After listening to Nice Nice over and over, going to two of their shows, and lying awake at night wondering just how the ladies of the band get their make-up so perfect, I got the opportunity to interview Oh Darling. The Portland based band was in Los Angeles to record some songs, and I was able to meet them at the restaurant Swingers in the middle of town. Sitting down with Jasmine Ash (vocals, synths), Daven Hall (guitar), J. Marie Hall (bassist), and Jake Endicott (drums) was a lot of fun while drinking milkshakes outside under LA’s winter sun.

I started by asking them about their writing process. In a previous interview with Northwest Noise, they had stated that the writing process for Nice Nice was quick, with Jasmine singing and the songs getting done in record time. Was it the same for the new songs?

“Quicker,” Jake answered. “Yeah, maybe even faster,” Daven put in. “The structure was the same,” J. Marie added. “We just recorded all those songs the other day, like “Just Love . . . Anyway.””

So are any of their new songs favorite ones to play live? Daven answered, “All of them, and there are like five or six. “Holiday” is one I like.” Jake and Jasmine agreed.

Before we continue, let’s get some of their history. Before Oh Darling existed, back in early 2006, Jasmine had been doing her own solo projects. Daven had been in several bands as a bassist and definitely wanted a career in music. J. Marie, who also played the bass, enjoyed it, but wasn’t planning on making music her main focus. Jake, who only became an official member of the band earlier this year after touring with them for quite awhile, was in a band called Jonah. Jasmine and J. Marie were friends, but not close yet. One night, at a friend’s wedding, they decided to start a band.

After convincing Daven to not only join the band, but to learn guitar for it, they started practicing, and things just seemed right. But since both J. Marie and Daven knew the bass, I wondered why Daven was the one who had to learn guitar.

“Yeah,” Daven spoke up, “I’d like to know the answer to that, too!” J. Marie was all smiles. “We thought you had more potential.” “He’s a natural,” Jasmine added. Jake added, smiling, “His tone is incredible, and his rig is sweet.” Daven picked up on the joke. “One thing I’ve noticed,” he started, “is that after a show people will come up to me and start talking to me about tone, I hear the word ‘tone’ a lot, and about my rig a lot, like my pedals. But when I was a bass player, that would never happen. I’ve learned a lot about both those things, about guitar players in general.”

I was curious to know how they came up with the art for the CD’s cover. “A good friend of ours is a great artist and we knew that we wanted to use his work because we love it,” Jasmine said. “He actually made that cover years ago, and we re-found it. And we just knew the moment we saw it that it was right.”

under the tuscan sun download free Although the words “Oh Darling” usually conjure up a Beatles song, that didn’t have anything to do with their choice of band name. In that interview with Northwest Noise, they had said that there were two or three names they were choosing from. “Usually when something is right, we just know,” J. Marie said. “Conversely,” Jake devilishly started out, “When we’re wrong we don’t know. And we still go with it.” Jasmine: “We’re always fast when we make decisions.” Jake finished up, “We just speed through danger.”

Jake is kind of the troublemaker of the group. At a recent concert I attended, he might have spoken more than Jasmine, the singer. Jake didn’t even have a mic, but he was quite vocal about all manner of topics. Pointedly looking towards the rest of the band, I asked what was the craziest thing Jake’s done on stage. Jasmine answered, “When we were doing a show in Portland, he threw a drumstick up and caught it. Although no one saw him catch it, he was so excited that he ran a lap.” Jake added, “It was a victory lap! People were scared. I was running pretty fast.”
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Jake continued to interject, as he had at the show. When I asked J. Marie and Jasmine, who are known for being quite the fashionistas on and off stage, about what they though Michelle Obama should wear for her inauguration gown, Jake answered instead. “She should be wear a muumuu,” he answered, before Jasmine, pretending to be haughty, told him, “The question was for J. Marie and I.” Jake smiled, and J. Marie continued: “Definitely something classic.” Jasmine agreed, “Yeah, and nothing too crazy in the color department. She has so much potential, and she’s such a beautiful woman.”

Staying with the current events theme, I asked what they were all listening to. J. Marie started, “Random Impulse.” Daven’s answer was Persephone’s Bees, which was very exciting to me since they are a band I very much like. Jake likes them, too: “There’s injustice in the music business that that band got dropped and is no longer together.” Before we got too lost in the sad tale, J. Marie added that the new Kings of Leon record was good and Jake answered that he’d been listening to Guns N’ Roses, specifically Appetite for Destruction, along with Stryper. Jasmine put in for Phantom Planet and Cold War Kids, and said that she liked the new Franz Ferdinand album.

Switching gears entirely, I turned to Jasmine and asked how her setup at center stage came to be. Generally, with her digital piano and her mini-Korg, she has a small, baseball-sized toy bunny sitting atop her equipment. There are also usually lights and a lit-up plastic skull. Jasmine started with the rabbit. “I love bunnies. I always have, and that bunny was a gift from an old friend, and he’s so tiny, so I put him up there, and then it kind of became my good luck charm. My setup, with the equipment, is so ridiculous because it’s so big, so was I felt like I needed to dress it up. So the bunny’s name is Button.” J. Marie interjected: “One time she thought she’d lost Button and it was this big thing.” Jasmine smiled. “Yeah, that was bad. Also, the bunny that is in our press release photos is my rabbit, whose name is Bunson.” Being a big Muppet fan, I asked if he was named after the scientist Muppet Bunson, who is Beaker’s superior. “No,” Jasmine started. “Just ‘cause it has ‘bun’ in it. But I always call him The Bunny.” “I call him Buns,” J. Marie added. Jake smiled devilishly. “I call him delicious.”

The band’s fun personality comes across on stage, both in their presence and their creativity. There will be more shows in LA early in ’09, and a possibility for a tour. Visually and musically, this band is stunning, so be sure to see them.