WEHM All Access - Great South Bay Music Festival - The Om-En

 In this episode, Harry catches up with John Sparling, frontman of the spiritual rock band The-Om-En, ahead of the band's Sunday performance at the Great South Bay Music Festival. From his Bayport roots to the band's unique blend of mysticism, spirituality, and rock, Sparling shares the story behind The-Om-En's formation, the deeper meaning driving their music, and how the COVID-19 pandemic reshaped both their mission and their creative journey through an ever-evolving sonic landscape. 

@TheOmEnBand

@GreatSouthBayMusicFestival 

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

It's the International Breakfast Show with Harry coming to the stage at the Great South Bay Music Festival this year, part of our all access uh podcast series that we're doing, interviewing all the bands that we can that are performing in that Sunday, July 26th on the band channel at 520. It's the Omen, John Sparling. Welcome, how are you, sir?

SPEAKER_01 0:17

I'm excellent. Thank you very much for doing this interview.

SPEAKER_00 0:21

Well, thank you. And I just learned that you guys have done this festival for a while. How long have you been together as a group, as a band?

SPEAKER_02 0:29

Yeah, the the current iteration of the band has been together like five or six years. Uh but we we've uh been performing at the Great South Bend Music Fest for I think ten years in a row, with the exception of COVID.

SPEAKER_00 0:44

Well, take me back to the uh the beginning. How did this project happen? Because clearly you have a I think you have a uh a greater purpose behind the name and kind of the whole feeling of the band. When did this start?

SPEAKER_02 0:56

Yeah, well, um I actually uh I was just kind of a solo artist for a long time, and uh then when one year my daughter had this really kind of terrible thing happen where three kids in her school when they were 14 all took their own life um in a matter of a few months. Oh my goodness. That's going back, you know, some years.

SPEAKER_00 1:24

But where where are you where are you from?

SPEAKER_02 1:26

Yeah, we're this is in uh this was in Bayport, okay, Long Island at the time. Uh I live in Belport now, but we kind of decided I was getting into meditation and we were going through some tough times with my family, so I was really worried about my daughter and the kids. So I came up with a song that kind of was, I think, divine, divinely inspired, called Forever Came Too Soon. And that's it's uh probably one of our best streaming songs and one of our more popular songs still to this day. Um, but my kind of meditation on that was if I give back to the community and if I go back to the universe and and uh make teen suicide prevention a uh important cause um and donate, we donate all our performance and streaming revenue to uh teen suicide prevention causes, that my family and my kids would be saved. Kind of my deal with the universe, and uh and and it's worked. So uh, you know, every year we we uh we try and write spiritual songs or songs that would uh help the universe and uh or songs from the heart and and uh and it's it's worked pretty well.

SPEAKER_00 2:50

Well, it's it's really a terrific idea and uh and a great cause too. Uh I'm curious, how did you mention 10 years uh at the Great South Bay, obviously COVID years, but um as far as how did you get kind of started with the festival and Jim?

SPEAKER_02 3:05

Yeah, well, um I my first album was called uh Songs for Family and Friends, and it's probably been out, I don't know, 12, 14 years or something like that. But um it got some notoriety, and Jim Faith learned about it, and I he asked me to perform on at the time it was called the uh Upcoming Artists Stage. Uh so I got in as kind of a new artist with the new album, and uh we had a good good gig there and uh a good response and turnout. So uh Jim Faith has uh had us back almost every year um trying to promote local artists that that um you know do original music and uh you know my career kind of in the law. I was a lawyer too. My career took off, and we've been a we've been a sponsor too for uh for the festival, and um I've represented the festival on on different things, negotiating contracts now too. And it's just been the relationship has mushroomed with the festival uh in many different ways. And um and uh he was very happy. He liked we have a new album out called Songs from the Heart, which I was hoping to promote on this call as well. And he heard he heard it, loved it, and said, You've gotta play at the festival again this year. So we are promoting the new album and our cause, teen suicide prevention.

SPEAKER_00 4:43

The um the the band started for uh a very important reason. How has it changed over the years that you've been together over the you mentioned five or six years? How has this band changed now with the new record? What's different musically from from when you first started?

SPEAKER_02 4:59

Um no, we're still kind of doing songs that are connected from the heart, spiritual songs. Um Promise of Your Love is one of the songs on the album. The song called Hey Trey is about my grandson.

unknown 5:15

Oh wow.

