I think there are very few of us whose history doesn’t include doing something or other with OCB rolling papers….the name and the logo are stamped onto my memory at least with so many brilliant moments that I know that OCB is etched into our cultural consciousness like few other – dare I say – ‘brands’ are.
So of course it makes perfect sense that they would be the ones to put on something like this: a series of music sessions hosted by OCB filmed, streamed and posted for the pleasure of music fans everywhere and whenever…
The second edition of the series was launched recently with Japanese cult girl band Chai
…last year saw brilliant performances by the likes of Daisy, Kitty & Lewis, Lambchop and Bad Gyal; also appearing at the Primavera Festival on the OCB Paper Sessions ticket was Berlin’s own Alice Phoebe Lou (well, South Africa’s own really, but she’s a WahlBerliner so…), plus Miya Folick – and here we have the Spanish-language R&B singer Lakaar.
The OCB Paper Sessions kicked off last year and we loved the Daisy, Kitty & Lewis performance especially! The Paper Sessions look like they’ll be a permanent fixture in the world of online independent music: featuring established bands as well as new and emerging ones, which impresses us no end of course, as we’re always rooting for the indies, and any and every new platform that a bigger brand creates is, er, music to our ears (okay that was a bit of a dodgy pun but there you go).
The Paper Sessions look like they’ll be a permanent fixture in the world of online independent music
Today – Wednesday 24.7 – we’re happy to greet Laskaar, the Swiss-born singer whose roots lie in Andalusia; he describes his musical DNA as springing from influences of R&B, gospel and soul. But Laskaar refuses to be pigeonholed: and the songs he gives us at the Paper Sessions – Traición, DNA, Remember and Samurai – show that he’s not happy to sit in one easily-defined genre; or even one language.
Nice to see that OCB has joined the trend of branded live streaming music channels: any new ways of getting music out that might otherwise have to fight through the mountains of white noise that comes from 40,000 new singles coming out each week (apparently) is good as far as I’m concerned, and as I say, OCB has always been associated with bands and music.
Also nice to hear is that OCB is also going sustainable: with a new series of completely biodegradable papers and filters. Looks like our children’s children will still have a fold of OCB papers in their jeans pocket as they tune their guitars and grin at each other…
Check it out here: YouTube Channel Paper Sessions by OCB · instagram.com/ocbpapersessions · facebook.com/OCBpapersessions
