Aural Alliance interview: OSVLD
Authored by Princess Dank
This article is the written version of the interview Princess Dank conducted with OSVLD as part of our new collaborative interview series!
See the full interview video below:
Before Osvld felt he was ready to submit music for consideration with Fuzznet, however, he says, “It shut down and I was really sad because it was such an amazing project. Fast forward to June of 2023. I was on my bed at 1:00AM, just scrolling through Twitter because I can’t sleep sometimes, and I see Finn’s tweet. Not even two minutes have passed since he tweeted it and they said, ‘We’re going back to doing this furry label thing but a lot different - a whole new name and branding…’ At the time I was not sure yet if I was worthy of being on a label but I said, dude this is the only chance I’m getting. How am I going to pass on a chance? So I filled out the form and went to sleep pretty much like, Damn, did I just sign onto a label. I was a bit confused on what had happened because I filled out the form in two minutes and I wasn’t planning on doing that.”
After his introduction to Pokemon - an event which will no doubt resonate as a core memory for many furries - Osvld says that he discovered other inroads to the fandom through storytime videos from YouTuber Chipflake as well as the short-lived Cartoon Network Mao Mao: Heroes of Pure Heart. “That show was freaking fun, I can tell you that…I got into that by 2020 when the pandemic started.” Shortly after discovering Mao Mao, Osvld signed up for a Discord account and got involved with the fandom for the recently-cancelled show. “Pretty much everyone was a furry there, and I had no choice to be honest. I wanted a fursona, too. I wanted to be a furry…and now I’m cursed.”
Once Osvld had discovered the community aspect of the fandom, he threw himself into it. The first order of business was, of course, designing a fursona and commissioning art of him. While many furries will select more common species for their fursonas, be they wolves, foxes, or sparkledog, Osvld explains that his selection of a hawk has a sentimental component to it. “My fursona is inspired by my family. My dad, my brother, and my granddad are all called falco. You know, a falcon is a hawk. No shame on any of you furries…but I don’t want to be the typical, I want a fox, I want a wolf, I want a cat.” Everything about Osvld’s public persona seems designed to simultaneously resonate coolness and heart. “I looked for something that was personal to me…I believe my how I express myself is very personal - my music, my fursona, my nickname, everything.”
Though only seventeen years old at the time of writing, Osvld has been releasing music since 2020. He explains, “I started maybe five years ago I believe - four or five years ago when I was fourteen or thirteen. I always liked electronic music, more than anything just listening to pop hits on the radio and I loved it. I certainly did. After just being really a fan of music generally I started looking at random YouTube videos just because I was bored…I suddenly started looking at production videos. Like meme production, How to make this genre on YouTube, and I really enjoyed it and eventually just figured out…I could do this…” From this early exposure to the world of music production, Osvld has remained prolific. He has opted to leave up old mixes on his YouTube channel which demonstrate his journey so far. Though he might find those early tracks difficult to listen to at this point, he insists that they were an important part of where he is now, as a furry musician working in collaboration with many other artists both on and off his home label of Aural Alliance.
Osvld is known today for producing dubstep, colour bass and hybrid trap and house according to his artist bio on Aural Alliance’s website, his listening taste was not always so entrenched in electronic dance music. As he says when asked about what inspired him to begin producing music, “It was the fun I was having listening to music…There were songs that I heard and my whole day just got better. It was great.” He namedrops Bruno Mars, Marshmello, Avicii, and NoCopyrightSounds as some of his more mainstream inspirations. Even from an early point, however, Osvld seemed destined to dip his toes into heavier waters. Beyond artists Osvld enjoys who he was exposed to through radioplay at a young age, he explains, “I knew I had an interest in dubstep,” pointing to the likes of Crankdat, Infekt, and Virtual Riot among others.
Similar to his evolving tastes, the types of music Osvld has released have morphed over time. When Osvld started his music production journey, he took to using free smartphone apps to compose tracks, making entire songs in single afternoons. His favorite app was initially Medly, with which he practiced production by recreating pre-existing songs. After continuing to expand his musical palette and discovering new electronic genres that clicked with him, Osvld upgraded to FL Studio, the DAW he has used to produce all of his recent work. “The production videos I used to look at were FL Studio production videos…I guess I mainly started with FL Studio because of Eliminate which is also a somewhat big inspiration for me…I got FL Studio and in a week or two I learned how to use it.”
Osvld spent 2020 releasing melodic dubstep tracks on YouTube, including a remix of the Mao Mao theme song and C418’s Sweden from the Minecraft soundtrack, as well a number of original works. One of the top rated comments on the former upload reads, “Keep up the work you have a talent”, which is exactly what Osvld did, publishing his first full project less than three years later.
His largest release to date, W.I.L.D. EP, was released in February 2023, featuring five tracks which transition seamlessly from one to the next. In this way, W.I.L.D. feels like a live DJ set or a complete mix rather than a collection of individual songs. This effect was at least partially achieved by Osvld composing the entire EP in sequence, save the second-to-last track, Systems Alive. “That song has a lot of history…I started it probably a year before I released W.I.L.D EP. It started as a collab with one of my ex-boyfriends. Eventually, that collaboration couldn’t be done…I kept it as a placeholder. And that’s a tip I have for everyone - Don’t ever give up on a song project because you don’t know what it could become.” Osvld was able to repurpose the stems from the earlier version of Systems Alive that never saw release and compose one of the strongest tracks on W.I.L.D.
