Virginia Beach Fourpiece OK Mayday is made up of friends, including a couple of brothers, who write catchy, fully-realized, soulful indie that stands apart. While their sound could be characterised as basic rock, they also take some of their cues from pop, which ensures that their songs are just that bit more powerful. Their most recent single, ‘Blossoms’, probably stands against any characterisation, but it’s definitely one worth adding to your summer playlist.
David and Kelly Bollmann, Stephen Lee, and Matthew Osborn have worked together for decades, and so there’s a certain ease with which they are able to get across their message, alongside the skilled instrumentation. ‘Blossoms’ is a song about love, and the synths, as well as the dreamlike vocals of David Bollman are entirely appropriate for the subject – the perfect match in fact.
The video for ‘Blossoms’ was originally intended to tell the story of a love between two people, but with the onset of – you guessed it, COVID-19 – the band decided instead to reach out to fans, friends, and family, as well as fellow musicians around the world, to send them some footage of “a day in the life”. Consequently the clip is a mix of dozens of videos of people conducting acts of love: dancing, playing, working, eating, even skating, and the suddenly so normal, making of masks. The video has a way of showing that even though we can’t be together in the same room, we are still all with each other. The band, via Zoom, performs the song, with their own lives happening around them as well, demonstrating that life goes on, and music can provide a panacea for anything – even a pandemic.
OK Mayday can be found on their official website.
