WESTFIELD-Rory O’Connor, a member of the internationally traveled band Tycho, credits his music teachers at Westfield High School for having a “profound effect” on him.
“My time there wasn’t always smooth sailing, but there were many teachers and faculty who believed in me and my talents when maybe others didn’t see it so much,” said O’Connor, adding, “I wouldn’t be where I am today without music director Pat Kennedy. The other musicians in the music program were all extremely gifted as well, which was always a huge motivating factor.”
Tycho (Rory O’Connor, Zac Brown and Scott Hansen) has been nominated for a 2017 Grammy Award in the “Best Dance/Electronic Album” category. O’Connor grew up in Westfield.
O’Connor, a 2003 graduate of Westfield High, was recently “floored” when the band’s studio album, “Epoch,” received a Grammy nomination for Best Dance/Electronic Album. Winners will be announced at the 59th Grammy Awards slated Feb. 12 on CBS.
“It’s surreal,” said O’Connor, whose home base is Washington, D.C. “I don’t think any of us anticipated it, we’re all floored.”
“Epoch,” an 11-track record, charted at No. 1 on Billboard’s Top Dance/Electronic Albums this fall.
Tycho started as one person, Scott Hansen, and O’Connor said he discovered his work in the early 2000’s independently. Hansen independently produced two albums before collaborating with guitarist Zac Brown on 2011’s album “Dive,” according to O’Connor.
“I had been friends with the folks who run our label, Ghostly International, during my time living in New York,” said O’Connor. “When ‘Dive’ came out, Scott asked some mutual friends if they had a recommendation for a drummer and my name came up. It helped that I had been listening to his music for years already, so I was somewhat familiar with the material.”
O’Connor noted that Hansen flew him out to San Francisco for a meeting.
“We jammed in his basement for a few hours and that was that,” said O’Connor.
O’Connor said he never took lessons but found playing the drums came “fairly easily.”
“My dad is a drummer, my mother played piano, and they undoubtedly passed on to me their passion for music at an early age,” said O’Connor, adding that a sixth grade teacher may have sealed his fate.
“I was always fidgeting and tapping constantly on my desk so my teacher suggested a few hours of the week in the band room,” said O’Connor. “I suspect she needed a periodic break from me and encouraged me to join the school band.”
Over time, O’Connor said his career has mostly revolved around making instrumental music – whether it was jazz, post rock, funk or electronic music.
“I’ve always been drawn to the powerful ambiguity of instrumental music, to say something without having to say anything verbally,” said O’Connor, adding, “It’s transcendent.”
After joining Tycho, O’Connor said the new dynamic of playing as a group rather than 100 percent programmed electronic music led to 2014’s “Awake” album.
“While the sound has changed over the years, Scott’s incredibly strong sense of melody and compositional techniques have been constants throughout,” said O’Connor. “It’s a difficult balancing act of trying to do something different with every album, while also not alienating your fans, but I think we’ve threaded that needle pretty well so far. Time will tell.”
O’Connor explained that songwriting “usually starts” with Hansen providing some rough ideas to build on.
“We’ll lock ourselves in a room for a few weeks, record a bunch of iterations, and then Scott goes through a lot of it, cherry picking the rhythms, chord progressions, or melodies that inspire him,” said O’Connor. “In the end it’s a very collage-like result, a lot of layers and ideas that get added little by little throughout the process.”
O’Connor added that his role on the “Awake” album was drumming, and on “Epoch,” which is nominated for a Grammy, he played a few guitar parts and some synthesizer parts.
Album cover of “Epoch” by Tycho – which has earned a Grammy Award nomination.
“As to where they ended up on the record, your guess is as good as mine,” he said. “The compositions are all quite dense.”
When the Grammy winners are announced on Feb. 12, Tycho will have begun their world tour and will be performing that night in Vienna, Austria. Tour stops include performances in Japan, Taiwan, Australia, Germany, Poland, Denmark, Sweden and England.
“The Grammy nomination is a testament to everyone we work with – our road crew, our management, our label, our booking agent – everyone involved believes in the project and having such a highly motivated team of people makes the difference,” said O’Connor.
Among those watching the Grammys that night will be O’Connor’s mother, Sandy O’Connor, a teacher at the Russell Elementary School.
“In my wildest dreams, in the midst of the craziness of raising five kids to adulthood, I could never have predicted the paths my children would ultimately take in life,” she posted on Facebook. “For all the rehearsals that went on in my basement, the ‘roadie’ trips I made to various gigs, the worries that I had when he left home to follow his dream, my pride and joy at this moment is indescribable.”
To listen to clips of Tycho’s music and view tour dates, visit www.tychomusic.com.
