OSTON shares her experiences as a “20 nothing”

By Mia Weisfeld 

If you haven’t heard of OSTON yet, you are absolutely missing out! OSTON is a Utah native living in LA, and she is making a name for herself in the world of pop music. She was kind enough to let me interview her last Monday. She reveals what it's like to navigate your 20-somethings, or better yet, your 20-nothings, and the new obstacles that come with this age. Through this call, I was able to find out about her life, her motivations, her inspirations, her songwriting process and the deeper meaning behind some of her hit tracks.

So just to start, I'd love if you could give us a little introduction. So who is OSTON? 

Absolutely. I am OSTON. I am living in LA via Chicago and Utah, making silly little songs in my house with my friends and just trying to make people smile and feel something. Yeah, that’s me. 

I love that. So can you tell us a little bit about the project you just released titled Melancholia?

Yes. I guess it came out a month ago now, which is exciting. It just had its first month anniversary. It's my third EP that I've put out, but somehow it feels like the most “me” project I've ever made. I guess because it's the most current with everything I've been going through. I wrote this project, it's a six-song EP, over the course of a year and a half, kind of just detailing what it's like to be 20-something. Moving from the college stage of life to living in my own adult life in Los Angeles. Trying to figure out how to navigate falling in love and losing friends and figuring out how the heck to pay for insurance without a job and things like that. I love to recommend this project for people that are either about to go into their 20-somethings or are experiencing it, or people that are now out of that and want to reflect and be grateful that they're no longer in that weird period. 

How does Melancholia set itself apart from your previous projects?

Oh, I love that. I think as with anyone's music, my stuff has matured with me over time. With my first project, I think I was really just trying to figure out how to make music, how I wanted to make music, and what I even had to like to say as an artist. So, that was me just like really figuring out how to put things out there in the first place. [For] my second project, I was really diving into how I wanted to sound sonically and the topics that I wanted to write about. I think now we're on this third chapter of my music. I was able to really understand the sonic direction I wanted to go in and how to communicate that with my executive producer, who did all of the songs with me. I wrote this project with a bunch of my close friends who know me, arguably, too well. So we were able to really get into exactly what was going on in my head. I just think it was the easiest that I've ever been able to communicate exactly what I wanted a project to sound like. I feel like this is the most me version of myself that I have out there so far, which is exciting. 

So I've been listening to the song “Whatshisface” and it's been stuck in my head all week. What can you tell us about that track?

I love “Whatshisface” because I was so angry. I had gone through a really rough relationship; really toxic, really not great. I was in a very not awesome place. It's actually about the same person that “Lie About You” on my last project was written about. So [“Lie About You”] is clearly a very sad, emotional, trying-to-come-to-terms-with-what-happened relationship song. When I got to the session for writing “Whatshisface,” I remember telling the two people I was writing with, “I'm not sad anymore. I'm not necessarily mad anymore. I'm just so over this person and so happy that they're not in my life anymore in any sense of the word. We just don't speak, they're dead to me.” And that was kind of how that song formulated as a kind of fun, “Okay, I'm free. Yeah, you were horrible. You did me wrong and I'm still upset but it doesn't affect me because you're out of my life.” That's “Whatshisface.” 

How did you get into music?

I have always been [kind of] very annoying about singing. I just haven't shut up, basically, since I was able to make noise with my face. I think when I was five years old or six years old, my parents put me in singing lessons and I started actually taking it seriously. I did that all through school and started writing my own songs and playing shows just like around my hometown [of] Park City. Then, when it came time to choose a school, I just knew I wanted to go to school and study pop music and do an immersive program. I ended up choosing Chicago, which is where I went to school. I did music school, I started working with a studio and some awesome writers and producers outside of school, I made my EP, and I started demoing songs for other people [and] learning how to write pitch records. Then when I graduated, basically my entire friend group was moving to LA, so it just kind of made sense for me to figure that out. I moved out here and it's pretty weird. I'm doing music full-time somehow and paying my bills. Barely, but I am doing it off of music. 

