Omhouse started in 2012 when Steven Foster was forced by odd circumstances to take a forty hour Greyhound trek from Greenville, TX home to Toronto after a failed hitchhiking attempt after SXSW. With the sounds of hundreds of bands ringing in his head and with no phone, book or other distractions on hand, he started to dream up the twisting melodies that would become the first Omhouse songs. Having just seen a bizarre and transcendent show by an Athens, GA band called Bubbly Mommy Gun, Foster wanted to make music that had the energy and short form of power pop but with a heavy dose of psychedelia and a progressive approach to harmony and melody, with influences such as Of Montreal and Peter Gabriel. Having spent the past several years as a part of highly collaborative bands Donlands + Mortimer and The Miles, Steven was eager to start a project where he could have full control of the creative process, making and releasing music freely and spontaneously.
When Steven finally got home, he took to his makeshift basement studio on Brock Avenue and began recording these new idea. Having toured with Montreal electronic artist Doldrums, he was inspired to experiment with sampling and collaging techniques he learned from watching Airick Woodhead produce songs in airport waiting areas. The hybrid approach of making sample-based experimental laptop music and using guitars and drums to make garage rock songs are part of what gives the debut Omhouse EP its strange and unique sound. It was written, recorded and mixed over the course of three weeks in April 2012, and was released independently.
Later in 2012 Steven added guitarist Carmen Elle and bassist Ben Harney, both of whom had played with him in orchestral rock band Donlands + Mortimer, and drummer Evan Cartwright, who Steven asked to join the band after a chance meeting at a dance club in Berlin. Carmen left the band after her other group DIANA began touring, but she would play many shows with Omhouse in later years. The live trio of Ben, Evan and Stven had their first show at Big Snow Buffalo Lodge in Brooklyn, and spent the next few years playing many small shows in and around Toronto.
In 2014 Sam “Strawberry” Gleason joined the band on lead guitar, after Steven saw him playing a Hank Williams cover at a small acoustic show at Voodoo Child Cafe. That year Omhouse went on their first two tours, one in Western Canada and one in Eastern Canada/northeastern US. The same year saw the release of the Mooneye EP, a collection of four songs made on Steven’s laptop while on the road with Doldrums, using samples from string quartets and friends records. The Mooneye EP was reviewed favourably by local music blogs and convinced people, incorrectly, that Omhouse was an electronic band.
During the following couple of years Steven toured heavily as a sideman as a drummer with Doldrums, Moon King, Jaron Freeman-Fox & the Opposite of Everything, Snowblink and others, fitting in Omhouse shows and short tours whenever possible. It was during this tumultuous time that he penned the songs that would become Omhouse’s debut full-length album Eye to Eye. The album was recorded by the live quartet over the course of 2017, and was completed and released independently on January 26th, 2018.
Following the release of Eye to Eye, Omhouse added flautist/keyboardist Anh Phung to the lineup, and has featured various other musicians subbing in for the regular band, creating a semi-rotating lineup that includes drummers Charlotte Cornfield and Spencer Cole, guitarist Carmen Elle, keyboardists Anna Horvath, Johnny Spence and Charles James and bassist Alan Mackie.
In 2019, Omhouse self-produced a new full-length album. The album, tentatively titled Never Believing, marks the arrival of a more concise approach, with fewer musical twists and turns, and a greater focus on texture and mood over riffs and twists and turns. The band worked more collaboratively on this album, and it was engineered and mixed by the guitarist Strawberry Gleason. There is not yet a release date.