Neighborhood Cookout 

Speaking with The O'My's in Their Backyard

Story by Ben Niespodziany   

Photos by Rene Marban, Chris Ramirez & Nadar Makkins

It's 5:30 PM on a Saturday in Chicago. Wicker Park, the Windy City's bustling (see also: overrun) neighborhood is holding its annual street fest and Milwaukee Avenue is packed. Vendors inside tents display posters and tie-dyed shirts, organic candles and paintings on old cassette tapes. The thousands of people that crowd together for the summer festivities are both old and young, both mindless browsers and scheduled planners. Some are arriving at the fest to see a particular live band, while others are just wandering and hoping to discover something new. Chicago six piece soul outfit The O'My's perform at Wicker Park Fest at 6:00 PM to a massive crowd. The band has been around the neighborhood since 2008. They can see the festival from their backyard. Although various members of the group have come and gone, founding members Maceo Haymes (lead vocalist/guitarist) and Nick Hennessey (backup vocalist/keyboardist) have been coming to this festival for years. When they arrive on stage, playing the festival for the first time, no longer part of the crowd, they are alive, beaming for the whole block to see.

If you live in Chicago, then you've heard of The O'My's. At the very least, you've seen their stickers around town: on stop signs and Chicago Reader stands, on parking meters and concert hall bathroom stalls.  As they perform in the summer heat, the crowd smiles and grooves while they sip their overpriced beers and hold their lovers' hands, everyone swaying to the blends of soul, R&B, funk, and gospel. Endless people stand in sundresses and sunglasses, new fans and old, passerby and loyal followers. Family members of the band are scattered in the crowd. The O'My's plays a rough rendition of a track they are working on: a track Haymes wrote about his mother, who is somewhere near the stage, grinning while her son sings about his love for her.

“I hope you like what we're doing,” Haymes tells the vibrant audience. While his speaking voice is low and warm, his singing voice is high-pitched and unique, sounding something like a mix between a tea kettle and a southern preacher. The crowd loves it. Some are smoking blunts, some are sneaking vodka, others are simply sweating and enjoying the soulful Saturday afternoon with a bottle of water and a lightweight tank top. Despite the hardships and negativity that can surround Chicago (and America), The O'My's stay positive, spreading love and powerful messages on songs like “Rise Up Singing” and “Forward.” At one point, they demand that the audience scream their simple chorus by repeating the words “sweet love.”

“I'm seeing a lot of smiles,” Haymes says at one point during the 45 minute set. “Let's take those smiles and move 'em down to the hips.” After the show, the six members of The O'My's enter the crowd and hug family members, thanking everyone for attending. They take pictures next to new fans and have beers with old friends. They hang around backstage and wait for Charles Bradley to perform; he's headlining the occasion and The O'My's are fans of the 66-year-old soul revivalist.

When Bradley's set and the festival as a whole comes to a close for the evening, most of the members of The O'My's make their way back to the Wicker Park home of Haymes and Hennessey, where friends and family drink cheap beer and good tequila in the backyard, relaxing in the dark while they unwind from a day of live music. It is at their home, blocks away from their performance, that I speak with the two founding members of the buzzing group, Hennessey with a PBR in his hand and Haymes with a cigar in his mouth. But first, a little background. Since the band's inception eight years ago, Haymes and Hennessey have stuck together, building a foundation for a place within Chicago to call home. Upon releasing their LP A Humble Masterpiece two years ago, they found their band, they found more structure, and they released two EPs [Family Cookout (2014), Keeping the Faith (2015)] that have molded who they have become and who they are still becoming. While it wasn't their biggest release and while it was more or less something to hold over the fans, it's their collaborative EP with Donnie Trumpet, Family Cookout, that defines The O'My's. Described as a “homegrown collaboration of family and friends”, the four song EP captures the essence of The O'My's. They are a band perfect for a BBQ, perfect for your mother and auntie and cousins to groove to. The kind of band that needs their own hot sauce, that needs to perform at a brewery with free ribs, that needs to collaborate with blues legends and rising rappers. They are a melting pot of the love and positivity blooming out of this so-called Chicago renaissance.

When I interviewed them back in 2013, I described them as “a resourceful group of young artists turning nothing into something beautiful.” When I interview them after their Wicker Park Fest performance, this description still holds true. “I've been living here my whole life,” Hennessey tells me. “I grew up on the block, so I've lived in Wicker Park my entire life. Never left. I remember when Wicker Park Fest didn't exist, I remember when it started, and I remember when they finally had us come. It was dope to finally lock it. We'd been rallying for it for a while because it only made sense.”

