In Middle School I played the trombone for my school’s Jazz band, and although I sucked at it I still had fun. As a student, I was always a hard worker and my efforts to play the trombone were no different. I practiced a lot, and sometimes even stayed after school to practice with my teacher. Like I said, I sucked at playing the trombone. And although I was never as good as Brandon Hucks (trombonist for Of Good Nature)… I loved playing it all the same. With that said, I haven’t found too many bands with a trombonist player… And that’s really what makes OGN performances and sound so memorable.
Of Good Nature are made up of Cameron Brown (vocalist, guitarist, and songwriter), Brandon Hucks (trombone, and songwriter), David Hamilton Jr. (drums, and songwriter), and Jon Reed (bass, and songwriter). Founded in June 2011 (but they didn’t release any music until 4 years later), OGN attracts fans of all genres and all ages. I had the wonderful chance to sit down with Cameron and David prior to their performance at the Middle East Restaurant and Club on March 29th to chat about their music.
“Well I started when I was one. I was watching Sesame Street and Buddy Rich was playing and I was like yeah I gotta play drums. And then my Dad went and bought me a drumset when I was one.”
–David Hamilton Jr., drummer for Of Good Nature (3.20.2019)
All members of the band are song writers… But Cameron says he mainly writes the songs for the band, and the rest of the guys write their own projects. Cameron says that he draws influences from mainstream Pop music, “Bruno Mars or like Jessie J or some kind of random things like that I think influences just our arrangements and our just packaging of all the parts. Well, I think we also have a lot of soul and reggae just kind of rootsy influences to come from more like an old school feel” Cameron tells me. Good Life seems to be a favorite to play live… “I think we kind of like written in a live part of it. We wrote an extra little piece into the live show. So I think us as band. We like doing that part and just like that song grooves and stuff. The fans really get into that song,” Cameron tells me.
“Katie Shelby from OGNation on Facebook asked ‘which song was the toughest to write off the new album?’
Dave: Invincible maybe?
Carmen: Invincible had some tough parts. I remember me and Dave were working on the bridge part. You know and coming up with all that. Yeah. Good Life is hard because we had to go back and forth with the producer a lot because it wasn’t really finished when we brought it to the producer. Yeah, it wasn’t hard by any means to make. Like we loved it and the work was fun other than that.”
As for my personal favorites, I genuinely really enjoy listening to Take Me Anywhere and Bother on a daily basis (those songs also really sound good live too). Songs like Tag Line Hook, Sit Around (ftr. Sun-Dried Vibes), and etc are good too. There seems to be songs from a lot of different genres, everywhere from alternative to soul music. There’s a lot to like about these guys as musicians, and it will be interesting to see where they go from now.
“I don’t know if we plan (our direction for the future). I think it is happening naturally we seem to be getting more. I don’t know I don’t think there is any way you can say it. Like Fade is more Pop(ie) but some other songs we are working on are not Pop(ie) at all. They’re more like soul.”
–Cameron Brown, vocalist for Of Good Nature
Of Good Nature have a lot of songs that they are working on at the moment, and Cameron is really excited about the song Fade that they working on. Dates for the new releases are yet to be known. They just finished their Winter tour, and are on the road again now until September.
I would sincerely like to thank Of Good Nature for requesting this review and interview. Their fan base (OGNation) and everyone I have met at that OGN concert (including Grateful Owl) have been so nice to me, and I wanted to say it definitely doesn’t go unnoticed. I am looking forward to working with them and seeing another concert in the future! Please go like OGN on Facebook and Instagram, and like/follow me on Facebook and Instagram (@unedited_music_blog) for future updates for this awesome upcoming band!
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