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Orchee Sorker | February 13, 2021
The positive, energetic hip-hop pop artist Jack Omstead is a “jack of all trades” who is doing much more than just songwriting and singing. He also records, produces, mixes/masters, and creates his own cover art/videos for every released song. With over 41.2k followers on TikTok and nearly 570k likes, Jack is looking to influence a larger audience through his captivating upbeat lyrics. Some of his top hits include “Pink Whitney”, “Back”, “Cookie Monster”, and “AEIOU”, which was released on January 26.
Calling his parents Mama Omer and Big Omer, he refers to himself Little Omer and his older sister as Mere Bear. This Amsterdam-born and Toronto-raised artist speaks passionately about the connection with his family. Their constant support has allowed him to grow as a musician. Through the COVID-19 pandemic and quarantine, his family has gotten closer. Jack says, “family is not something I take for granted. Having their support is everything. And I know that not all musicians and people in the artistic world can say that. They've always been by my side.” Through his music, he wants to continue to express his family’s love through his music.
Growing up, if he wasn’t doing schoolwork or in sports (specifically baseball and hockey), music was always his passion. Jack remembers the first song he wrote in fifth grade. He mentions the first line was “sitting on my dirty bed..so cold, dry, and wet”. Throughout middle school, he played around with GarageBand and began using Logic when he started high school which he still uses to create his music. Jack indulges in music outside of the type he creates with influences like Justin Timberlake, Andy Timberland, Mike Posner, Frank Sinatra, and Doja Cat.
His creative process begins with creating the instrumental first. Then, he feels the vibe and writes to that emotion. He tries to write scenarios that everyone can relate to by creating storylines that appeal to all ages. He loves to play around with his voice by creating dynamic sounds like in his songs “Cookie Monster” and “Apples”.
His daily routine encourages him to keep his creativity flowing. It involves waking up early around 4 o’clock in the morning and editing music until lunch. After lunch, he takes his dog, Cooper, out for a walk. During his walk, he writes his lyrics. He comes home, takes a nap, eats dinner, works out, and uses the rest of the night to create content for TikTok. Jack explains how TikTok has helped how artists write and approach their creative process. When creating content for TikTok, he states, “Personally, I usually think about how my lyrics might catch people's attention. When you do post, you get instant feedback on whether or not people interact with your ideas.”
Currently, his most-streamed song is “Pink Whitney” with over 200,000 streams on Spotify. Ironically, he mentions that never drinks and isn’t big on alcohol. Jack wrote this song with his best friend, Callan. In the concept of “Pink Whitney”, they used Whitney as a metaphor for a girl.
His new collaboration song “Better With U” with DJ Diddy & Parker Bata released on February 12. For the making of this song, DJ Diddy reached out, and they worked remotely on it. They worked on countless versions of the song and were very satisfied with the final version.
In 2021, his goals include reaching a larger audience with his music through Spotify and TikTok and pursuing his music full-time. He would love to go back to the Netherlands and Europe to tour one day.
If Jack could leave the world with a piece of advice, he reveals the importance of “staying true to yourself. Whatever that means to you. Just be the authentic you because everybody else is taken. Be the best you, you can be.”
As Jack keeps releasing new music and reaching more people, be sure to stream his songs and make his dreams come true. Go check out his newest collaboration “Better With U” with DJ Diddy & Parker Bata.
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