“It's home turf,” Haymes adds. “The first time we ever wrote music as a duo,” Hennessey continues, “as The O'My's, was on this block. In this neighborhood. It was an awesome view, too. Looking straight down Milwaukee at every different spot we used to stand.” Hennessey tells me that some of their first performances back in 2008/2009 included performing with an accordion and an acoustic guitar. Songs like “My House”, which they performed today, was one of their first cuts.

“The first 100 out of 1,000 people that ever heard 'My House',” Hennessey says, “were probably just walking past us right on that same street.” The O'My's are a local band that has received nationwide attention. You can hear them on HBO's Ballers. You can hear them alongside Chance The Rapper and Nosaj Thing. You can hear them on tracks with ZZ Ward and Blended Babies and King Chip and Ab-Soul and so many more. Given their collaborations and side features, I ask them if it's hard to split time between projects.

“Auxilary,” Hennessey adds.

“Auxiliary,” Haymes agrees, “but also, the purpose of it for me is to collaborate and learn and grow with other artists in the city because we have such a budding community right here, but also every single thing I've learned outside of this room is something to bring back.” Being as they have toured around the country (with ZZ Ward during her Last Love Tour), I ask them how it feels to come back home and perform for not only their city, but their neighborhood.

“Playing at home is always a different energy,” Haymes tells me. “Even if it isn't a crowd that all knows our music or knows who we are, the vibe in Chicago is tough and it's heavy and it showed. I know a good deal of people knew who we were, but a good deal of people didn't. That really didn't matter in the end, especially when it comes to street festivals. Chicago shows out in the summertime and we saw that today.” More than just a soul troupe, The O'My's are a family. This was confirmed in 2014 when their tour driver fell asleep at the wheel and flipped their van in the middle of Idaho; all members exited the upside down vehicle with nothing more than bumps and bruises. It was there, in the early hours of the morning, that they became a family: sharing a cigarette, calling their mothers, and reflecting on a life changing moment. I ask Haymes and Hennessey if it's difficult for a family of six to mix business with pleasure.

“With having a band this big and with that many people,” Haymes begins, “and all people that are A) from Chicago but B) from every single corner of the city, being able to make sure those folks are in the room and that they want to be in the room is always at the forefront. We've had a lot of different iterations of the band and this feels like what it is and what it needs to be. It has been, in some ways, a ton more effortless. I can spend hours and days in a car with these people. I trust them with my life and I love them. Just like any relationship, it's always work, but the difference is if it's work that you come home at the end of the day happy about, and I couldn't be happier.”

Outside of the founding members, the remaining four artists within The O'My's remain talented and busy. Horn player Will Miller can be heard all around town, adding his lively trumpet on songs with artists like Netherfriends, Mike Golden, Odd Couple, A Billion Young, Drew Mantia, and so many more. Recently, he has been putting down the horn (briefly) and producing full compositions for Chicago singer (and THEMpeople affiliate) Via Rosa. Meanwhile, bassist Boyang Matsapola, saxophonist Erick Mateo, and drummer Baron Golden are the powerful glue of The O'Mys, keeping everyone in order and maintaining the rhythmic funk. To close out the end of their Wicker Park Fest performance, all six members were introduced to the crowd by giving their best solo. All talented in their own rights, the six pieces of The O'My's create one hell of a soulful puzzle.

Moving forward, I ask Haymes and Hennessey, “What's next for The O'My's?”

“At the moment,” Haymes says, “we are in the midst of working on a new project. It has no title at the moment. It has some directions, but really what we're trying to do is, at this point in the process, really just allow ourselves to create as much material as possible. And once you get enough [material], you'll be able to step back and look at it and start moving forward.”

As we close out the interview and I let the tired artists return to their backyard where they will continue entertaining their guests and continue to be a family with the fellow musicians that surround them, I ask them if they have any closing thoughts or final words.

“To sort of sum it all up,” Haymes begins, “where we're at as a band and as a collective is looking to push our music and our next project and whatever it is that comes from The O'My's further. In terms of songwriting, in terms of the subject matter, [in terms of] what is actually put on paper. It's trying to tie things that are social [and] political. Looking up, we've spent a lot of time with music that is intensely personal and it's important and is about the celebration of humanity and ourselves and each other, but going forward, I think taking that to another level and bringing that to a place that has a lot more concern with how we love ourselves and each other in the broader spectrum. From the smallest atom to the biggest molecule, this shit's all the same. We all live lives that are impacted by each other.”

Following Haymes' words, I ask Hennessey if he has anything to add, but he shakes his head and tells me, “Not after this motherfucker.” Both Hennessey and Haymes laugh like brothers, exiting the room to step back outside into the summer heat of Chicago, where they will continue to grow with the Windy City that raised them.