraling into wonderland with his latest single, "Mad Hatter," now available on all digital streaming platforms.
Welcome to BuzzMusic, Oats. We love the psychedelic and trippy feel of your latest single, "Mad Hatter." What inspired you to create this transcendent piece?
Thank you so much! So, this song was the last one I recorded for my EP, "Octavius." One evening, the melody just came to me after finishing a strenuous mixing session for another song. I quickly picked up my guitar and figured out a chord structure, and recorded it in one take. The rest just flowed very easily. There are times when melodies or ideas will come to you randomly, and those tend to be the easiest songs to structure. I suppose music is sometimes best when it's intuitive and less thought out!
Was there a specific concept or theme you wanted to make known within "Mad Hatter?"
When I got round to recording the vocals, I only had a few lyrics prepared with mostly the same phrases repeated. The rest was improvised, which I thought was a cool idea since the whole song was very free-flowing. Despite not intending it, the lyrics ended up serving as an encouraging lesson to myself. Almost as if I was subconsciously telling myself, "you're not that terrible. Stop putting yourself down over silly things". So, it was a bit of a surprise when I listened back to the vocal takes.
What sort of listening experience did you want to offer?
I always aim to create a crazy listening experience for people. Most of my favorite songs are the ones where you hear sounds that you can't tell how they've been created or which instrument was used in the process. I think I might have gone a bit overboard with that with some of my older songs. So, on this track, I wanted to keep it very minimal and raw sounding, with a repetitive feel to it. I was quite influenced by droney shoegaze music, which sometimes only has a few chords played throughout the whole song, which becomes quite hypnotic. I guess I wanted to create my own dreamy lo-fi version of that.
Could you take us through your creative process for "Mad Hatter?" Did you create the entire instrumental solo in your home studio?
I record all of my guitars, keyboards, and vocals at home in my bedroom set up. Fortunately, I have access to drum kits at the building where I work, so all of the drums get recorded there. Everything was recorded onto Ableton. Most of the weird processing sounds you hear are all from my guitar pedals or synths being manipulated with other bits of equipment.
A good friend of mine recently helped me get hold of an analog four-track recorder, so after everything was processed on my laptop, I transferred the track into my four-track machine, then back into Ableton. I wanted the song to have a very lofi saturated sound. I thought it worked pretty well with this song, so I decided to do the same process to the rest of the EP.
How do songs like "Mad Hatter" reflect your artistic brand? Do you usually create rather psychedelic and chilling pieces like this?
I guess all of my songs have a different sound to them, I kind of like the idea of having no boundaries when it comes to songwriting. It makes it far more enjoyable. Although I do feel the songs off this EP, all have the same kind of feel. I wrote and recorded all of them pretty quickly during the same period, which is a bit rare for me. We can thank the lockdown for that! But yeah, I have always been a fan of horror movie soundtracks, they used to terrify me as a child, so I guess I try and add some of that into my own music.
What's next for you?
Soon I will release my EP called "Octavius," which Mad Hatter is from. I plan to play as many shows as possible in light of the EP release. New songs are already in the works. Currently, I'm focusing mainly on my solo live setup, something I've never really done before. I would always focus on recording songs in my studio but never try to perform them live. I would then struggle to try and perform these songs without the use of a backing band. With these new songs, however, I have structured them so that I can perform them with just my guitar, some drum machines, and a few samplers. It's been a great learning experience for me. It's been fun trying to figure it all out. I can't wait to share all these new sounds with everyone.