Two years ago, Other Girls’guitarist and vocalist Jonah Oryszak got fed up with his 9 to 5 job in Pittsburgh. He moved back to Cleveland and reunited with childhood friend and guitarist Jay Tousley, who, along with bassist Corey Lanigan and drummer Dave Wincek, started the Other Girls. After hearing their music, the Black Keys’ Patrick Carney offered to help put out their first studio album, Perfect Cities, which is set to be released June 9. Oryszak talks to us about working with Carney, his favorite live music venue and more.
What was it like to work with Carney?
It was really cool. We went to his studio with $500 and crammed the whole thing in one day. He was in Australia, but he came back and listened to it and was like, “This is great. If you guys want to come back to the studio and re-record the whole thing and do it right, I’ll support it. We’ll put it out on Audio Eagle [Carney’s record label].” He ended up working on the last song, called “Last Date.” He laid the drum track down for it.
If one musician or band could hear your album, who would it be?
Tommy James. I read a story on him once that talked about how he’d take popular songs and steal all the chords and play them backward in order to come up with new songs. Jay and I have always been really interested in that part of songwriting.
What one venue do you dream of playing?
Definitely, without a doubt, I’d like to play at the [old] Euclid Tavern. I probably spent more time at that place than any other venue in Cleveland, and I loved it — perfect show spot and a perfect example of the Cleveland music scene. Luckily, Jay and I got to play there once in a band we were in called The Crave back in 1999.
