Inside the music of Oscar LaDell
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With his debut album Untouchable on the horizon, Australian soul singer-songwriter Oscar LaDell is building on a year of international touring and standout collaborations. We caught up with him to talk about songwriting, growing up on blues and soul, and the stories that shaped his debut record.
In a world that seems to be obsessed with singles and stream numbers, what ultimately led you to record an album?
With Untouchable, I felt ready to make a statement that had enough depth and substance to warrant its being an album. I never so much as specifically decided to make it that long, or to not make it an EP. I just went into the studio with as many songs as I had that fit my vision for my next project. My co-producer Wilson [Blackley] and I ended up liking the 10 tracks enough to include them, and the album was born.
You grew up in a rural seaside village with blues and soul constantly playing at home. Do you ever catch yourself writing something and thinking, “That's my upbringing sneaking back in?”
My upbringing is a constant and overt source of inspiration for my music. Whenever I sit down to write, the feelings and images I’m chasing are always memories and fragments of the scenery of my home. I am very easily moved by natural beauty, and I think the purity of those feelings is something I’m chasing when I make music. On the other side of the coin, the majesty and depth of the blues and soul music I was lucky enough to grow up listening to is an inspiration for which I'm forever grateful.
Your music seems to balance personal stories with bigger ideas. Does one usually come before the other?
I never really sit down with the goal of writing something political just for the sake of it. There’s obviously nothing wrong with that as a goal, and many artists do it well, but I think that, for me, my lyricism always stems from meditating on something I’m playing on guitar, or a melody I’m humming, and reaching for whatever words that inspires. Sometimes, the story that fits the music is my take on something politically or socially oriented, sometimes it’s very autobiographical, and sometimes it's a story that reveals its narrative to me through the writing process.
You created “Ain't Love” in collaboration with Wilson Blackley and Jay Mumford. How did this come together, and what, if anything, surprised you most about the finished track?
“Ain't Love” was born out of an afternoon spent writing music with Wilson Blackley in late 2024. We always have a great time making music together! Wilson and I played everything except the drums on the track. When it came time to find a drummer for the song, Jay Mumford came to mind, as he’s my favourite drummer working right now. Jay was a perfect fit for the track because he not only has a great grasp of his instrument but also possesses the distinctive musical personality I wanted to fill out the sparse instrumental we were working with on “Ain't Love.”
You’ve described Untouchable as the story of living through your twenties in the 2020s. Was there a moment when you realized you weren’t just writing a bunch of songs, but documenting a chapter of your life?
Any kind of narrative I can identify in Untouchable really only became apparent to me while we were mixing the album. When picking the songs for the record, my main focus was telling a story musically and shaping the flow of the listening experience. Later, when I was listening through, I was struck by the way the album covered most of the difficult, joyful, and meaningful experiences I've had since becoming an adult.
You’ve spent the last couple of years playing with some incredible artists, taking your music across Europe, the US, Australia, and New Zealand. Have these experiences changed what success looks like to you, or are you still chasing the same thing you were when you started?
To be honest, since I started playing shows and writing songs as a teenager, my goal has always been to play as much music as I possibly could for my whole life and to get as close to making the art in my head as I could manage. Getting to share stories with people all over the world and, hopefully, move them with my music is the biggest blessing, and I don't take it for granted.