“It was an affirming experience getting on stage with The OPD”

Today we speak to Office For Personal Development who have recently released their single 'You Are In Control' to rave reviews and support from the likes of John Kennedy at Radio X

We asked the band some pressing (!) questions below:

Tell us, how long have you been making music?

(Cue background music) I asked for a little guitar from Toys-R-Us for Christmas when I was about five and used to busk in the hallway. I'd ambush my Dad for loose change when he got home from work. Soon the money dried up and my songwriting went on hiatus until I was around eighteen. I was more into visual art, and didn't really turn to music as an outlet in earnest until I was at Art School. Then I wasted my time at Art School on music. Silly really, but I'd probably do the same again if I was back there now.

What’s been some of your highlights so far on your musical journey?

My college band Indigo Moss was signed to Big Life before we graduated, we recorded our one and only album in Damon Albarn's Studio 13, and toured with Good The Bad And The Queen. Hanging out with a members of the Clash and The Wu-Tang Klan was fun.

We recorded at Olympic Studios too with Youth from Killing Joke, but it wasn't that great really. We didn't keep anything, but now that famous studio, like so many others, has gone it's a nice memory to have.

After all that, my wife Hannah and I went on as a duo and toured Europe and the USA with Tori Amos. We played at the Royal Albert Hall and The Ryman Auditorium in Nashville. That was a bit of a dream come true, for my old musical self anyway. It seems like a very long time ago now.

I never really enjoyed playing live, so a lot of the pleasure is in hindsight. Playing The Brass in Hastings a few weeks ago with The OPD was the biggest buzz I think I've ever had playing live. I was more nervous than at any of those big shows. That's the point really. I was stuck in my ways for so many years, never really feeling like I fit in in the folk or Americana worlds, just going through the motions as an artist, not really feeling anything. It's been a real period of rebirth for me.

It was an affirming experience getting on stage with The OPD, one I'd visualised for such a long time, it was almost surreal, serene. I had a bit of an outer body experience, and a lot of fun.

Your single is called 'You Are In Control'. What would you like to be in control of?

Everything... My feelings. My emotions. My opinions... Your feelings. Your emotions. Your opinions... In all self-help pep-talk there is a degree of wishful thinking, even self-hypnosis. Any illusion of control is probably false. Learning to tolerate and cope with the constant chaos, to detach yourself from the compulsion to create narrative, and not need to control everything, is a much better ambition and probably leads to a more contented existence. I definitely need to control my megalomania.

Tell us more about the single. Is there a meaning behind the song? Is there a story attached to it?.

It is one of the newest OPD songs. A lot of the others morphed out of songs written on an acoustic guitar and were originally intended for a solo acoustic album. Then I got really bored and started working them up electronically, until the guitar was removed all together. I'm really not sure what triggered it all off.

This one was written purely in my new electronic process. No guitars were strummed in the making of it. I had the opening line first, which is rare for me. I usually have a chorus, or a notion first, then reverse engineer it, but this one was written in a linear, stream of consciousness way and the chorus took a while to come. I think it was the song that finally severed the umbilical chord from my past life as an acoustic, folk-tradition songwriter, and I think the lyrics are really me giving myself a talking to.

What albums do you never get tired of listening to?

Air - Moon Safari

Pet Shop Boys - Actually / Please.

REM - Out Of Time / Automatic For The People

Elvis - The Sun Sessions­

Simon And Garfunkel - Bookends / Bridge Over Troubled Water

What can we expect from you this year?

World domination. Delusional and tragically futile displays of positivity and ambition. One of the two. Maybe both. Shows. Shows. Shows. We've spent so long in the Office working on this, it's time to get out there and give some people some much needed motivation. 

The OFFICE FOR PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT was founded by its current Director, Trevor Deeble, in 2020.

The son of civil servants, he had a nomadic upbringing, moving between England and Germany, absorbing a healthy dose of Europop. He went on to study Fine Art at the prestigious Goldsmiths College in New Cross, but quickly became distracted by music, the South East London avant-garde and the New Wave scene - narrowly avoiding expulsion.

OPD’s headquarters are now situated on England’s south coast. The company is committed to helping you achieve all of your personal development goals.

The OPD would like to take this opportunity to announce its two latest recruits. Bellza Moore, having served their internship, has been offered the full-time position of Office Junior, and Del Querns, headhunted and brought back from early retirement is the Head of IT.

The Office for Personal Development is open for business, and looks forward to taking your call.
To speak to a personal development consultant today visit https://www.opd.org.uk 

‘There comes a time in everyone’s life when you have to accept that you’re no longer a shiny new penny.

That’s when you need to become cold, hard cash.’

Trevor Deeble

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