Music

Who are you?

We’re called Oposium. At the moment there are three of us; Richard McLester on vocals and guitar, Sam ‘keys’ Hanson on piano and synths and percussion man Chris Andrews on drums.

What does each member bring?

Richard does the majority of composition at the moment. Chris and Sam’s jobs are to be as creative as possible to bring real life to the different ideas. With his perfect pitch and virtuosity, Sam brings a huge dimension in terms of depth to the band. When we're playing live however, it’s Chris who controls the songs and where they go – we've always played to where the drums take us.

Oposium on stage

How did you get together?

We all got together for a WWF charity gig Richard was organising in aid of the tsunami that hit Asia in March 2005. Richard needed a band and so drafted Chris and Sam along to play. Oposium came along about 6 months later.

What's your proudest moment so far?

I think our proudest moment was when we finished our EP and got the first copies into the record shop. Although it’s just the start, that was certainly a milestone for us. Just having a tangible product that we can say is ours is a great thing as its taken a huge amount of effort just to get to the stage we're at. We were really happy as well that our track ‘Behind The Rain’ won the Unsigned Artist Roland UK award in June as well.

And the craziest moment?

Although we've had an almost frightening amount of crazy moments, certainly the most ridiculous thing that we've done was to sail our psychedelic blue piano out into the sea off Branksome Chine beach last April. Sam ‘keys’ first performed a recital of Grieg’s Holberg Suit before a team of us carried the piano into the sea.

Oposium

What followed was 20 minutes of crazy free improvisation in the sea that left a real impression - especially on the spectators standing on the beach! The idea being was that we wanted to perform music inspired by the surroundings and we felt that the best way to be inspired by Poole was to use the natural freedom of the sea.

What has kept you going?

Each member of the band has a different perspective on this. For Richard, God has given him the opportunity to do this and he wants to bring people to a greater understanding of how we stand with God. On top of that, all the band members want to push our creative boundaries to see how far we can go.

Any upcoming releases?

Oposium will be releasing their new five track EP called ‘Life Under The Sun’ to Itunes and various commercial outlets including HMV & Virgin online stores in January. On top of that, we'll be releasing a brand new single and announcing gigs early in the new year. So watch this space!