Oh My Sun makes their debut with ‘70s-songwriter-inspired single “5 Pieces”

Made up of singer-songwriter Carmody, best known for her album Imperfect Constellations, and guitarist/producer Tal Janes, a session musician who has worked with Jordan Rakei and Cherise, Oh My Sun is a hot new singer-songwriter group on the scene. The band has worked for years to infuse shared musical tastes, a love for analogue, curiosity for astrology and golden-era songs of the ‘70s into a brand-new discography. The resulting sound is something they like to call “nostalgic absurdism”, a mix of complex, whimsical instrumentation with lyrics exploring the dichotomy of a simple lifestyle with the allure of modern cities. Now, it’s all ready to be heard.

“Oh My Sun reflects a longing for a deeper connection to nature and a return to the ways of ancestral living. It’s a play on the way people use ‘Oh My God’ - which could be in shock, happiness, despair, pleasure or joy - it can be interpreted and used in many ways,” the pair said of the new project. “Carmody was also pregnant during the writing and recording phase and a lot of the topics lyrically were about her future son, so there’s a slight double meaning there with the pronunciation of sun and son too.”

While the duo have been active separately in the music scene for some time, their latest single “5 Pieces” marks their first time collaborating as a group. The song is an unexpectedly blithe look at the end of a relationship. While most songs detailing this period are heavy, Oh My Sun flips these emotions on their head with a tongue-in-cheek tone and unlikely song structure. Perhaps it’s the duo’s draw to the absurd, or the craving for joy the two had while writing this after a pandemic, but it’s an unexpectedly vivid single considering the subject matter. Full of colorful illusions and symbols, the song dives into the moon’s effect on mood, life lessons learned from books, and even tells the true story of a woman coping with a breakup. She swam in a different lake each week to cope.

“Reflecting on [the 2017 memoir] Turning: Lessons From Swimming In Berlin's Lakes, we spoke about the meditative nature of cold-water swimming and how it can take your mind away from loss, even if only momentarily,” the duo said. “We ran with the idea of using cold-therapy as a cure for heartache and we thought about the idea of throwing away 5 mementos into a lake as a symbol of letting go/moving on from a relationship.”

With a shimmering backdrop of synth, strings, and acoustic guitar, it’s a truly well-rounded track, and a lovely debut from Oh My Sun. Listen to it for yourself below.