Omniboi
Los Angeles-based omniboi is here to tell stories through his music. Born Omni Rutledge in Mesa, Arizona, the composer, producer, and multi-instrumentalist was playing in bands and toying with FL Studio as early as 2005. He grew to prominence at the height of the SoundCloud era in the early 2010s, gaining notoriety for his exuberant, cherubic Chiptune edits and originals. Dabbling with different electronic arts softwares always came natural to Omni, who had a hunger to learn any art form he could get his hands on. It wasn't until he stumbled upon a viral video of Madeon, who also used the FL Studio workstation, that he began to take production seriously.In 2016, omniboi released his debut EP, Nice Dream. Tracks like "BonBon" and "Sugar Glider" were widely successful, garnering millions of streams, as he continued to showcase his bubbly production style. He kicked off 2017 with a soulful remix of Migos’ “Bad and Boujee,” which quickly went viral on Twitter and received critical acclaim from the FADER (“Your music teacher would approve”), Mashable (“Sometimes, you're given a gift you didn't even know you wanted until it's in your hands”) and more. The video introduced many to Omni’s signature style: a pair of white gloves, a bow tie and a pair of thick-rimmed glasses (“When I was younger, my glasses kept breaking, so my mom had me get the most durable pair possible”). Since then, Omni has bolstered his catalog with a flurry of new music, releasing multiple projects each year and collaborating with the likes of Ehiorobo, Yung Skrrt, MIA GLADSTONE, and more.On December 8, omniboi will share his debut project with Nettwerk, a six-track EP called Panorama. In the record, Omni metamorphosizes the idea of perspectives by exploring concepts like nostalgia, heartbreak, grief, and self-worth through the lens of different characters. "We think of life experiences as kind of like squashed two-dimensional perspectives and don't really explore them too much until we ourselves have gone through them," omniboi says while speaking about the album's concept. "A panorama is an attempt to take a perspective we don't often see and relate to. For example, villains that have become more and more evolved—because instead of just them being bad or evil—we can give them an origin story, or we can give them a personal goal that isn't necessarily evil. Even though that villain may approach it in an erroneous way, the spirit of it is something we can all relate to.”Written by Arielle Lana LeJarde