An emotional-blue revelation of a duo that’s set to make a space in your heart, Omega Trains aims to create nothing but impact. Located in Woodbridge Township, United States, their sound is multi-genre, and shows imprints of power, passion and palpable emotions, fine-printing them onto our minds. With Cobra as the lead singer and The Outlaw on the lead guitars, their sound is only intended to expand further, enhancing the taste profiles of those born in the 21st century and those who came before it.
A witty trail of nothing but power-packed anthems, this is rough, fierce and everything cell of boldness we miss in our body.
We start this adventurous journey with ‘Ride or Die’. With this as the introductory track, we get the message to dare and to step outside our comfort zone. ‘Hero (Save The Day)’ is another reminder that no matter what amount of clues you get, no matter how much you try to run away, you’re on your own. Hence, rather than fearing your fate, you must own it with pride. This track embodies high spirits and aims to uplift you from the core. The next track featuring Lisa Coppola, however, is a league of its own. A refreshing and innovative take on life, this track doesn’t just ask for change; it instils it in you. It wants you to be hopeful in the best way possible. What feels like a continuation of the feeling set in the previous track, the next track, ‘Joy’, brings with it the beautiful orchestration of instruments. It’s vibrant and full of life, pretty much how it’s named, and Yuri’s voice feels like the cherry on top.
The next couple of tracks feel like a fever cloud full of motivational tunes. ‘Stomp the Blues Away’ is about owning your pain with pride instead of being hurt by it. Raw vocals and surreal country backdrops, this is about standing up for yourself while acknowledging what you’ve gone through. While ‘Here, Too’ is about being a shield for your loved ones without hesitation, ‘Prelude to the Storm’ longs to feel a sense of solitude within the multitude of emotions you feel. Overall, I must say, this album comprises nothing but magic, and I believe coming across it was a blessing in disguise. Give it a listen, and you’ll feel the same way too!
We got a chance to interact with the artist and learn more about them and the release. Here are all the insights we got!: –
- Your sound sounds super dreamy! What instilled a passion to pursue alternative rock as a genre?
Cobra (Darren Johnson- vocals): I like many different styles of music. Doesn’t really matter the genre. Rock, R&B, country, gospel, rap, metal, folk, EDM, classical, etc. The key is that it has to really move me emotionally in some way. I invoke that freedom when I write songs, and “Alt Rock” is so loosely defined I never feel boxed in. Every genre’s influence is wide open for me.
The Outlaw: (Mark Fahad – guitar) I don’t see it as alternative rock. What I see is a blending of all the different types of music that we love, because of the people who we are and the music we produce. As for me, I’m a fan of everybody from Jim Croce to Skynyrd to Metallica and all the pieces of the music that I love becomes what I play; I take a little of everything. I can sit and listen to Chicago, Lionel Richie, Marvin Gaye…and go to the other extreme; Judas Priest and AC/DC. All of it touches me in a different way. They’re all little brush strokes that create who I am.
- Out of all the tracks in this album, can you guys tell us more about your personal favourites and the reasons for choosing those?
Ans- Cobra: Wow. It’s so hard to narrow it down. The Heroes (Hero – Save the Day) & (Hero, Too) are always gonna have a place in my heart because they represent what Omega Train is all about. They’re underdog anthems. Hope over Fear. Light over Darkness. Saving the day despite impossible odds. Ride or Die is special because it’s about me and my brother over here The Outlaw still on that mission decades later no matter what toll life’s taken on us. Undefeatable. Nigh undaunted.
The Outlaw: I have different favorites for different reasons. I like everything we do. It’s like picking your favorite kid. Can’t do that, but there’s things about each one that means something to me. Right now, my favorite out what we did? I really like Ride or Die. Ride or Die started from a quick thought from you (Cobra). It was out of the blue from you to me, and we wrote that song in under eight minutes. I know you took a longer to put the words together, and I can see that and feel that, but when you and I got together, the song came together in eight minutes because the song flowed that well.