You now live in LA and you are from Utah. What do you think are the musical influences that you got from those two places? Where do you get most of your inspiration from?

I don't know if the places necessarily affected my music taste. I was actually reflecting on this the other day. I don't think I even got Spotify on my phone until my sophomore year of college, which is kind of scary. I was literally using my iPod Nano, going through iTunes, for so many years. A lot of my music taste was influenced by what my parents were listening to at home. My dad is just a huge oldies guy. He is still a diehard Crosby, Stills & Nash guy, and grew up on the Beatles. But, I never really liked it. I was very much like, “No, I want to listen to [Now That's What I Call Music].” So, I kind of [shaped] my own music taste growing up in Utah. I don't think it was until I moved to [Los Angeles] that I was immersed in the jazz culture. Not that I'm a huge jazz fan, but I definitely appreciated that and the rap scene. I didn't even really listen to pop music until I started working with my studio. They showed me Carly Rae Jepsen and Julia Michaels, [who had just] put out her first EP. I started kind of taking all of that in and figuring out how I could write pop music that was also inspired by some of the stuff that my dad showed me growing up and some singer-songwriter like Adele, Ed Sheeran kind of vibes. That somehow got me to where I am now. I don't know if I would say that the music scene in Utah really inspired me that much. I think it was when I got to the city and met so many interesting people with different tastes, that's when I started honing in on what I like to listen to. 

I also have been loving the song “nothing about anything.” It's quite different from the high-energy pop tracks that you have on the EP. So, what does that song mean to you? And what compelled you to add it to the EP? 

Yeah, it's starkly different from all the other songs. I was actually really hesitant to put that song on the project the way that it is, but I think the way it came about was just so special that we couldn't fight how the demo felt. [The morning] I wrote that song, I was having a horrible day, horrible mental breakdown, panic attack moment. Just about “I don't know what's going on at all with anything in my life. I don't know what I'm doing. I don't know what anyone's doing. What's happening?” And I was just bawling my eyes out. For some reason, I decided to pick up my boyfriend's ukulele, even though I don't play the ukulele. I don't know how. I started playing these two chords back and forth and wrote the entire first verse over the ukulele chords. Then, I took it, later that day, to my boyfriend, who's my executive producer, and my friend James, and we just flushed out the whole song. Immediately after, we recorded a voice memo, which is just vocals and guitar of the whole song through and that's actually the “virgin version” that ended up on the project. We tried to produce it out numerous times with different people [to] make it feel bigger, [to] make it feel like it made more sense on that project. Ultimately, there's something just so vulnerable and raw about that voice memo because I was literally crying that morning. I just couldn't part with it, so it's just a nice little break from all the other sonic elements on that project to kind of give you that vulnerable, “this is me at my purest, rawest state.”  Then, back to previously scheduled programming. 

What motivates you?

I am definitely motivated by the people that I'm surrounded by. I think that's the biggest factor.

I'm lucky to live with my boyfriend and music partner and my awesome roommate who's a co-writer of mine and my best friend. I have so many amazing friends and collaborators in Los Angeles that I've gotten the chance to meet and work with them. I don't think I would physically be able to live here without [them]. It's kind of a hard place to be in, so having a really strong support system is really important, as well as family. I don't really think I'd be able to do any of this if I didn't have constant support and people to call because [in] this career, [it] is very hard to stay motivated. Over the past year, I've met so many amazing, awesome people that are fans of my music. And for some reason, they stick around and support and come out to shows and are a part of this Discord that I have. [They’re] always chiming in and talking and asking me questions and just want to talk. Any time I get down on myself about what I'm doing with my life and how hard it is, I remember that there are people that gain something from listening to my songs and care, and that always brings me back into the motivated mindset.

It's great that you get to collaborate with your boyfriend and all your friends. Is there anybody outside of your close network of people that you want to collaborate with? 

I think that changes all the time. I feel like people have asked me in the past, “who's your dream collaborator?” and I'll say some crazy, outlandish name that makes no sense for me whatsoever. So, it's changing all the time. I think right now, in particular, I have a huge obsession with this artist spill tab. I just think she's so dope and her music is great. 

