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.
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Los Angeles based artist Onsen takes those feelings on headfirst with inklings of summertime in his latest track “The March,” which was released Thursday. 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, told American Songwriter, “I hope The March is a reminder that there comes a moment when you can look back on heartbreak with a sense of joy and gladness. I hope people listen to it on the highway to their first post-breakup adventure, and it makes them feel that even though shattering heartache can be all-consuming, it’s also a time when you’re most alive.”
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.
