Introducing Probably Oslo…

My name is Danny McGuire and two years ago, I started the band Probably Oslo together with my friends. To tell the story, I need to go back to the start. March 23rd 2018, I’d just arrived in London. There’s something that happens in the first few weeks after moving to a new city that’s hard to explain. There’s a wildness about you. You’ve given up a life somewhere else, you’re ready to start a new one and good times are guaranteed. It’s your reward for packing everything you own up and it feels like anything can happen. I met Alex during this time.

Drinking hangover coffees one morning in early April, we played each other the songs we’d been working on. Within the hour we’d started our band, Probably Oslo. Alex had an office job working for a studio nearby and suggested we head over afterwards to have a look around. He conveniently failed to mention it was Abbey Road. Next thing I knew I was playing the only two chords I know on John Lennon’s piano and drinking a Guinness. We started working hard that week and haven’t really stopped since.

We were determined, writing songs in our bedrooms together most nights. Then scrapping them and writing some more. Creatively, we were in a great routine. Becoming friends and exploring a new city in the process, it felt like we were in a film. It sounds idyllic but it wasn’t. At the same time, as it often seems to go in London, everything was moving so fast that it was hard to catch our breath. 

We were on this amazing journey together but the other parts of our lives were taking a beating like never before. We both found ourselves escaping awful relationships and all of the joys that come with those kind of experiences. Our day jobs were in disarray coupled with the bad feeling that our band, something that felt so important, only existed between the two of us. 

Thankfully, life began to settle. The bad things would improve and the good things would get even better. It felt time to bring our songs to life so we began the search for a rhythm section. We were soon joined by Nat on bass, an intuitive musician and all round cool character. Shortly after, Arran arrived on drums. I remember his audition being truly bizarre. This guy turns up, says hello, sets up his drums and plays the whole set perfectly a couple times and was like “yeah i’m up for it, let me know” and leaves. We loved it and our band felt complete.

Within a few months, we’d organise our own shows at Sister Midnight in London, play different venues around the UK and headline a sold out Chinese New Year party in Amsterdam. The only constant is change and just as we were ready to record, it was time for our dear Nat to return home to New Zealand. We’d been through a lot together in such a short time and after one final show under a disco ball in Brighton, she was off. 

There was a need to get into the studio, both to make things real and to keep our band alive. We’d done a lot without releasing any music but it was definitely time. Looking back, I think we were terrified of making a bad record. It would have reduced everything we’d been working on but thankfully that didn’t happen.

Callum joined us on bass and after a week or two, it felt like he’d always been there. We booked in to 123 Studios after seeing the guy from Foals walking in to a building we didn’t realise existed with a big pizza. It’s a beautiful spot, all wooden rooms and full of natural light. It’s also a stones through from our practice space. What can I say, we like to keep it local. We tracked ‘Hideaway’ in two days working with producer, Brett Shaw. 

We collaborated with photographer and artist Jamie Tilley and his partner Evan to create our artwork and press images and the track came out in September 2018. 

Before Probably Oslo, i’d made records by myself and I was thinking about how the sessions had gone and how much fun we had creating something that was the sum of all of our parts. The documentary ‘Sound City’ was on in the background and I heard this quote from Mick Fleetwood.

The story continues but hey that’s enough for now, I’ll write more soon.

With love,

Danny X