O.N.I.’s Jake Olde Opens Up About Personal Journey — Interview

“This band came from the band Oni, which was basically me living a lie in a sense.”

On Friday (Aug. 9), Jake Olde joined Loudwire Nights and opened up about the journey he’s been on from his previous band, Oni, to his latest project, O.N.I. Listen to the full conversation in the player near the end of this article.

“I’ve been really trying to do a lot of shadow work in terms of finding out who I am,” he shared with Loudwire Nights‘ Chuck Armstrong.

“It sounds crazy to some, but to me, it’s very real. I was so insecure about so many things…I come from a very interesting situation in my life, my third concert ever was Knotfest. I pretty much skipped the entire ‘garage band’ status. It’s very bizarre.”

For Olde, transforming Oni into O.N.I. — which stands for “obey no illusion” — was a deeply personal process, one he felt he had to go through.

“This is a clean slate for me trying to begin anew with my real name, not going by Jake Oni anymore, which I said was my real name,” Olde explained.

“Like I said, you know, [I’m] learning to just exist with who I really am, take the mask off as it were.”

As Olde mentioned, he’s been doing a lot of personal work on himself, something he was very open and honest about in this particular conversation.

“So many times in my life, I’d sabotage everything, whether it be like lying or chain smoking before I have a tour coming up or just throwing it all away when it gets good,” he expressed.

“I couldn’t figure out why I did that and now I’m coming to that point where I’m approaching that sabotage person inside of me with love as opposed to rejection. And when I do that, it’s easy to make the right decisions and I’m not afraid.”

A significant part of this process hasn’t only been the name change or deep personal work — including rehab earlier this year for his drug use — but also a renewed focus on creating new music.

“I’ve been working with [producer] Jordan Fish and it’s awesome,” Olde admitted.

“I love where the music is going and I’m very excited.”

The same day that Olde joined Loudwire Nights, he celebrated the release of the latest song from O.N.I., the powerful cover of R.E.M.’s “Losing My Religion.”

“Jordan Fish was like, ‘Let’s do a sick cover,'” Olde recalled.

“He had his reasons why, I don’t remember all of them…and my photographer, Stubbs, is on tour with me right now, [he] was like, ‘Dude, ‘Losing My Religion,” and we were like, ‘Whoa, great idea.’ I sang it and it sounded so sick.”

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For Olde, he said it was easy to knock this cover out, thanks in part to what he called “a dream team of creativity.”

“I love being in the studio writing … I don’t ever feel pressure in the studio. I just kind of do my thing.”

Listen to the Full Interview in the Podcast Player Below

Jake Olde joined Loudwire Nights on Friday, Aug. 7; the show replays online here, and you can tune in live every weeknight at 7PM ET or on the Loudwire app; you can also see if the show is available on your local radio station and listen to interviews on-demand.