SPEAKER_02 5:16

Uh we were on vacation in the DR, and uh I got stuck babysitting him, and all the family was out partying in the DR, and then like he started playing with my guitar, and I showed him some chords, and and next thing you know, we had a song, uh pretty rock and blue song called uh Hey Trey about him. Um we've got uh Girl with the Stars in her eyes. We've got our we've got a great original uh artist as well who's in the band, um, Julia DeGasparis, and she sings on um the song called Lovin' from the Inside, which was uh it's really was a COVID song. Um everyone was stuck, we were stuck inside and and on lockdown for an entire year, and uh and so that kind of spawned the song Lovin' from the inside. Um so all the songs still are definitely connected to the heart, but we still um are involved in doing gigs and in promoting um awareness for teen suicide prevention and that meditation going inside, connecting with your true divine self, can help you through the storm of bullying and um and all the the crazy things that our kids have to go through with with the internet and media and all that. So if you connect through the heart and meditate, that can overcome all of the crazy challenges we have.

SPEAKER_00 6:57

You mentioned uh meditation, and I'm I'm curious where the name uh kind of makes sense where it came from. The omen uh and you know, om and en how did you arrive at that? And I'd imagine it was inspired by uh by meditation as well.

SPEAKER_02 7:11

Yeah, uh absolutely I I I follow a spiritual practice called Sila Yoga, and uh it's more of a Hindi and Eastern Indian tradition. Um it it started in India and came over to the US in the 70s. Um and and the uh you know the idea of of meditation is you have a mantra or some kind of connection that allows you to go inside and get rid of all the monkey mind chatter and all of the craziness that we we have in the world and connect with our divinity. So um my mantra is one is an old mantra from handed down from the from the gurus and masters over the years, which is omnamashabaya, which is kind of a you know very popular and well-known mantra, but um om and that means you know I bow to the divinity within us all, um, very humble and and and noble kind of idea, but om is the um the original like deep symbol of connection the with the universe, the sound of of the beginning of the universe. Um so that's where I got the you know, we're not a lot of people say, oh, omen, no, that's not terrible movie with the kid that like went nuts and the devil. And I'm like, no, no, no, omen is a good, there's a good omen too, and we're the good omen. We're not it's not the movie, it's the spiritual symbol.

SPEAKER_00 8:57

But were you uh were you for in uh involved with meditation and and I believe you mentioned yoga for a while before the band?

SPEAKER_02 9:07

I I was, yeah. Um I I actually kind of we we were going through I I got divorced back in 2003 or 2004, and and we were the family was going through a tough time, it was rough thing on the kids. So that's kind of when I got involved with meditation to uh to and I just started like as a trickle, like a little bit of a drop of water, and then as I did it, I saw like all aspects of my life getting better. Um, my my life personally with with uh my love interests uh or and my children and family, and then my career as a lawyer and songwriter took off as well. So it it's uh you know something that is definitely relaxing and it it's uh self-help and uh it keeps you on a on a good path.

SPEAKER_00 10:04

You mentioned you've got a new record uh with this project uh out. So how long did that take to put together? Was it something that kind of songs collected over the years, different inspirations? How long did it take to really know it was ready to go?

SPEAKER_02 10:18

Yeah, uh well, we we wanted to get something out. We just played Montauk Music Festival, um, and we did main stage at that festival, and that was great. Um, so we wanted to get an album together for uh before this year and for the Great South Bay to have you know something new. Uh some of those songs that are on the album are were written uh you know 10 years ago and were just sitting in like in uh limbo or hiatus and and uh pulled together. Others were were were written in 2026. Um so you know, I have like I don't know if we recorded a lot of songs over the years, but I have like 50 songs that I've written that have never been, we play out sometimes live, but have never been recorded. So we had a pretty large inventory. Um some of the songs had been uh well, one of them actually was recorded, had a rough track from 2014, and we listened to it again and we're like, oh, that's really good. Like, how come we never did anything with that? Um that's kind of the one of the headline songs of the album, Promise of Your Love, was done in 2014 originally, and and we really liked it, so we we redid the tracks, and you know the lyrics pretty much stayed the same on every all the songs. We didn't change the lyrics, but um yeah, we had some really great recording sessions with the band. And uh I I think we like started in December. I had all the rough tracks, lyrics, and uh rhythm and drums done by the end of December, and and it took us four months, four months getting back and forth to actually finish the songs.

