We had the pleasure of chatting to the amazing southern rockers Otis the other week about their recent single, plans for 2026 and what they make of the UK. Check it out below!

How would you describe your sound?

Oh yeah man, we get thrown into the blues and classic rock pot, as well as the Southern one! It’s kinda weird for us, the Southern rock thing, because really all rock comes from the south. Little Richard, Elvis… it took this combination of gospel and blues and standardised country music to make all those things happen. But we’re grateful for anybody who listens to us and they can call us whatever they want!

We’re happy to do it. And we’ve really been welcomed into the classic rock community. We’ve spent a good amount of time playing with bands like Foreigner and Cheep Trick and UFO. On the Southern rock side we’ve played with Wet Willie and members of the Almond Brothers… we’ve been very lucky that the older guys have seen the spark in us and said to come out with them and learn the ropes!

I feel like genres blend a lot more these days. You can fit into all sorts and people are a bit more open-minded about it!

Yeah, absolutely! Especially in the UK and EU, it seems more welcoming to loose Classic rock bands. In America, at least radio-wise, you had a rock hit 30 years ago, or you’re more active rock like Shinedown or Nickelback. But for what we’re doing, we’re kinda in that in-between place and they don’t know what to do with us on the radio over here!

You’ve just returned with a new single, right?

We have! We released a song called ‘I’m Wicked’ on February 5th. We won Classic Rock Magazine’s track of the week when it came out! There was tough competition so we really appreciate people getting in there and voting!

So far so good, people really seem to be enjoying the song! Last weekend was the first time we got to play it live so that was a lot of fun!

I know it’s been a couple of years since you put out a single, what prompted new music now?

Man, we were going wide open ‘till about 2020. Then I had thyroid cancer, I had to get it removed and take radiation treatment, and the original guitarist for the band went over to play bass for Black Stone Cherry, and the drummer wanted to stay home and do the family thing. So, we brought two new guys into the band and started touring and releasing music again in 2023. We released ‘There’s a Break in the Road’ in 2023, ‘Last Fool in the Line’ in 2024, didn’t release anything last year but released ‘I’m Wicked’ this year.

It’s good to get some new music out there, and we’re working to try and get a full release out! Doing all the behind the scenes business stuff to make that happen. People seem to really be digging what we’re doing, so we want to get some new music out!

That was going to be my next question! Are you looking for end of the year for a longer release?

That would be great! We don’t really have a date down yet but it’s something that we’re working on. All the music we love listening to is in album format, and it’s kinda hard to release music in the single format because people only get a little glimpse of what you’re able to do. When you put a record on and you listen to it front-to-back you get a really clear picture of what a band is about.

I have found it’s so much effort to keep up with the crazy single release schedule Spotify wants you to do these days, there’s so much that goes into each release.

Oh man, it’s exhausting! And really expensive, too! Ideally they want you to release a song every three months or so to keep the numbers where they need to be. At a point you have to look at yourself and go ‘am I putting out music out at the right pace for me and for the right reasons, or just keep the numbers happy?’. We always want to serve the music and put out the best thing we can, but you do have to kinda play the game sadly.

What’s the writing process like for you guys?

We’re a get in the room and hash it out kinda band. I may have a riff or some lyrics or an idea but I try not to develop it too far because once the other three guys get a hold of what’s going on it always changes into something far better than I’d have gotten to on my own! A lot of times I do end up using that root idea, but they manage to take it somewhere completely unexpected, which is a lot of fun. We all feed off each other during the writing process just like we do live. I think that’s the cool thing about being a band over being an artist, you can showcase that. With bands that we love like Humble Pie and Faces, it’s that interaction between those players live in a room that makes it so unique!

I imagine it’s still a nice groove writing with the newer band members?

Oh yeah, I think this lineup of the band, our songwriting has really improved. The two new guys, they’re so energetic and they were into what the band was doing beforehand, and then ended up being in the band, so it gives them even more of a renewed energy!

You’re right in the middle of a run of shows, right?

Yeah, tomorrow actually [at the time of recording] we’re playing with a band called The Damn Shames and Nigel Dupree. This will be a lot of fun as I’ve known Nigel, son of Jesse James Dupree of Jackyl. I’ve never got to see him play, and he’s never seen me play! Then we have a show in Ohio, so the touring’s kicking up for us! We’re still doing the weekend thing, which works for us as a lot who see us are blue-collar people, they can’t really swing going out on a Tuesday night. We’re weekend rock’n’roll warriors!

Have you got a busy rest of the year planned?

Yeah, there’s new shows coming in every day, so from now until November we’re gonna be hitting it! Hopefully some time to get back to the studio and get some songs down and get this record out!

Do you have any plans to come back to the UK any time soon?

Yeah, we’ve been over twice and really enjoyed our time, we’d love to come back! It’s just finding the right opportunity and make as much of an impact as we can while there. It’s tricky; we wanna go everywhere and see everybody but it’s hard to do! We wanna do festival stuff and club stuff, we’ll eventually make it happen. I know people want to see us!

Have you got any comparisons you can make of the scene here compared to back home?

For us we feel a lot more respect when we come over and play for y’all. There’s so much to compete with over here, with people on their phone or watching the game, but over there people just have a greater reverence for live music. Not that people don’t enjoy it over here, I guess our type of music is just something that doesn’t get seen as often over there. So we feel very respected when we come over there!