Hailing from Atlanta, OBB is an emerging pop/rock trio comprised of Zach Oswald on lead vocals, Jacob Oswald on guitar, and Nich Oswald on drums. With a career radio airplay audience of 106 million and streams of nearly 8 million, the band is clearly on the rise.
Their past hit “Mona Lisa” was featured in Google’s Chromebook ad campaign and Dude Perfect’s latest Water Bottle Flip 2 video, which reached over 60 million views. Their newest EP, Is This A Thing, also features the anthemic single “Sweater” highlighted by summer-flecked guitar riffs and reaching over 3 million streams.
Since releasing their debut EP, OBB steadily built their growing momentum and fan base into a recording deal with Nashville’s Curb Records. In the years that followed, OBB charted on the Billboard Heatseekers chart numerous times and Spotify’s Viral 50 as they continued touring their energetic live show around the country.
Unheard Gems: Welcome, OBB, to Unheard Gems! We are so happy to get to hear from you.
OBB: Thanks for having us!
Unheard Gems: Just for our readers to get to know you a little bit better can you tell us your introduction to music, your musical coming of age story.
OBB: We are three brothers from Atlanta, Georgia. We grew up playing music, but not as a band. One day, our dad signed us up for a Battle of the Bands to play together, and we loved playing together so much that we started our band.
Unheard Gems: So how did this sibling trio come to be musically and how did you guys select a name? Any duds in the name selection process?
OBB: We all started off by taking piano lessons, and our family has always been very into music. We grew up listening to classic rock, jazz, pop, and country music; we have a wide
appreciation for music. We started off being called the Oswald Brothers Band, but that was a mouthful for our fans to have to say, so they shortened it to OBB. So our fans actually named us! Yes, we had a couple duds in the naming process - Atlanta Covenant, Fish Sticks...
Unheard Gems: You guys have such a cool fun sound, elements of pop, rock, and electronic are all incorporated in your music beautifully. How did you guys land on a style?
OBB: We write what feels good to us, and we love to make our songs pop and fun.
Unheard Gems: You just released your single “Close By”. Such a beautiful, cute love song. What can you tell us about that song?
OBB: We wrote this song when we were thinking about being on the road and away from our significant others. Although it's a ton of fun being on the road, it can get lonely being away from the one you love most.
Unheard Gems: this song is the follow up to you song “7 Billion which has over 500K streams! Congrats on that. Your music has been featured in a global Google Chromebook ad campaign, three music videos with top YouTube channel "Dude Perfect" amassing over 200M views, iHeartRadio's Snapchat Discover channel, the Billboard Heatseeker's Chart, and Spotify's USA Viral Top 50 chart. How does all this success affect you guys when you think about your music?
OBB: We are so excited that our music is reaching so many people, and we can't wait for more to hear it!
Unheard Gems: Any other new things in the work you can tell us to be excited about?
OBB: We have a lot of new music ready and should be coming out soon...
Unheard Gems: I love hearing what the artists we talk to are listening to. Who are some artists you think deserve more attention in the music industry and why?
OBB: Alessia Cara, in my opinion, deserves more attention because a lot of her music has a positive message.
Unheard Gems: Lastly, for all of our readers, where can they find you and your music and is there anything else you want to leave us with that we didn’t talk about in our questions?
OBB: You can find us at www.obbmusic.com and @obb_music on Instagram and Twitter. Thanks!
Interview by Hannah Schneider