SPEAKER_00 12:14

How many um yeah, how many people are in the band?

SPEAKER_02 12:17

So we have five band members. Um, our amazing lead guitarist, uh Anthony Pravada, is uh well known in the industry, he's actually plays with uh Cassandra House. I don't know if you know Cassandra House. Um he's been in the band for six years. Julia DeGasparis is uh keyboards and lead and backup vocals. Um, she's been with us three years. Uh Dan Doxie is the drummer and percussionist, and he's been with us for five or six years. And we have Steve Miller in the band, not the Steve Miller, but our Steve Miller is the bass player. Um but time keeps on ticking in the future, into the future with him as well.

SPEAKER_00 13:11

Is there uh I'd imagine it's collaborative. Um, has there been if you can think of a time where someone kind of had an idea um to bring to this band and kind of change the idea possibly of a song? Because you imagine they had a lot of songs that have been around. How have the songs evolved by the members of the band their own input for them?

SPEAKER_02 13:31

Well, yeah, you know, it's important to have a collaborative process. And um even though I I'm the lead songwriter and um uh yeah, I I wrote all those songs, but I I certainly I I collaborate with the band by sending them the copies of it and asking for input. Um then we have a practice session where we play the songs in in uh in our practice area before we do any recording, and we like talk about come up with different ideas, often change the tempo, the tempos of the songs, um slow or fast, uh, you know, whatever we think is is the best. Um and and then we really we change like the order of the songs. Like sometimes we'll start with the we'll change the uh chorus and make it if the chorus we think is particularly strong, sometimes we open the song with that instead of starting with a verse or something like that. And we'll we'll have a a pretty detailed um process of going back and forth and and till like the the recording is finally done, changing it around a lot.

SPEAKER_00 14:52

I'm looking forward to seeing you guys perform this year at the Great South Bay Music Festival. Uh you talk a lot, the band talks a lot about uh creating an immersive experience. I've read, I was looking at your your website, and I'm curious what is there a moment in a live set where you kind of feel the audience locked in with you? Uh what's that like? Because you are dealing, and you're doing this in a very positive way, but dealing with some serious topics.

SPEAKER_02 15:16

Yeah, we we have uh there's a couple of downer songs. Uh, you know, Forever Came Too Soon isn't exactly the um you know the the uh the feel-good song of the century, you know, but um you know these are important things. So we usually start our set with a couple of couple of rockers, um, kind of like the Stones, you know, the Stones are playing all these great rocking songs, but somewhere in the middle, Keith Richards has to do a song or two, and uh the energy comes down a little, and or they'll do like Wild Horses or Angie or one of their slower songs, um, and then they pick it right back up with you know some really amazing fast song. Um, we try and do the same model, really, where we we get the audience in right at the start with you know three or four rocker songs, then we'll do you know more or some more serious topic. And I also have another song called Lift You Up, which is a very upbeat song about you know changing people's lives and being happy. And uh it's a very good song. But we usually play that after Forever Came Too Soon.

SPEAKER_00 16:31

That's probably a good idea to to bring it back uh to uh it is uh it's important what you guys are doing, and you're helping a terrific cause and teen suicide prevention. Uh, where do you want to take this band in the future? Um, is there other things you want to get involved with? Um, but we're just kind of keep on doing what you're doing now.

SPEAKER_02 16:50

No, we we've got uh another 10-song new album that is in the works, um, which we hope to finish by the end of the year. And uh we've got some good applications in, and we've got really good recommendations from the two promoters of Montauk and Great South Bay. We're hoping to get into some national festivals, and we have an in for New Orleans Jazz Fest for next year. So it'll be amazing to get into to do a little more international.

SPEAKER_00 17:20

That's great. Yeah, and and it really bring the uh the message and what you're trying to do and build uh really around the country and not just in this area, too. So that's uh that's kind of a great way to see that grow if you think about it, where it first started out of uh a really uh bad time five years ago or so, and uh now bringing it to different people, different audiences. So thank you. That's kind of cool to when you actually think about that. So thank you for what you're doing. We we really do. Thank you so much for your time. Uh about the Great South Bay Music Festival, the Omen. Uh, make sure you get to all the details for GreatStoff Bay Music Festival.com. It's uh Sunday, July 26th at 5 20 p.m. on the band trail. And uh check them out and can't wait to uh meet your person and to see that perform. Thank you so much for your time. I really appreciate it.