I'm also a huge fan of your song “Mouthwash.” Can you tell me about the meaning behind the song and who or what inspired it? 

“Mouthwash” was the last song that we did for this project. I actually had the whole project done and completely ready to go. I went in [to the studio] one day with my boyfriend and this writer, Emily, who's a great friend of mine. I was just in a really weird headspace, as I always am. Another one of those days where I was like, “What's going on? I don't know what's happening.” I was having an unusual amount of panic attacks. I kind of just decided I wanted to write a song that felt like how it feels when I have a panic attack. I remember being in the room, turning to Drew, and being like, “Drew can you make it sound like this?” And just waving my arms dramatically in the air. He was like “Yeah, for sure.” And I looked over at Emily, and she was like, “I don't know what's going on, but I'm really excited.” We just got this song that ended up being like a wall of sound for the hook and it literally just feels like how my brain feels when I'm going crazy having a panic attack. After I wrote it, I was just so excited about it. I really felt strongly that it needed to be a part of the project. I felt like it contributed a lot and made sense in the context of all the other songs, and so I kicked a different song off the project that hopefully will see the light of day eventually in another form. 

What is your biggest goal for your career? What will be the point that you’ll say, “I've made it”?

I think as a younger version of myself, I had all these goals of things that I felt would be the point where I was “successful,” but I like the way the industry is changing all the time. There are new goals that come about, always. I think I've already accomplished so many things that I really wanted to accomplish when I was younger. And still, I'm in a place where I look back and I'm like, “Why haven't I really done anything yet?” So it's a hard question to answer. I think, for the most part, I want to be sustaining myself financially off of music. If I was able to live a comfortable, happy life and provide for my family [off of music], I'd be so stoked. I would love to tour for people that show up to my shows. I would love to write a song for somebody that ends up somewhere on the Billboard chart. I don't really care what number it would just be dope to be on there. But most of all, I think I just want to be respected in the industry. I want to write with dope people and have some clout. I think that would be dope, to just make a successful writing and music career. I don't know, just be able to live off of that. That's my goal. Then, I also would like to be happy and give myself some credit, you know? 

What's your favorite song that you've ever worked on, whether it's on this EP or previous projects?

I feel like it changes all the time. I think maybe my favorite writing experience ever was my song “20 Nothing.” That's on this Melancholia EP. I went to Joshua Tree for a writing camp with some of my best friends. It was my boyfriend, my roommate and Jordy, who's an artist I work with all the time. We were all taking turns writing stuff and there was one day, at the end of the day, where we had written a song for Jordy already [and] we were exhausted. We were like, “Let's probably just chill out and watch a movie.” We were all drunk and my boyfriend started playing this really cool synth piano sound. And I, in my tired, delusional state, just started spilling out this whole verse. It was just this really emotional moment where we were all like, “Oh my gosh, we're in our 20-somethings and it's really hard, but thank god that we have each other,” kind of like that support system. [We were] really feeling the vibe in the room [that] we all love each other so much. We wrote that song so quickly. It's really sad and emotional, but it makes me really happy and fulfilled every time I listen to it because it was such an awesome experience. I feel like that might be my favorite. 

I have to ask, any insight on your next project?

Wouldn’t I like to know! I don’t really know what’s going on right now. I am in the studio with a lot of those people I mentioned earlier. I’m trying to figure out what the next chapter is for me. I’ve written a bunch of songs I’m really excited about, written a bunch of songs that I hate that will never come out, and I’m just trying to figure out the story that I want to tell and whatever is to come. In the meantime, though, I am doing some really cool features that are coming out soon. I also have a live version of the EP Melancholia coming out on Audiotree and will be on all streaming services. That comes out this week and, yeah, I’m just gonna spend some time working on myself and figuring out what’s going on in the old brain. 

From what I can tell, you’re still working on tour dates. Can we in Madison possibly get you to perform here?

Oh, I love Madison so much. I would absolutely love that. I’m going to hit my managers about that. Let’s play Madison!