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00:00Linkin Park was like awesome you know growing up in Cayman as well in the Caribbean hip-hop's quite
00:05a big deal and it had that element but it also had like the guitars and the rock singing which
00:09I always felt inside my soul would light me up so it had like all these different elements that I
00:13could relate to yeah definitely Linkin Park. Rock, metal, frog, and everything in between.
00:19Welcome to this episode of Talkin' Rock with Meltdown. Don't forget to follow the audio-only
00:24Talkin' Rock podcast on all podcast platforms and now it's time for today's conversation. Here's
00:31Meltdown. Hey it's Meltdown here in studio at WRAF with Jake Oldey from ONI. Hey Jake how you doing
00:38man? I'm great thanks for having me. Yeah dude you're you're kind of a kind of a local guy right?
00:42Pretty much. Yeah. Yeah I was born in Detroit and my mom's from Windsor. And then you told me you
00:48lived some of your life in the Caribbean? Yeah I still do but I have a place in Stony Point
00:55like 45 minutes from here. Oh yeah in Canada. Uh-huh. Right in my motorcycle through there for
00:59sure. Yeah great spot for it. Yeah it's awesome. Yeah. Yeah so so tell me about uh first of all
01:05living in the in the Caribbean how does that work? It's hot. I get that. You gotta dodge some hurricanes.
01:11Yeah no doubt. But it's great I love it. I could imagine. Wow I've only been down there a few
01:16times
01:16and sometimes I wonder what it'd be like to live down there. I do have friends I have one friend
01:20I
01:20should say an acquaintance who I know is taking a job in radio down there which is kind of
01:23crazy. Cool. Yeah you do radio and live in paradise. Yeah. I mean that's that's unbelievable
01:29and we live here in the Midwest. Yeah I mean to me I guess I'm used to K-Man where
01:35I'm from
01:36but my place in Stony Point that's my piece of heaven. Like I I absolutely love it there.
01:42You don't sound Canadian. I don't no. No. No. Is that because you spend so much time outside
01:47of Canada? I guess. Yeah. I don't know. You haven't said A or right on yet. Right on A.
01:53And you're not a hockey fan apparently right? No not really. No. I'll watch it. Yeah of course. Yeah.
01:59You have to. It's the law in Canada. I just I'm not super into it. Right. I got you. I'm
02:03just giving
02:03you a hard time. It's fine. So uh your your band is called O-N-I. So tell everybody what
02:07what does
02:08that stand for? Obey No Illusion. Okay. Formerly known as Oni. Oni right. And this Japanese ogre demon
02:14and I thought it was really cool when uh I started the band. But now Obey No Illusion
02:20I've had a quite a long year. I went to rehab and got sober. Oh congratulations. Thank you. Yeah.
02:29And during that time I was like man Obey No Illusion that's kind of what I'm going through
02:33right now with like alcohol and drugs. Did you have an illusion that alcohol and drugs
02:40I always do. Yeah. Yeah. It's good for me. Right. It's not so. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So
02:46some people can probably handle it and some probably can't. Yeah exactly. It's great for
02:50some people. I'm not one of those people. Did you find yourself were you creative uh doing
02:56that or no? No not really. Useless? Pretty much. Yeah. Yeah. And how do you feel now? I feel
03:01great. Yeah. Yeah. How long have you been sober? Seven months and 20 ish days. Wow. That's great.
03:09What was that what was that turning point where you're like I gotta do something. I
03:13I just you know uh not to go into too much detail but it was like I was doing really
03:20good
03:21not doing anything but I was like white knuckling it and it was really hard every day was hell
03:26and then I'd give in as I always do or did and uh that was like Christmas day like the
03:35evening
03:36of Christmas day and then boxing day I went way too hard and then kept going hard for like a
03:43few
03:43weeks and then went to rehab. Just kind of surrendered. Yeah. Yeah. Talk talk over with your
03:49mom and that? My mom uh didn't know about it much until I was already going uh my wife though
03:55she was like you need help so yeah. Yeah that's great. Well it's good to hear man. Thank you. Yeah
04:01so I know I just one of my friends just went through that too. I haven't seen him all summer
04:05long and next thing he comes back and he's he's been in rehab and he says he's doing great so
04:08that's awesome. It is it helps a lot of people for sure. And by the way you just mentioned boxing
04:13day
04:13that's Canadian too so. There you go. Yeah boxing day. Yeah. There you are. So so tell me about the
04:17band here so uh you got the new single right now the the cover of the uh REM track. Yeah.
