REFLECTING ON A SUMMER ROMANCE WITH WINTER ON THE HORIZON
As winter nears and the end of the year closes in, the fall season can be a moment of deep reflection. Often times a summer romance can seem ages away, yet so familiar and close that it’s hard to let go of. Los Angeles based artist Onsen takes those feelings on headfirst with inklings of summertime in his latest track “The March,” out today. The song debuted by way of Northern Transmissions, who said it reminded them of “some of the finest sounds of the eighties British music scene, including The Psychedelic Furs, Depeche Mode, Talk Talk, and more.”
Drew Straus, aka Onsen, explains, “‘The March’ is a teen Summer love anthem written from the perspective of the Fall. It looks back with tenderness on both an ex-love and a younger more innocent self. With driving guitars and rich synths, it’s a cathartic send off to a someone that needs letting go… while admitting that part of you is still chained to the idea of them coming back.”
In a recent interview with LGBTQ magazine Instinct, he further divulged, “For me it was specifically talking about my first boyfriend. It’s about looking back on love from just a little removed, and still feeling that love, but beginning to have a sense of joyfulness about something that was once hard. Some of the lyrics are descriptive of what happened, but some of them are about looking forward. ‘All that I want to see is a life that looks like the tops of trees.’ I liked the idea of being able to sway and move the way the tops of trees do in a gust of wind, to bend over, and sway back, and return to their original position, to not be broken by love, but to be able to move with it.”
“The March” follows Onsen’s last single “Charming Nights,” which made its way onto Sia’s ‘Ear Candy’ Spotify playlist, in the good company of Lizzo, Beck, Tame Impala, and a few select others.
In the studio, his collaborators include Max Hershenow of MS MR and Ceci Gomez of Ceci G, Crater and Charli XCX’s band, and his latest music was also co-produced by Brook D’Leau of J*Davey and GRAMMY-nominated producer for Miguel.
In addition to his work as Onsen, Straus is one half of the local duo Elio, with Harmless, aka Nacho Cano. This summer they dropped the EP, Elio 1, which spawned two singles “Babyfool” and “Empty Persuasions” and was featured on Spotify’s ‘Fresh Finds’ playlist.
Originally born in Boston but raised in Paris, and both of his parents shrinks, Onsen draws inspiration from a variety of different influences. He’s done everything from doing public policy for Google and working production in television, to exploring Peru, Bolivia, and Brazil in a 1982 VW Westfalia as a journalist writing on environmental issues and indigenous communities’ rights. As an artist, he does all his own stunts on the new project, playing guitar, keys, bass, singing and producing. He currently resides in Echo Park and is fluent in English, French, Spanish and some Portuguese. Onsen first came onto the scene with his 2016 debut album Earthquake Weather.
