Lost in Oh Wonder

I consider myself a music addict. Always listening to music and always looking for new music. I remember one Friday night I was scrolling through my weekly new music playlist. Every song sounded the same, too loud and upbeat. And while that’s nice and adds a motivational boost, I needed something new, something calm and filled with meaning. I looked in my chill music playlist and that’s when I was introduced to the song Drive by Oh Wonder and I was hooked. Its hard to find an album in which you like every single song, and I never thought I would find it. This album is a self-titled album: Oh Wonder.

Oh Wonder are a London-based alternative/pop duo, consisting of Anthony West and Josephine Vander Gucht. Josephine and Anthony recorded and released one song a month for a year, starting in September 2014. Then, all of the songs were released together as a self-titled album on September 4^th in 2015. They write all their songs which adds even more meaning to their music. Before the duo was formed, Josephine was a solo artist, first going by her own name and then later under the alias of “LAYLA”. Anthony was originally part of the bands Tonight is Goodbye, Futures, and We the Wild. The two first met in High Wycombe on March 21^st of 2010 when Anthony was in the audience at one of Josephine’s solo gigs. A year later Josephine attended one of his shows, talked with him, and they began writing songs together. Many of their songs have a romantic vibe to them. In the song Technicolour Beat they sing “I feel life for the very first time, love in my arms and the sun in my eyes.” They have claimed that they are not dating because they don’t want it to affect their music (even though it clearly has). I’m still waiting for them to admit that they are dating.

They both planned music careers in their late teens. Anthony left school at 18 and, although his three siblings were in college, he chose to work at a supermarket to support his artistic future; Josephine studied English literature in college and worked as a waitress for the same reason. “It was very much earn your keep,” she says. “You can’t start making a living straight away from music.” This short interview talks about them writing music together and how they have learned from each other.

Livewire

Its hard to find your comfort music. For me its songs about love. I used to struggle a lot with who I wanted to be and who I was supposed to be. I worried a lot and stressed to the point where I stopped caring and nothing motivated me. This song has a way of making me feel warm inside and calm at the same time. People say I’m a hopeless romantic which I can agree to, but I also think I’m in love with love.

Oh won’t you be my livewire?

Make me feel like I’m set on fireParagraph

Your love will take me higher and higher

Oh won’t you be my livewire?

…

So hold me when I fall away from the lines

When I’m losing it all, when I’m wasting the light

And hold me when I put my heart in your hands

When I’m losing it all, when I’m wasting it all

In an interview the duo said the song Livewire “is one of our favorite songs on the album. It examines the importance of being someone’s ‘livewire’, their strength and energy. Everyone goes through dark days, and we all occasionally need a helping hand from someone to pull us back into the beauty of life. Human relationships are more important than ever in today’s society where more and more people are experiencing depression and isolation. We’ve gotta be there for each other.”

All We Do

Not all of their songs are romantic though. They like to sing about people and humanity. Josephine says, “Anthony and I have this genuine interest in other people. We find other people way more interesting than ourselves, so strangers on a train are a perfect example.” This song has a more deep and serious tone as it talks about life and daily routine.

In an interview with Stereo Fox, they talked about how important it was for them to write a song about ignoring the monotony of life and challenging yourself as a human: “It’s easy to sit and do the same thing, play it safe, not take risks. If you don’t critically look at yourself from time to time, it’s easy to slide onto the conveyor belt of life and do the same thing day in and day out, which to us, isn’t living. Life is about challenges and risks and the excitement of the new and the unknown.”

The official music video was released on October 18, 2016. It featured footage by filmmakers and artists around the world who were asked the question, “What does it mean to be human?” The duo responded to the question “We believe that everyone is equal. We are all human. We all deserve the world. And we can build that equality by sharing what love, knowledge and magic we have, with others.”

The last verse in this song ends with the lyrics “All we did was fail today.” After watching the video this piece definitely had multiple interpretations depending on the listener’s perspective. For me it means that sometimes we fail ourselves. And because we fail ourselves we fail other people. It’s like the saying “If you can’t take care of yourself then you cant take care of other people.” I was very insecure growing up. Because I didn’t believe in myself, I couldn’t believe in other people. Soon enough I learned the importance of communication for all my internal problems. Having someone you can trust and talk to (as in the song livewire), will always be better and more helpful than any anti-depressant or anxiety medication. Depression is not a sickness and therefore should not always be treated that way, it is a state of being that the soul and mind is in, and no medicine can fix that.

Oh Wonder Live

I got the opportunity to see them live on May 23, 2018 and it was truly an amazing experience. They sang songs from both of their albums. From the very beginning they showed a lot of energy and passion.

Oh Wonder, the self-titled album is filled with songs about humanity, life, and love. Songs that give me the ability to contemplate my life in a positive and much more meaningful way. This album not only helped me gain my confidence but taught me the importance of living life to the fullest because tomorrow is never promised.