04:22Uh losing my
04:23religion correct? Correct. Yeah. And uh so why would you decide to cover that song? So my best
04:28friend he's my photographer he's over there right now Stubbs we were in the studio and Jordan
04:34Fish our producer was like dude we should do a cover and I don't normally suggest that but I think
04:40you know you have a really unique voice and anything you'd be kind of cover would be like a new
04:45take on a
04:46song. Sure. And then Stubbs goes how about REM's losing my religion? And he was like whoa and I was
04:51like damn it's a good idea. And then we we did it and it was just awesome and I I
04:57think it has kind of
04:58like a Linkin Park what I've done kind of vibe to it and then like the bridge is like that
05:04death
05:04metal part which is really cool. So it's just all over the place in a really cool chaotic way. I'm
05:09as a fan I'm stoked. No that's great yeah and uh no I ask this a lot of times when
05:14bands cover stuff
05:15like that has the has the band heard it or do they know anything about it? REM? I'm not an
05:20REM guy
05:21to be honest. No but have they did do they have to sign off on it? How does that work?
05:26REM? Yeah of
05:27course you have to sign off on it it's their song. Yeah I get it but it's like have they
05:30heard it?
05:31Yeah they've heard it. Oh they have? Yeah yeah. What'd they say? Um they liked it. Oh okay. Yeah.
05:37Well that's good. Yeah it feels good coming from them legends like that yeah for sure. Were you an REM
05:42fan growing up? Not really um not that I'm not a fan like I love that song uh I don't
05:48I if you ask me
05:49any other song I think you'll probably name like one more. What's the other one? Uh end of the world
05:53as
05:54we know it. Right happy shiny people. Sure and see I don't even know the name so I'm not like
05:57I
05:57couldn't call myself a fan um but yeah I like my version for sure. Yeah no that's great man I
06:04just saw it earlier it's kick ass. Thank you. And you got the new single uh drop in October 9th
06:09and
06:09then a new uh the record release in early 2027. Is that right? Yes. Tell me about the new single.
06:13Uh the
06:14new single is heavy melodic um animal inside is the name of it and it's a pretty cool gory music
06:24video not in the music video it's like a narrative thing but it's gonna be cool uh I like it
06:29a lot
06:30it's uh has like an industrial kind of new metal thing going on I like it. Is that where is
06:37that
06:37where your band kind of lands in the new metal? I don't know I'd say like modern metalcore like
06:44adjacent to like all the production based stuff but as like whenever I do something I want to do
06:50something else. So at the beginning it was all riffs and now I'm like away from the riffs and I
06:56want
06:56the riffs back so we'll see what happens you know I we're always moving around. I was gonna say when
07:02you
07:02go in the studio or when you're writing stuff you just kind of go where it takes you? Yeah I
07:05I just
07:06I like it all and I forget how much I like certain things when I don't do them and I
07:11want to do them
07:12again. My first record was prog metal pretty extreme metal and then I did an EP that was a bit
07:19more chill more like what we're doing now with some prog elements and then the album after that was like
07:26a
07:27classic more speed metal metalcore record almost like Trivium or Lamb of God and then
07:33did another record that was kind of what I'm doing now like the production based metalcore stuff
07:39and then a few more EPs like that. Here I am now. I don't know what tomorrow holds man. Yeah
07:44I like it
07:45all. I like it all. I'm babbling now but I do like it all. Now have you if you hopped
07:50on any tours or any
07:51festivals? Yeah we were just on tour not too long ago with Aurora Wave and we have tour dates in
07:58uh December this year yet to be announced and then hopefully you know we were just talking about
08:05playing the show here in Detroit um at the uh is it the Gene Simmons thing? Oh Rockin' Bruce? Yes.
08:15Yeah
08:15yeah we want to do that and uh I want a headline around here too um at some point but
08:22it's just like
08:23talking to me my manager about it and stuff so. So um you know all the stuff that you just
08:27list off
08:28what are what are kind of some of the some of the bands or artists that that influence you it
08:32sounds
08:32like dude sounds like you're all over the place huh? Linkin Park for sure. Yeah uh Breaking Benjamin,
08:38Three Days Grace, Slipknot uh fuck. So I guess it's some of the the new metal chorus type stuff. Yeah
08:45for sure.
08:45New metal. Grunge, new metal for sure and uh definitely like some heavier stuff like I'm a
08:52sucker for lamb lamb of god and uh I like my sugar quite a bit too. I don't know. What
08:58was the band
08:59that got you into music? Linkin Park. Okay. For sure. Yeah around probably around the early 2000s? Yeah
09:04I mean it was like that was the first thing that I was like proud to be like I like
09:09this band.
