We "Less Than Three" Oh, Hush!

Last Winter, we scored an interview with the oh-so-elusive and mysterious band Oh, Hush! of Myspace fame!

Where did the idea for Oh, Hush! come from?

I've known for quite some time that I wanted to do some kind of side project away from my regular band but it wasn't until this past summer that a few of us got together and started working on the songs that would become Oh, Hush! We knew we wanted to create a project that was focused on two things: 1) the MUSIC and 2) the FANS! We didn't have much of a plan other than that. So we threw up a song, a contest and a logo and went from there. We knew we wanted people to form their opinions of the band on the MUSIC alone. We didn't want people to focus on who was or was not in the band, or what we looked like, just the music. Love us or hate us, but do it based on the music.


How did the band end up coming together?

We're still fully trying to detemine who's actually "in" the band... but everyone who has participated in Oh, Hush! so far are just people we know, talented musicians, friends. Being a part of Oh, Hush! isn't a huge time commitment right now.. it mostly involves just being free to write a song or perform on a song here or there. We're still trying to figure out who's in this band tho.


Do you think you'll ever have a fixed line-up or will it be ever-changing?

That's a good and interesting question. Something we've given a little bit of thought to as of late when we start the beginning stage thought processes of tours and things like that. As of right now though, I'm not at liberty to talk about this.


It's known that the band is made up of people from other bands that may or may not be well-known. Did the celebrity and fame that came from the other bands play any kind of role in the concept of keeping who you are from people?

Well first of all, "celebrity" and "fame" are all very relative. Justin Timerblake is a celebrity and famous in the entire world. Just like the high school varsity quarterback is a celebrity and famous in his own high school. It's all relative. That being said, I do think that the whole idea of fame may have played a role in the whole "secret" aspect of the band. It certainly wasn't on the forefront of our minds, but think about someone like Britney Spears. She's a celebrity, she's famous. But who wants to be her?!?! I think it's safe to say that we don't want to be famous. We don't want to be celebrities. We just want people to enjoy our music!

Do you think that if your fans knew who you were it would influence how they perceive your music?

Absolutely. Which is why we wanted people to form their opinions of us entirely based on the music without being biased one way or the other based on who we are.


Are you noticing that the fans you have for Oh, Hush! are the same fans from your other bands?
If yes, do you think that jeopardizes keeping your secret at all?

I think it's actually a great mix of people. Some people from our other bands have come over to check us out. There's also a whole crop of new people as well. I don't think it really jeopardizes the "secret" though. I mean for every theory out there about who we are, I think every musician in the world has been "accused" of being a part of Oh, Hush! Until we confirm who's in this band, the secret is safe.


How long do you hope you can keep your identities unknown? If it could go on forever would you let it?

Interesting question. I think in some respects it's been a breath of fresh air being a part of a band where the identities of the bandmembers are unknown, because we can be normal people and have normal lives. Not that our band is "huge" by any means. But again, it's all relative. It's nice to also be able to interact with our fans like we do and that may not be as easy or possible once people know who we are.

But I also think it might be unfair to the fans if we never told them who was in this band. We're all big fans of the show LOST and I remember Damon Lindelof (the exec producer and chief writer of LOST) saying that it was important to him that they announce an end-time for the show now so that fans knew they weren't just pulling these stories out of their a$$es and dragging it on forever. He said he felt that would ripoff the viewers. I think I feel the same way about Oh, Hush! - fans might feel ripped off if they never find out who's in Oh, Hush! And the last thing we want is for our fans to feel like that because this project is all about them in the first place!!! That being said, that doesn't mean we have to reveal who's in the band anytime soon. But honestly, we haven't given a "reveal date" much thought. We're just focused on finishing our record and moving into the next phase of Oh, Hush! right now.


Is it true that even your band mates from your other bands don't know you're in this one?

True story. It's possible the word has gotten out a bit within our other bands, but everyone has been instructed to not say a single word to anyone.


What do you think of the many theories that have been spun about the band?

I try not to read about too many of the theories. But the ones I have read are pretty interesting! I'm just really flattered that people take the time to actually do all of this internet research to find out who we are. Like I saw someone probably pulled together 10 pages of information about what we've said in various blogs and posts and everything else and developed theories about who could possibly be in the band. That's awesome!! Bottom line is we're here to entertain people and we're just flattered that people care enough about us to create the theories!!


What's the craziest thing you've heard about yourselves or the band?

Hmmm... I think the one about Justin Timberlake being in the band. While I can neither confirm nor deny that JT is a card carrying member of Oh, Hush!, I can confirm that that would be pretty crazy indeed!!


