Oh Wonder

There is a sign pinned to the wall of Oh Wonder’s recording studio in south-east London, a pact of sorts, signed by the band’s two members, Josephine Vander Gucht and Anthony West, in the winter of 2012. It isn’t a checklist or a plan so much as a setting down of shared dreams for their musical careers. “We wrote it to say that we’re dependent on one another,” explains Josephine. “That there are things we want to achieve, and we can help each other get there.”

That Oh Wonder have achieved all of these dreams in the first year since starting the project is testament to their talent and their perseverance, but even they seem a little startled by how much more they have attained: the 100 million streams and now their debut album, a collection of 15 impeccably-crafted songs that explore London and loneliness, love and the need for human relationships.

Josephine was a classically-trained solo performer and Anthony a singer and producer whose lives and careers overlapped for several years — a run of near-encounters and half-conversations at gigs and venues, and vague introductions through musical acquaintances and mutual friends. It was only when they finally sat down in Anthony’s former studio in north London with a view to producing an EP of Josephine‘s solo material that they realised their great musical bond. “We found all our favourite bands were the same bands, all our favourite songs were the same songs,” says Anthony. “It was a day of saying ‘Oh you should listen to this’. And then the other one saying ‘I know that song. That’s one of my favourite songs.’” “It was,” adds Josephine “really, really odd. I’ve never had that. I’ve never felt that closely aligned with someone, musically speaking, and more widely in terms of how we view the world.”