We had the good fortune of connecting with O Future and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi O Future, what led you to pursuing a creative path professionally?
O Future is an electronic duo and art collective in which we create all of our music, images, sculptures, covers, and videos entirely by ourselves! O Future consists of artist, composer and singer Katherine MIlls Rymer and and myself composer, producer and multiinstrumentalist Jens Bjornkjaer.

Since the age of 5 I have been playing music, at first I started playing classical violin then jazz saxophone and then electronic music and then everything in between. It was never a choice for me to be an artist but something that was almost predetermined by my upbringning.

The same is true for Katherine since she also started very early drawing and dancing ballet. Singing was something she only started doing for real when we started this band. But her immense talent quickly became obvious and probably was caused by her close relationship with music at very young age.

Being an artist is a hugely priviledged life but also extremely difficult and I will only advice to go this route if you absolutely can not stop yourself.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
O Future is an electronic band that mixes genres like classical, baroque, jazz, rock, avantgarde, reggae, pop, trap, dub and everything in between. Our goal is to create new styles of music surfing in and out of these genres mixing them in all sorts of different ways. Our music only really interests us if we feel we are doing something that is different and special from everybody else. That is why playlisters never know where to put our tracks since the tracks always seem to fall in between the genre cracks.

We also do visual arts which is a whole other huge area of work. We take great pride and effort into making extremely sophisticated and elaborate music videos. And also do all of our covers and litterally all the images we put out into the image highways of the internet, entirely ourselves . Katherine is a visual obsessive and makes everything from digital renders to sculptures. Which we also use in the videos combining all of our different efforts into new expressions of mixing all the digital and physical work.

Being in the art sphere, there is a tremendous amount of challenges in terms of understanding the business and how to maneuver in this ultimate game of fame, money and recognition. But the best advice I think I can give to anyone in the same field. Is just to persevere whenever things start to get hard. Eventually you will come back up again stronger and in a slightly better position to get to where you want to be.

What we would like the world to know, is that: We make everything ourselves and we always try to seek and find ways of expression that gets our blood running. So our love for the actual work process, sitting down and actually doing the work keeps being the driving energy!

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
Living in Los Angeles is a double edged blade. On the one hand everything is here in terms of art and entertainment business and tons of creative, skilled and interesting peple from all over the world. There are a lot of artists, bands, actors, managers etc.. all playing the Hollywood game of trying to get ahead in this business. There is also tons of great restaurants, bars, venues, coffe shops, vintage stores, expensive stores, museums, galleries and all the stuff you could and would possibly bring a friend to.

But my favourite of all of LA’s attractions by far is the incredible nature that is surrounding us. We have incredible beaches, the Pacific Ocean which can be sailed, surfed and swam in. The San Gabriel mountains which are litterally 15 minutes from our house and then the mysterious vastness of the desert including Joshua Tree starting just on the other side of the mountains.

Going further away does’nt make it any worse. Like the Sierra Nevada that includes several national parks like Yosemite and Sequoia starting only two hours north with it’s huge forests, lakes and general good vibes and amazing solitude. On the east side of that is Death Valley which is a whole chapter in itself. And of course by the coast going west lies the incredible spectacle of Big Sur and highway 1 that dripples it’s way all the way up to San Jose and ultimately San Fransisco.

It’s all endlesly mindblowing. Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
Our shoutout goes to Floating Points, Pharoah Sanders and London Symphony.

Being a saxophone player myself I fully recognize and understand the significance of Pharaoh Sanders incredible playing and career. But this album litterally took my breath away combining all the things I love and that I am doing myself aswell. Writing for orchestra, mixing it with electronics and playing sax on top.

The difference here though is that Pharoah Sanders is 80 years old and plays the tenorsax as if he now knows what music and the notes and pauses are all about. The improvising is sparse and it seems he is only playing what is absolutely necessary in the best most beautiful and emotional way possible! 80 stars from here!

Website: https://www.ofuture.org/

Instagram: instagram.com/o_future_

Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/jens-bj%C3%B8rnkj%C3%A6r-71398b5/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/Ofuture_

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ofutureband

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCsW5UmAwGYfpyuk9ZARNOlQ

Image Credits
O Future

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