Cobra: The title track, You Were There is semi-autobiographical. I’m humbled each and every time I hear that track because of the vast array of talent assembled to make it. I took the advice of an old boss who once said “Come up with a plan, surround yourself with great people and then get the hell out of their way.” We had you (The Outlaw) on lead and rhythm guitars. Omega Train alumni Robbie “The Pirate” Kenny also played rhythm guitar. Two young and brilliant rising stars: Aaron Manzo on bass and Vic Montanaro on drums. From Nektar, the amazing Kendall Scott on keyboards. Singer-songwriter Dawn Hopkins both sang and arranged backing vocals with an all-star choir, which includes Strumberry Pie’s DeeDee Montanaro, and my music brothers from the Moroccan Sheepherders Pat Murphy & Rich Kelly. All of them created this beautiful sonic wave I could surf on as lead singer. It was engineered by both Scott Burton and Tony Lewis (mixer) from HiVoltage Studios.Mastered by Derril Sellers at Cako Studios.
The Outlaw: You Were There has been with us a really long time. Hero was one of the first songs that we wrote. That’s the way we work. Words and music. I hate to steal a line from “Eddie and The Cruisers” but you’re the word man and I’m Eddie. I love the spirit of Endless Possibilities. Joy…the first time you said the words of Joy, it actually gave me joy, lol. Because you didn’t write (songs) like that. That wasn’t always what I knew of my friend, Cobra. It was a lot of angst for a lot of years. Everything had…
Cobra: There was a darkness there, lol.
The Outlaw: Yeah, yeah there was. There was this happiness on the surface, but there was knife twisting in the background that you were trying to hide. That’s the best way I can describe it.
Cobra: That’s pretty much what it is, lol. Suburban Apocalypse Blues. It is what it is. But even in Joy, I still acknowledge the dark clouds.
The Outlaw: Lol, there’s not gonna be anyone else in the world who knows either of us better than you and I, brother. We have run the gauntlet.
Cobra: It all comes out in the music. We don’t hide anything in our songs. We put it out there.
The Outlaw: Oh, absolutely. It’s all from the heart. Every last drop we got, we leave it there; on the tape, on the stage, everywhere we do it.. That’s the only way to really do it. We don’t phone it in. And the people we respect are the ones that do that, too. That’s what kept us going through all of this. Everything’s from the heart.
- Can you tell us more about the instances or things in your daily life adventures that inspired the release of this album?
Ans- Cobra: The song “You Were There” is both a memoir and a prayer for me. I sang my first solo, “Jesus Loves Me” at three years old in Mt. Pleasant Missionary Baptist Church in Edison, NJ, where I went three times a week. My dad played gospel radio 24/7/365 when the Mets weren’t on. I think that kind of thing stays with you…inside you, no matter where you wander off to in life. You and I wrote that song over 36 years ago. I always wanted to manifest it in a big way.
The Outlaw: This has been a long time coming, and if it wasn’t for you, the person that’s always been the engineer of this train…otherwise, this train would’ve derailed years ago…a hundred years ago…a hundred thousand years ago. Your vision has always kept the train moving forward.
Cobra: Thank you, man.
The Outlaw: I’m the whimsical, shiny object that’s in for a moment. I’m always easily distracted. I can’t seem to finish a thought most of the time, but if it wasn’t for you Last Train Out (original band name) would’ve been the end of it. And it never would’ve become Omega Train. And it would’ve been a very sad thing. I would have always remembered, but never would’ve have had the guts to push out all the thoughts and amazing lyrics you belt out with heart and soul and power that nobody can.
Cobra: Love right back at you. You’re the composer. You animate my words and ideas with melodies and riffs for the ages. I give you a canvas and you paint the sonic portrait. We had that connection from early on. I don’t take it for granted. I wear my heart on my sleeve. You bare your soul on guitar. I think that vulnerability helps people relate to our songs. We tell human stories. Like in Hero, “hounds of hell” can mean that thin envelope in the mail with test results that say “blah,’ or you just got downsized or laid off.. you didn’t get the hours you were promised next week.
