Omar K. Mills has been writing music since he was seven years old. Growing up an only child and latchkey kid in a single parent household, Omar wasn't allowed to go outside to play too often. Consequently he turned to music to entertain himself. His grandmother gave his mother a piano and he would sit and teach himself how to play it every day for several years. It wasn't long before Omar was multitracking with two tape recorders.
When he turned 13 Omar was given Led Zeppelin's "ZoSo" album (Led Zeppelin 4) and it proved to be a game-changer. Omar begin teaching himself guitar - but struggled with the instrument early on. The chords he played the best were power (bar) chords and as a result all of his compositions sounded very bass heavy. A friend told him that he sounded like a "frustrated bassist" - and so he changed.
The bass was the first instrument that Omar studied where he was given formal lessons. Learning the bass guitar proved to be another game-changer as Omar developed a strong love to the instrument. He began playing for his home church after about 8 months of private lessons and got his first paying bass gig after only 2 years.
Omar is also self-taught on the drums. The story goes that Omar was "challenged" during a church service to play the final song on drums instead of the bass - and he accepted - and sounded horrible (smile). Shortly thereafter he was the temporary drummer for the church and before long he was getting more complements for his play on the drums than he even did on the bass.
Omar began composing music in his uncle Tony Durham's studio. Together they have collaborated on at least 30 tracks. Tony, an accomplished bassist/producer in his own right, taught Omar his earliest lessons about music. Omar would watch his uncle take his songs that he had multitracked with cassette recorders and then turn them into masterpieces. He taught Omar the importance of having the right equipment to make the best music.
In 2000 Omar released his first cd project - "Elyon", which means "God Most High". This album was funded by a financial backer and produced by Ricky Payton Jr. It was during this time that Omar learned the finer points of song structure, mixing, mastering, etc. Omar was also blessed to work with Nova Nelson - an accomplished singer, Maurice Randolph - a phenomenal keyboard player and Kush El-Amin - a talented bassist.
In 2003 Omar began working with Pastor Detrick L. Edwards - also an accomplished musician (piano, drums, guitar) on the "In His Image" LP. The studio they were working in was robbed just as tracks were being finalized. A layoff and multiple additional issues forced Omar to wait 5 years before he could finish and then release the album.
In 2005 Omar joined Bridgeway Community church and began playing bass for the church as part of the "Nikki Lerner Band" and on Sunday mornings as part of the rotation. It was here that Omar met Jon Waller, a seasoned pianist who taught Omar to sight read and play with more confidence on stage. Jon would give Omar difficult bass parts to play and expected no less than perfection. If Omar so much as missed a note Jon would turn and glare at him in the middle of a service. This experience helped Omar get even better.
In 2008 Omar finally released "In His Image" which contains the hit singles, "Consistently" (which was featured on the front page of YouTube.com) and "Let Me Pray" (which featured Internet sensation Ysabella Brave). That song remains the best selling track of Omar's - all time.
In 2009 Omar released his first instrumental project, "The Majestic". He recorded the album almost entirely on a Korg Triton keyboard. He also used a Roland VS880 digital recorder. The experiment has had marginal sales, but it did produce the hauntingly appealing "Yahweh" and the upbeat and bright "Yeshua". Several tracks from this album have been used in YouTube videos and even spin classes.
Additionally in 2009 Omar released his 4th album - a collection of jazzy style tunes he called "Kasim". This was Omar's first foray into Pro Tools and creating an instrumental disc. He also experimented with stock beats from siliconbeats.com and explored a lot of jazz/funk bass lines laced with dancing piano riffs.
In 2010 Omar released his 5th album and 3rd (primarily) instrumental disc called "Beared Honey". Bearded Honey was the disc that shaped Omar's sound and laid the foundation for the styles that show up on Omar's most recent album, "Audience of One".
In 2011 Omar released a deluxe addition to Bearded Honey that included 5 new songs.
Audience of One (2012) is Omar's most recent release and arguably the best musical effort of his career. Omar wrote, produced, composed and performed every inch of the disc - in addition to mixing, mastering and even taking his own album photos.
Omar is currently working on his next instrumental release called "Flix" and pulling together tracks for his next vocal album entitled, "The Jesus and Omar Show".
Interesting Facts:
> Omar has sold music all over the United States, Canada, China, Japan and England.
> At it's peak "Elyon" was in the regular rotation of several radio stations in 8 different markets up and down the east coast.
> Elyon has several love songs on it - two of which have been used as wedding marches for the brides.
> Omar hates the version of the title cut "Elyon" that was released.
> Elyon sales were used to help victims of hurricane Katrina.
> All of the proceeds for "Audience of One" are being donated to ministries around the USA.
> Omar has played bass at Kings Dominion amusement park.
> Omar had originally intended to lay "foundation" guitar tracks on Bearded Honey, but once he got started decided to keep them.
> The two basses Omar has owned that he loved the most were his Marcus Miller 4 and a Japanese made Fender P/J split. He regrets having sold both of them.
> Omar asked Victor Wooten to sign his Marcus Miller 4. And he did.
> Victor Wooten is Omar's favorite bass player.
> Omar has almost quit music at least 3 different times.
> Omar was told in high school that he would never amount to anything as a musician.
> Omar can't read music and is a complete ear player on everything.
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