Owel

Jay Sakong's understated lead vocals guide OWEL, a New Jersey outfit whose expansive, unhurried adult pop carries cinematic and emo inflections. The group issued its self-titled debut LP in 2013.

Core members had first explored comparable terrain under the Old Nick moniker, with Sakong handling vocals, guitar, and keys alongside Seamus O'Connor on guitar, keys, and vocals, Ryan Vargas on percussion, plus Jane Park and Daniel Zaleski; that configuration delivered the EP I've Seen Colors in 2012. Adopting the sharper name OWEL, the band followed with its 2013 full-length. A four-track release, Every Good Boy, appeared in 2015, after which the group joined Equal Vision Records and issued its second album, Dear Me, the following year. Demonstrating its capacity to translate the material onstage, OWEL put out Live from Audio Pilot Studios near the end of 2017 and returned in early 2019 with its third studio set, Paris. At that point the lineup comprised Sakong, O'Connor, Vargas, Nunzio Moudatsos on bass and vocals, and Patti Kilroy on violin, keys, and vocals.