Omar Interview

Omar, the British singer, songwriter and musician learnt his craft classically through playing the tuba, piano and percussion. After a seven-year hiatus, Omar has returned with his highly anticipated new album ‘The Man’. The most influential soul singer to come out of the UK has collaborated with Stevie Wonder and Angie Stone. His latest album sees him collaborating with old friend Caron Wheeler, and developing a reprise of his 1990 classic ‘Nothing Like This’. BBM catch up with Omar to find out where he’s at and what he’s been up to.

Hi Omar.
Hi, how are you?

I’m very well thanks, yourself?
Yeah good, thanks.

What have you been up to?
I’ve got interviews all day and tomorrow.

Where are you talking to us from today?
I’m just in the studio.

How does it feel to be releasing your seventh studio album, The Man?
Pretty good! It’s been almost 30 years that I’ve been making music, so to still be doing what I love is quite an honour.

Who is The Man?
That would be me I suppose. When I picked the title, I was just picking the best of all the titles. But as I’m beginning to realize, it seems to be turning out to be me.

How is this album different from the others?
It should be an evolution of me as an artist. I think it’s the best music I’ve done so far, but it’s not far from anything I’ve done in the past. If you know my music you won’t be disappointed. People have been getting snippets on the Internet and the reaction has been really good so far.

What was the concept behind the album?
No concept behind the album. It took me seven years because a lot of things have happened in between; I’ve had twin girls, they’re almost six now, we moved to Brighton, I’ve been writing and also started acting about four years ago. There never is a concept, I just write as I go.

Soul II Soul’s Caron Wheeler featured on your second ever single and now features on Treat You on this album, have long relationships within the music industry been important to you?
They’ve been kind of standard, you know. I’ve known Caron since I was probably seventeen. We haven’t worked in between that time, so it was a bonus to get her on this album. But a lot of the people on this album are people that I’ve worked with on my past 5, 6 albums. I know how good they are and they know how I work and it’s easier to work that way.

You’ve collaborated with some of the greats, including Stevie Wonder and Angie Stone; is there anyone, alive or past, that you would love to work with now?
Bill Withers or Bobby Womack.

Good choices! Stevie Wonder became a fan of yours since There’s Nothing Like This in 1992 and you subsequently recorded Feeling You alongside him; does the song hold a special place in your heart as a result?
He’s always been a big influence on me since I was about eight years old. It was magical that he could write something for me for the album and guest on it. It was a dream come true.

That song is so evocative of early 90s summers, how does it feel to have created a hit that has stood the test of time?
I always said from my first single, which I hated, that I wanted to make music that I could play for years to come, so that seems to have born out what I wanted to all along, so that’s pretty good.

You hated your first single?
I just didn’t like it, after two weeks I hated playing it. It was out the same time as Five Star and I was doing PA’s after them and everyone left while I was playing, so it left a memory where I said I’m not going to write music that I don’t like. You have to perform these things over and over again so if I hated Nothing Like This I’d be in a very dire state.

Do you remain in contact with Stevie?
I do but haven’t spoken to him in about a year. He’s a very busy man, as am I.

You received an MBE in 2012 for services to music, how was meeting Prince Charles?
I’ve met him several times; the first time was in 1997 at The Prince’s Trust, in South Africa. He’s pretty easy to talk to. When he gave me the medal he asked for a copy of the album, which I sent him and he sent me a letter thanking me.

Is it your greatest award?
It’s the most widely known, from the high office, to get the royal seal of approval. I don’t get much recognition otherwise mainstream so I would say so, yeah.

Sir Omar definitely has a ring to it, are you planning on working your way up to a knighthood?
[Laughs] You never know! I’ve got a few years to work on it, so watch this space.

Your siblings are all musically talented like yourself, have you played much together recently?
My sister does backing vocals for me and my brother is on my album. We produced and wrote some of the tracks together. He’s always on my album so they’re always current.

You’ve toured worldwide, has anywhere surprised you?
I did a show in Jakarta in Indonesia and they knew all the words to Nothing Like This, which I hadn’t known, so to see 2000 Indonesians singing back to you is quite a buzz.

Where are you playing next?
Next gig’s at the Jazz Café on 27th and 28th June for the album launch party.

Brilliant! Will there be any special guests?
There are a few support acts. My sister Samia’s going to do her thing and a young singer called Ego Ella May is going to be on before the actual show.

You’ve done a bit of acting, playing the role of Barney in the musical Been So Long; are you doing any more acting or are you focusing on the music?
I’m starring in my own one-man play Love Song, which has been going for the past three years all over the place. It’s a 15-minute monologue with all my songs.

Wow, that’s impressive! What was the driving force behind that?
That was the writer of Been So Long, Che Walker. Someone wrote in saying that I should do my own play, so he sat down and wrote me 19 pages of dialogue! We sat down and developed it over 6 months and took it on the road.

You mentioned your twin daughters earlier; how is fatherhood treating you?
Fantastic. I would not change it for the world. Before I had children I wondered what it would be like, whether it would change my life, but of course it has. It’s inspired me to write. One of the songs on the album, Ordinary Day, is written about them and my partner. It turns out that The Man seems to be about them.

If you could tell 17-year-old Omar one thing, what would it be?
[Laughs] Invest your money! Invest wisely. They say youth is wasted on the young and it’s that kind of thing. I do wish I’d known back then what I know now. Be wise about your decision.

Thanks ever so much, Omar. Good luck with the album, not that you’ll need it!

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