By your standards of success, how successful do you think you guys will be?

Most people define "success" as dollars in their pocket. I suppose that is one measure of success, but I like to define success by the number of lives that are touched by music, and the amount of fun that I have being involved in music. By those standards, this project is already so much more successful than I ever thought it would be. We officially launched Oh, Hush! on July 27, 2007 - that's 5 months ago and here we are answering interviews, getting radio play on Sirius, selling out t-shirts, getting thousands of plays a day on myspace - who would have ever thought we'd get her so quickly?? I sure didn't. That being said, only God knows how successful this will become. But even if it all ended today, I can say it's been a great ride and a lot of fun and we've been blessed mightily already! But I think our best is yet to come!

Do you think that if people knew who you were your expectations would be different?

Our expecations or do you mean people's expectations of us?? Either way, I think that's one of the benefits of no one knowing who we are. There's no expectations. We've got a clean slate. We're able to start fresh and do whatever we want. We're truly able to make it up as we go without any boundaries or expecations that have to be met.

Do you think the band would succeed in the mainstream world (MTV, Radio, Magazines etc...), considering that in the industry lately a lot of emphasis has been placed on looks and with you there are no faces or names to put with the music?

I think the answer has to be YES and I have proof. The fact that I'm answering questions for an interview right now proves that magazines care about us. There's another 25 interviews I have to get through later today. Sirius Radio called us 2 months ago and started spinning our song "Going Down In Style." So for whatever reason, people seem to be into this thing and the fact that no one knows who we are doesn't seem to be hurting us at all.


Do you believe video truly killed the radio star (that looks and image are now more important to people than the music)?

I dunno if it quite killed the radio star but image is every bit as important these days as music. How many ugly pop stars do you see?? How many overweight singers are out there? I read industry sheets all the time looking for "good looking female, age 18-22, good voice a plus." Meaning, the LOOK is more important than if the girl can actually sing. What the hell is that all about?!?!?


How do you feel about the state of the music industry--or entertainment industry in general?

Music is actually more popular than ever before. There's opportunities for musicians all over the place these days!! TV shows, films, advertising, etc are all using music more than ever before. Kids have more songs in their music collections than ever before. That being said, all you ever read about is how the music industry keeps losing all of this money and that no one buys records anymore and that everyone is illegally downloading and all of that. Sure, that's happening. Is it right? I'm not really here to judge anyone. Bottom line is that I think now is a very exciting time in the music industry! It's time for someone to come out and do something new. It's time for new ways of marketing and selling music. It's time to think about music differently. I'm excited because I think Oh, Hush! fits into this new musical economy really well and I think the sky is the limit for us!!


Do you think it will change?

Yes, and it will take very forward thinking risk takers to really make some serious change. We'll see who those people are in the next few years I think!

How do you hope Oh, Hush! will influence those who listen to your music?

Well I think as a songwriter you always want to influence your listeners. Our hope is that people will enjoy our songs, that our music will bring a positivity to people's lives. We've had a lot lot LOT of fun creating these songs and we hope that spills over to the listeners that they get the same enjoyment out of listening as we did from creating the songs.

What are your thoughts on the double edged-sword that is illegal music downloading? Because if it wasn't possible to download for free, a lot of bands out there right now probably never would have been discovered, but at the same time, the downloading is hurting the industry.

You nailed it. It really is a double-edged sword and again, we're not here to make any judgments about downloading. If someone wants to steal one of our songs, then awesome! That means our songs must have been good enough to steal! We just hope that people who have downloaded our music (both legally and illegally), that if they LIKE it we hope they will come back and buy our record when we release it to support the band!

How does the recording process work for you guys? Do you all get together at once or don't your schedules allow it?

Thanks goodness for technology!! Every song is really different but the beauty of technology allows us to be able to work over computers and files and not actually have to be in the same room, or even city, or even state!!?!? In some cases we've been able to get together and work in the same room, but in other cases people just do little demos of their ideas and we send em around and work on things. I think all of us have usually worked on songs by sitting in a rehearsal space with our bands and jamming through songs. That's great and all, but with Oh, Hush! these songs have NEVER been played by a full band ever and it's been a refreshing and fun way to write and record songs!


Do you all have an equal part in writing the music or is it all mainly one person?

There's definitely one main writer for this project. But there's also input from the other people involved in this as well. And when it comes time to actually record parts for the tracks there's usually at least a few people involved in that.


Oh, Hush! had their first ever full-length album came out on September 30th, 2008. You can order the album from their myspace at http://www.myspace.com/ohhushmusic.