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Far Out Magazine | Atlanta post-punk band Omni discuss their new album, AI and more

Posted 01/26/2024

It’s 28 degrees (Fahrenheit) in Atlanta, Georgia, from where frostbitten members of the post-punk band Omni join the call. Tackling their Tuesday mornings separately, I find guitarist Frankie Broyles in the driver’s seat of a motionless car while frontman Philip Frobos and drummer Chris Yonker call in from more relaxed and ostensibly warmer locations.

The trio appear energised and enthusiastic ahead of their album launch in February and the corresponding UK tour. Before the Covid-19 interference of 2020-21, Omni scaled the full height of Atlanta’s verdant indie rock scene with three raw and energetic albums. The warm reception of Networker in 2019 promised consolidation of a more widespread fanbase, but global catastrophe lurked just around the corner with a spanner for the works.

When lockdown first applied its icy grip, grinding the world to a halt, Omni still operated as the co-founding duo: Frobos and Broyles. Unable to meet up for rehearsals and live performances, the pair used this time wisely to enhance their instrumental and songwriting skills. “When you have your career taken away from you, it kind of brings the fight or flight energy that you kind of can undeniably run into your art – every aspect of life,” Frobos explained.

Fortunately, Frobos chose to “fight”, using the downtime very much to his advantage. “Philip literally wrote an entire novel and record while we weren’t doing anything,” Yonker beamed admirably. Frobos unveiled his “lounge-inspired” solo album, Vague Enough to Satisfy and its accompanying semi-autobiographical novel in 2021. He humbly described his lockdown project as a “memoir-ish” story of “young romance”.

With solo endeavours satisfied for the time being, Omni returned to the drawing board in late 2021. On previous albums, Broyles recorded drum tracks, but this time round, Yonker was on board to offer his specialised expertise on a permanent basis. “Once we got in the same room, things started moving pretty quick,” Frobos noted of the trio’s reunion.

In the practice room, Omni focuses on the instrumentals first, providing a foundation from which Frobos can construct or remodel lyrical concepts. “Guitar and bass usually are the first things that we work out, and then drums,” Broyles said, detailing the songwriting process. “Philip’s usually working on vocals while that’s happening, and then we just throw it all together and see how it feels.”

Besides Yonker’s drumming prowess, Omni’s first post-lockdown album, Souvenir, was enhanced by a first-time collaboration with recording engineer Kristofer Sampson. Longtime fans can rest assured that this new LP is imbued with that characteristic Omni sound of jagged riffs and vocal nonchalance. All the same, Sampson and guest co-vocalist Izzy Glaudini brought a new dimension to the proceedings.

“Kris Sampson pushed us to try some things that we hadn’t tried before, which is good,” Frobos said. “It’s definitely our cleanest record yet.”

“It was definitely like a push and pull,” Yonker added. “It was like Chris was trying to make us record things a little bit higher fidelity, and then we were constantly trying to make it sound shittier.”

At this juncture, we explored the influences behind Omni as a band and the new album in particular. I compared their sound to the British art-punk group Wire before asking whether the band had anything to do with their popular 2016 song ‘Wire’. “The song was originally called ‘A Wire’, and I forgot to leave the ‘A’ in there. We are big fans of Wire, but that wasn’t the intention,” Frobos explained.

Discussing the early inspiration behind Omni, Broyles named two somewhat obscure yet essential artists. “When we were first starting, we were really into [The] Monochrome Set, and this band called Shoes that are kind of an obscure Midwestern American band from the late ’70s,” he said.

Addressing the inspiration behind Souvenir specifically, Broyles added, “I was revisiting some Big Audio Dynamite. Maybe it sounds naive, but they have way more records than I realised – a lot of great shit!”

Big Audio Dynamite saw bandleader Mick Jones, previously of The Clash, embrace a more obscure, often synth-laden sound. Although Omni are big fans, they may not follow a Mick Jones trajectory to a tee. “There are more synths on this record, but I don’t know if Omni will ever become like a full-on synth wave band,” Yonker pondered doubtfully. “Who knows what’ll happen? Maybe we’ll just ditch the guitar entirely, and then all Frankie’s fans will be very disappointed [laughs].”

Reflecting on Souvenir, Frobos picked out some highlight moments for fans to listen out for. “I think ‘Common Mistakes’ and ‘INTL Waters’ have been big ones, and ‘PG’,” he said, admitting, “but I love ’em all.”

“I’m really happy with the way that ‘Plastic Pyramid’ came out,” Yonker added. “There’s a lot of revisions on that song. It was like we just kept sharpening the sword on that one, and I’m really happy with the way it turned out.”

Later, we turned stoically to face the cold uncertainty of the future. I asked Omni what they deem the most significant hurdle the music industry must tackle in the coming years. “Streaming royalties,” they all said in uncanny unison.

“The film industry’s starting to figure it out and figure out how to get people paid at least a little bit more actively than the music industry is,” Yonker pursued. “But yeah, it’d be really cool to actually make money off of, you know, tonnes of people listening to a song rather than just getting to the end of the year and buying a sandwich with your royalties.”

Omni became more optimistic when the conversation touched upon the dawning prospect of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in the arts. “I use AI a lot, actually,” Yonker said. “I’m a tattoo artist on the side. It’s my main source of income when we’re not touring and stuff. I collaborate with AI quite a bit to make designs that I then eventually tattoo on people.”

“There’s still a lot that’s required from the human side of interacting with an AI to where it’s more of a collaboration that’s exciting rather than scary,” he continued. “I’ve actually been using AI to entirely make the visualiser for one of our new songs. I think it’s a fascinating thing. People are always scared of things that are going to drastically change the world, like TV or the internet.”

Of course, there’s always a small chance James Cameron’s dystopian Terminator concept could become a reality. “I just tell Chat GPT, ‘Please’ and ‘Thank you’, you know, so it doesn’t come after me when the uprising happens,” Yonker added. “I think it’ll be alright.”

Broyles sagely added, “If humans are dumb enough to let AI put artists out of business, then we don’t deserve artists.”

With a breath of optimism in our sails, I finally asked this talkative trio to offer some parting advice for young, aspiring artists. “Make things because you’re excited about them, not because you think other people will be excited about them,” Yonker offered, with Frobos concluding, “If you’re not having fun doing it, it’s probably gonna suck.”

As we exchanged farewells 4,000 miles apart, I informed Omni that I would try to catch them on the first night of their forthcoming tour of the UK and Ireland. The band’s fourth studio album, Souvenir, arrives on February 16th, just two months before its first supporting gig in Brighton, UK.

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