Take notes – Oscar DeLaughter may be the name that you want to remember.

He may be a fresh face in the industry, but Oscar DeLaughter is ready to take on the world with his lit pop hits and climbing stream numbers. We speak with the young pop artist to find out more about his new song, music journey, and the road ahead.

Named by NPR as one of their 20 Under 20 Rising Artists “that you’ll want to see before buying tickets will cost you half a month’s rent”, one can see why his numbers are growing.

Released in early January, his latest single “Just Woke Up” is climbing the charts at over 138k streams on Spotify alone, while his earlier hit and my current favourite, “Broken Heart Conversation”, reminds of the pretty vignette-like nostalgia of polaroid-coloured bands like The 1975, for instance.

It is the kind of song – that you might recall swaying to, at big capacity gigs. One of the more underrated songs – before that really big one comes along! In fact, you’ll want to remember this moment where you can say – “Oh yes! I knew Oscar DeLaughter way back before he became big!”

Indeed, his songs are eclectic, fun with an almost pièce de résistance recipe for the gig-going millennials of his age. He connects and does it well with a flair of hopeful promise that we see in the youth of our hearts. It’s like saying “life is good, or bad, or whatever. We still carry on.”

Says Oscar,

“‘Just Woke Up’ is about coming to grips with the reality of certain aspects in life but keeping hope that things will get better…”

Oscar promises more things to come, and we can hardly wait!

AL365: Hi Oscar, Vanessa here from AsiaLive365. Thank you for taking the time to have this interview. Congrats on your new release “Just Woke Up”. It’s such a vibey and dance-y groovy track. Do you feel that the song represents your hopeful outlook for 2021?

Oscar: Hey Vanessa, Thank you for having me!

I would say it does for sure. I’m hoping everyone has a great year, especially coming out of 2020 but it is a reminder for me and hopefully others too that sometimes things will happen that were unplanned and out of our control but in those times we have to know things will be alright and keep pushing forward.

AL365: The accompanying music video for the song looks pretty cool and fun! All those retro stuff lying around! Tell us more about the day filming that video.

Oscar: It was cool, it was the first time I shot a video like that. Something cool about the location is, I had found that house a while back on the internet or something like that and saved it because I knew I’d want to shoot a video there one day…then flash forward a year or so and I’m brainstorming with the director  about just the “Just Woke Up” music video and he mentions this spot he had in mind and it ended up being the same one I saved! So that was cool, I’m glad it worked out that way.

AL365: We understand that you toured a lot as a kid with your dad. What do you remember most fondly about those tours and the music industry?

Oscar: Honestly, I just remember always being on a tour bus, waking up in a different city almost every day and then going to the venues at night for the shows. First several years of my life I was on the road.

AL365: What sort of music did you listen to growing up and how has that influence shaped your music style?

Oscar: I grew up listening to all different genres of music. Therefore I’ve been able to take the inspiration from all those different sounds and find ways to incorporate them into my music. Right now i’d say I’m really into making a mixture of pop and a little bit of rock but that will probably change over time.

AL365: You mentioned that you started writing songs at a young age – at 10? Do you still remember what your very first song was about?

Oscar: The first couple of songs I made were about girls hahaha I guess I was just an emotional 10 year old. But I do remember hearing myself for the first time after being recorded and thinking it was the coolest thing in the world. It made everything real for me.

AL365: What made you decide to take that music journey?

Oscar: I’ve been around music my whole life, I’ve also been making music my whole life and it always made me happier than anything else so I guess it only made sense for it to be my career lol

AL365: What are you working on at the moment?

Oscar: I’m currently working on my EP that I plan to release by the end of the year! I plan to release a couple of singles until the project is out.

AL365: Thanks again Oscar and we look forward to hearing more songs from you!

Oscar: Thank you, I can’t wait to share.

Cover photo: Hunter Lyon