Amy O

Beginning in the early 2010s as the home-recorded project of Indiana-based singer/songwriter Amy Oelsner, Amy O has expanded into a full-fledged indie rock band that delivers thoughtful observations of the everyday with a sweet-natured punk-inflected style. After working alone on many albums, by the time of 2016′s Arrow, Oelsner was regularly working with outside collaborators. With 2024′s introspective Mirror, Reflect, Oelsner distanced herself from the tighter studio arrangements of her two previous albums and returned to her D.I.Y. bedroom pop roots. A self-taught guitarist, Oelsner started writing songs while growing up in Fayetteville, Arkansas. College and work eventually took her to Ohio, Massachusetts, Brooklyn, and then Bloomington, Indiana. All the while, she continued her practice of writing, recording, and self-releasing albums under the name Amy O, including the 2012 series Songs from January (released in February 2012), Songs from April, Songs from July, and Songs from October (issued in April 2013). Released in June 2014, My Hand the Thief was her last album to be entirely self-made. Now based in Bloomington and signed to Let's Pretend Records, Amy O’s 2016 label debut, Arrow, featured a backing band that included the rhythm section of Madeline Robinson (bass) and Justin Vollmar (drums). Its punchy, fuzzed-out indie rock was engineered and mixed by Patrick Jennings and mastered by Russian Recording’s Mike Bridavsky. Bridavsky returned to produce Amy O’s next album and label debut on Winspear. Released in August 2017, the more aggressive Elastic honored her lo-fi heritage while taking steps toward a cleaner, more robust style of production. This trend continued on 2019′s Shell, an album of tight, focused arrangements and crafty songwriting. In the early 2020s, during the COVID-19 pandemic, Oelsner returned to a more casual style of writing and recording. Experimental home recordings, field recordings, song-a-day challenges, and off-the-cuff collaborations with friends provided creative nourishment and a way to process the complexity of her emotions. She also became a mother. Consequently, her next album, 2024′s Mirror, Reflect, was a more homespun, D.I.Y. release inspired by the changes in her personal life. ~ Marcy Donelson