The Outlaw: You see? That’s an amazing analogy right there. You come up with hounds of hell, which is exactly what it is, but nobody else would think of that. And that is so, Don Henley, Jackson Browne…symbolism. It’s taking something and making you think about it. It’s not just saying “this bill came in the mail”…you use poetry with symbolism in it. I’m going to show you
this and you draw the conclusion. I love how you do that. Some people use fancy words just to show off their vocabulary. When you do it, I don’t feel left out. You don’t lose me in it. I feel better knowing that I “get it.”
Cobra: Thanks. Like I said, human stories, but in bold colors. Take “Endless Possibilities.” That song is about a young woman I met at a weekly karaoke show in Red Bank, NJ who overcame a chronic illness to become an equestrian champion. A lot of people would get depressed, or give up. This girl rose above, saddled up on a horse actually named Endless Possibilities (nicknamed Billy) and took home trophies. I remember her singing one song…Wild Horses by the Rolling Stones. I will never forget the joy in her eyes when she sang. That spirit of freedom, unbridled, maybe? LOL. She let nothing stop her. I knew I had to write something. Perfect anthem for an underdog, right? “Stomp The Blues Away” was originally written for somebody else to sing with The Downtown All-Stars of Red Bank: charity albums comprised of artists I met at that very same weekly karaoke show held at a club that was then known as The Downtown. Stomp is my story, though. From my coming down to Red Bank every week to that live rock and roll karaoke night, I met all these amazing people in that music scene who became family. Folks like Alan Manzo, Laura Catalina Johnson, Herbi Freeman..God rest his soul, DeeDee Montanaro & so many others. I ended up joining the Moroccan Sheepherders; an iconic Jersey Shore cover band. The charity albums reignited my passion for songwriting which ultimately inspired the resurrection of Omega Train.
- If you could incorporate all of these tracks into a movie, which comes to mind and why?
Cobra: I don’t know if there’s one specific movie. I just think it would have to be something about an underdog…you know, people up against the odds.
The Outlaw: Have you seen Landman with Billy Bob Thorton? I’ve been binge watching that. It’s funny. It’s thoughtful. It’s heartbreaking. It’s all over the place. It’s every time this guy is around something falls the f*** apart around him. It’s the underdog story, I don’t want to overplay the underdog thing, but I can see that TV show being something along those lines. If there was a colossal debacle movie, where they build up, go through everything but just miss…that would be the movie.
Cobra: That’s a great answer. Who can argue with that? It’s us. It’s real.
- How was working with Lisa Coppola? Can you tell us about any behind-the-scenes moments?
Cobra: Lisa’s not only an amazing singer, but a consummate professional. Whether we were rehearsing, tracking vocals at Scott Burton’s Under the Stairs Studios, or shivering on a horse ranch shooting the Endless Possibilities music video with Bartlett Lentini, Lisa was always prepared and focused.
The Outlaw: Oh yeah, she’s a total pro. I did my work remotely so I didn’t work directly with her, but even when I gave suggestions on some of the vocals, she was open to hear them and an absolute pro.
Cobra: The woman is driven to succeed, honing her skills at photography, video editing, networking & social media marketing to grow her brand and promote her music. She is also a dear friend. We have a blast collaborating. And bonus…her talented husband John MacDonald plays bass on the track!
- How did you learn to contain your creative excitement as a brand, and maybe become adaptable to channel it right?
Cobra: That’s gotta be the toughest question for me personally, lol. You could replace “Darren Johnson” with “Creative Excitement” and no one who knows me would bat an eye. The deal with The Outlaw here, is that he knows how my mind works. If I get an idea, my brain already ran down the street with it somewhere. You’ve got the tether. You pull me back in…you bring it home.
The Outlaw: You do that to me as well. ‘We balance each other.
Cobra: Yup. You and I? We’re both outsiders. We’re square pegs. We don’t always fit in. The people out there who can relate to that get us. If someone ever feels up against it, maybe on the outside looking in, they’re gonna get it. They just have to hear it. Once they do, “Oh yeah, that’s for me.”
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