In the process of producing W.I.L.D., Osvld says he discovered and developed his own unique sound. “It was my first EP, so it’s pretty important to me,” Osvld says. In commemoration of the EP’s first anniversary, Osvld released a remastered version of the closing track, Fly Away, on Aural Alliance. “The original song was a mess, so I’m remastering it,” Osvld says with a chuckle.
It’s with Aural Alliance that Osvld’s path into music production has come full circle. The label, launched in June 2023, is spiritually linked to its predecessor, Fuzznet Music. Fuzznet, another music collective started previously by Aural Alliance founder Finn, was on Osvld’s radar from around the time he began releasing music in 2020. “I listened to Fuzznet’s music back in the day. I found it so cool, the idea of a furry-based or furry-themes label…Music in the furry fandom is maybe the most underrated types of art there is…I always wanted to get into Fuzznet music, but I didn’t feel like I was prepared.”
Fuzznet, which served as a hub for furry musicians during its short lifespan in the early 2020s, also served as the point where Osvld’s interests intersected. Under the banner of Fuzznet, his love for the furry fandom and music found a common home. From there, Osvld says that he began exploring the works of more furry artists, including Roofjus, a fellow member of Aural Alliance. He also used this as an opportunity to network with other musicians within the fandom.
Before Osvld felt he was ready to submit music for consideration with Fuzznet, however, he says, “It shut down and I was really sad because it was such an amazing project. Fast forward to June of 2023. I was on my bed at 1:00AM, just scrolling through Twitter because I can’t sleep sometimes, and I see Finn’s tweet. Not even two minutes have passed since he tweeted it and he said, We’re going back to doing this furry label thing but a lot different - a whole new name and branding…At the time I was not sure yet if I was worthy of being on a label but I said, dude this is the only chance I’m getting. How am I going to pass on a chance? So I filled out the form and went to sleep pretty much like, Damn, did I just sign onto a label. I was a bit confused on what had happened because I filled out the form in two minutes and I wasn’t planning on doing that.”
Osvld says that he woke up the next day at 9AM to a direct message from Finn saying, “You’re in.” Due to how rapidly this process happened, Osvld laughs and says, “I’m not sure, but I believe I’m the first member of Aural Alliance.” Within the first 48 hours of the label coming into existence, it boasted thirty artists, with Osvld claiming pride in being among their initial ranks.
Since joining Aural Alliance, Osvld has released one single in collaboration with labelmate Daedalus Dog. Take Off dropped on August 18, 2023, with production from Osvld and vocals written and performed by Daedalus Dog. “I wanted to make a debut song that felt like starting something new.” When asked about working on a song with original vocals, Osvld explains, “For me, collaborations are easy…It was my debut on a label, like a big step…When I started making the song, I realized, this needs vocals. I asked on the Aural Alliance server, "Do you guys know any vocalists that may want to try something?” After Osvld sent a rough work-in-progress version of the track along with the BPM, key and title, Daedalus Dog composed and performed the vocal track. “It just takes a week to make a collab, actually. You just need to work and make sure the other person is working.”
On the production side of music creation, Osvld says that when he begins work on a new project, he spends time listening to the music that inspires him and then concocting a mood he wants to capture. “When you’ve got that inspiration, you’ve got to take advantage of it. Don’t let it go away.” Once he’s composed a melody that captures this vibe, Oslvd says he works on songs sequentially, just as he did with a larger project like W.I.L.D. “When I’ve got something going, it doesn’t stop. When I’ve got the intro, the drop comes instantly, and then the bridge, and then the second drop, and then the outro…I think if I started with a drop, I would just be naked. I don’t know what I shouldwould do.”
Currently, Osvld says he’s working on what he considers his largest project to date. The EP, named Aviators, is expected to be around ten tracks, each of which will feature a collaboration with a different artist. Though Osvld has not revealed his roster of collaborators yet, he promises, “I’m just going to say, those [collaborations] are amazing.” Aviators, which is set to be released in the second half of 2024, will feature both Aural Alliance labelmates and artists not attached to the collective. He further explains, “There will be a lot of different sounds and a lot of different genres.”
Since joining Aural Alliance, Osvld has had nothing but positive things to say about the label. He explains, “What benefits one benefits us all. So I can say, Hey, I want to do an EP where I collab with every one of you, and literally almost everyone that was online at the moment said, I want to do that. It’s just amazing to have a group that supports you unconditionally. Because they know that in the end it benefits us all.”
Given his rapid growth and improvement as an artist within the furry music community, Osvld shows great promise moving forward both as a solo artist and in collaborative settings. Be on the lookout for Aviators, releasing later this year on Aural Alliance.
Princess Dank (They/Them), is a furry creator and musician also dedicated to uplifting and showcasing the talent and passion of the furry music community.
They have been kind enough to team up with us for this new series of artist interviews that will cover our roster, as well as other artists in the future.