09:10Yeah Linkin Park. That was like my choice because I like cousins and stuff they were like you listen
09:14ACDC and Led Zeppelin. I was like this is cool. Yeah and then Linkin Park was like awesome because
09:19you know growing up in Cayman as well in the Caribbean it's like hip-hop's quite a big deal
09:26and like rap and stuff and it had that element but it also had like the guitars and the rock
09:31singing
09:31which I always felt inside my soul would light me up so it had like all these different elements that
09:35I could relate to and um yeah definitely Linkin Park. Yeah Linkin Park uh for somebody of your age and
09:42stuff I'd imagine would could be a turning point and and you know when that record first came out
09:46I think it sold like 40,000 copies the first week and that was insane for a record that no
09:50one had
09:50ever heard of. For sure. And you know and they and I mean just you know they're from their first
09:54single
09:54on it just took off. Just took off. Rightfully so. It's amazing. Yeah did you ever get a chance to
09:59see
09:59those guys? Yeah I saw them when I was like I want to say like maybe 11 ish years old
10:07in Detroit.
10:07Okay yeah here yeah. And that was really cool at a festival and then I saw them again in the
10:12UK
10:15uh with Chester and then I saw them again in the UK like last year with the new vocalists. What
10:22are
10:22you doing over in the UK? Oh my mom is there sometimes. Okay yeah yeah. You're like a globetrotter. I
10:28know
10:28it's weird. Yeah. So living down in the Caribbean you talked about you know all the the rap and stuff
10:34like that. Is there like a rock scene? Like do bands come there? Sure. I mean where they play at?
10:39I'm sure like the hotels and like different venues and stuff. I used to play there. I haven't in years
10:46but there's definitely bands like local bands that do their thing and that's awesome. What about
10:51major bands? Where do you see major bands? You don't really there. They're just on vacation there huh?
10:57Sure yeah. You bump into them in hotels or something. Yeah there you go. No that's great. I record all
11:03my
11:03music there though for the most part. Between there and I'll go to like my uh I have a studio
11:09down
11:09there um but I'll also go like to LA sometimes or Nashville to record too. Okay whereabouts in
11:15Nashville? Uh near Frank uh in Franklin. Franklin yeah Franklin. There's a lot of studios down there.
11:21Yeah um Ray Lazier from Korn is my buddy. So I got his place and what a legend. I mean
11:27that dude is
11:27something else. He's like my uncle. I call him Uncle Ray. Geez. Yeah he's cool. Is he on any
11:31music? He's on two songs that are unreleased. He's unbelievable. That will be released in
11:37the future. Outside of Neil Peart and maybe perhaps Danny Carey. I mean Neil or Ray is unreal.
11:43Untouchable. And it was such a trip too because like one day I was at a studio and it was
11:48me
11:48and the bass player from Spirit Box Josh Gilbert and him and we started jamming dude and it came
11:54out so sick and it sounded kind of like Korn not gonna lie. That was the vibe everyone in the
12:00room was
12:00trying to do and that song is called Battle and I can't wait for it to come out. Is that
12:05going to
12:05be on the upcoming record or you're just going to drop it sometime in the future? A little undecided
12:09but it will be in the future dropped 100%. That's great. Who else do you know in the business? Who
12:15else do I know in the business? Fuck. A lot of people man. The business is small. To get smaller
12:21the
12:21longer you're in it. It's true and like I'm not even like in a big band you know but I
12:25know people in
12:26big bands. Yeah. It's a trip because like I have such bad imposter syndrome where it's like I don't
12:30think I'm that good at what I do or my band's that big or like whatever like I shouldn't be
12:36in the
12:36room with these guys and then they'll be like Jake you're fucking awesome. I'm like no fucking way you
12:41said that to me bro. Shut the fuck up. I don't take compliments well right. It is a trip and
12:48I think younger me would be very stoked. Of course. You know. Well you're not the only person. Just to
12:53be on
12:54the show right now talking to you for example. I'm like freaking out because I've been listening
12:58to Riff every summer since I was I don't even know how old you know. Well that's cool. I guess
13:04I guess maybe Riff had a little bit of your musical. Oh for sure. Yeah. It's definitely a full circle
13:08moment. I remember talking to Carla from Butcher Babies in this very studio one time and she's like
13:14and she said she heard something in the back of her dad's car and I go maybe it was on
13:17the station.
13:18She goes 100% for sure it was on this station. Yeah. Because she grew up in Southfield you know.
13:22That's awesome.
13:23Yeah it's pretty cool. But no that's great. You know you talk about you know the this imposter
13:27syndrome like I said that you're not the only one though. There's a lot of guys like that in this
13:30business. I bet. Yeah. And yeah you go down to Nashville and you probably meet more people.
13:35Yeah. For sure. Well what's the name of the record? Can you say or no? It's gonna be
13:40self-titled. Okay. It's gonna be called A Bay No Illusion. Gotcha. Yeah. Well dude thanks so much
13:46for coming in here. The the new single is out like I said the losing losing my religion from
13:50R.E.M. and um and you got the new record coming out and the sobriety man congratulations. That's
13:56really good man. I hope you can keep that up. Oh me too. Check out Talkin' Rock with Meltdown
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