O.D.M.

Photos by Laura Brown Photography, Mary O, Terri K, and Carrie

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Who are we? We are the achievers, the dreamers, the inventors and wall breakers, the movers, the shakers and the shifters. Our hands make music and yet they are also the fists of champions and freedom fighters. Our hearts span the globe from Egypt to the North Pole...and we are unique. Our skin is the color of strength, sweetness and earth. Our music is the color of freedom. Red, White and Blue. It is the new sound. It will make you cry and shout and is the beacon of a new style and expression. Whatever we touch moves. The notes we sing never stay put, flying up down and all around. We don't just talk, we rap. We don't just sing, we sang. We don't just play, we rock. Right here, right now, the O.D.M. experience will change you. It speaks of freedom, reminding everyone to persevere and live deeply, giving us progression, giving you humanity and everyone a higher hope. - One voice among many

So often in modern music there is a trade-off between good songwriting and killer guitar playing. For example, Coldplay writes beautiful songs but rarely rocks out. On the other hand, a band like Korn writes great guitar parts but rarely creates memorable, moving melodies. But every now and again a band manages to merge heart stopping melodies with epic six-string epiphanies. O.D.M. is such an act.

O.D.M. was formed a little over two years ago by the man those closest to him sometimes refer to as "SHOCKBIZZLE," Lance T Ayers. "He is a musical mastermind," says bassist Rae Von. "The most potent untapped musical resource this town (Chicago) has produced in years." Perhaps it is a very befitting nickname considering the fact that he and his band (which also includes guitarist John O'Brien, effects and vocals Matt Adams and drummer Kelsey Tarver) enact a brilliant Dr. Jekyll / Mr. Hyde at every gig. Looking like an unlikely crew to say the least, at first glance it's easy to be deceived by their innocent gaze and their proper English. But by the end of the night there isn't a single jaw undropped, head unturned or loyalty unattained for this dangerously raw and infectious band.

"We fool them every time,.." laughs Lance. "I love that. The hand up Mona Lisa's skirt thing. I never get tired of it. Kids loyal to other bands never see it coming because today's urban/youth culture is so image driven and we don't cater to such things. O.D.M. is a band subservient to it's sound not it's image and so kids are usually prepositioned to boo and sneer. Imagine their surprise after the show when they realize that their new favorite band is not the one that they paid to see. They are our fans now."

The lyrical content of the songs are at times hazardously outspoken focusing greatly on human kind's infatuation with fear and consumption as well as losing in the battle of life, while always in the end offering hope, solutions and at times spirituality. "They're amazing!" says DJ Eddie Mills of Liquid Soul. "Lance is like Jimi Hendrix meets Public Enemy. The shit is hot! You just have to see it." Lance may write the band's music and it's lyrics, but O.D.M. wouldn't be the same without guitarist John O'Brien who always manages to conjure the perfect amount of color and animosity from his six-string. Or without bassist Rae Von who anchors the songs with an impenetrable wall of volume. And it wouldn't be the same without madman Matt Adams to help to maintain pain's place in the order of emotion. This is the future.