This is what can happen when songs are created without rules.
“No one says no, which is fun and how it should be when you’re creating,” Ocotillo’s Whakaio Taahi says of the trio’s collaborative process. The idea of making music as a liberating adventure pops up with Ocotillo again and again, not just when Taahi and bandmates Drew Kennedy and Davis Naish talk about their collective approach, but in the songs themselves: layered affairs with melody and internal rhyme that pursue a sound not out of allegiance or obligation, but for the sheer love of it.
The result? Bold pop singalongs that make you think.
“When I thought about making a career in music, this is the music I dreamed about,” says Naish. The son of contemporary Christian producer Phil Naish, the younger Naish grew up in Franklin and Brentwood, just outside of Nashville. Naish flirted with modern country and won early industry respect, including a publishing deal, but has ultimately found his strongest artistic footing as both a writer and producer in his original love: unapologetic pop. He met Taahi after the latter relocated to Nashville from Australia, in search of new creative frontiers after serving as guitarist for beloved internationally touring rock band Tonight Alive. Lovers of melody and subverting boundaries, Taahi and Naish clicked creatively and formed pop-forward production duo MajorMinor. Then, Naish had a big––unconventional––idea. “Whakaio is great at modern sensibilities,” Naish says. “Drew is such a strong lyricist. I thought, Man, why can’t we just write really great pop tracks and then have great lyrics on top that are thought provoking and different?”
By Drew, Naish means Drew Kennedy, a roots-leaning singer-songwriter who has won over bars and listening rooms with just his voice and guitar for the last 15 years. His smart story songs fill nine albums––and counting––and he has become a sought-after collaborator in Nashville writer rooms. In mid-2018, Naish––long-since a favorite co-writer and good friend of Kennedy’s––approached him with an idea. “Davis said, ‘Look, your singing style––whether you know it or not––is very pop-oriented,” Kennedy remembers. “I was like, ‘I don’t know…’” He laughs, then adds, “But the three of us wrote a song called ‘Backpack,’ and halfway through, I thought, This might actually work.”
Ocotillo more than works: The trio soars. On the band’s eponymous debut EP, sly lyricism mingles with pop extravagance, led by Kennedy’s vocal range, clear enunciations, and rolling oohs and aahs. “In Ocotillo, if I find a combination of sounds in a few words, I can play around with it and enjoy the sound of it as much as I can enjoy the meaning of it,” Kennedy says. “The care that I’ve always put into my words––Whakaio and Davis put that same care into melody.”
Ocotillo’s complex sonic atmospheres draw listeners in with hypnotic power, all while Kennedy delivers finely crafted wordplay. Heartbreaking “Half of a Person” is crisp and cool self-deprecation, layered over sad melodic swells. Playful “Backpack” bubbles with an unusual pairing of nostalgia and confidence, while “Spooky” swaggers through a wonderland of ear-tickling sounds. An open-ended ode to new love found, “Black and White” builds with theatrical effects and triumphant vocals.
“Helianthus” is a brazen masterpiece, shifting deftly between an atmosphere dominated by cold staccato synths and another world of warm, cushiony keys and hushed confessions. The song is a favorite of both Kennedy and Taahi. Kennedy is proud of the way the song uses melody to mirror its soul-searching narrative arc. “The production behind it sounds revelatory,” he says. “Chiming bells in a musical, circular pattern––it’s the sonic equivalent to the visual of a light bulb going off over someone’s head.”
When asked what they hope listeners take away from the five-song collection, Ocotillo is upbeat: Joy. Fun. Surprise. “I always want to write songs that can mean whatever a person needs at that time,” Taahi says. “It’s more important for them to attach their own stories to the song. I hope they get whatever they need from it.”