S.A. singer talks about 2020’s impact on album
Featured vocalists and studio plans changed, but Omär happy with result.
There’s a carefree feel to the video for R&B singer Xavier Omär’s new single “All Our Time,” in which he leads a group on a series of adventures all over downtown San Antonio, that belies some behind-the-scenes anxiety.
“It was kind of stressful to get it made,” said Omär, who is based in San Antonio. “We were kind of on a deadline, which unfortunately, has somewhat been a theme throughout this album process. None of our plans — my process has been 2020, all the plans that you have, forget ’em. And just do something else.
“So that’s what it’s been like. And we’ve been adjusting, but it’s come out well, and I couldn’t be more happy with it.”
The original plan was for the video to be animated, and Khalid was going to be a featured vocalist on the track, but they couldn’t quite make that happen. So Omär and his team went with Plan B. They lined up Jae Stephens as a featured vocalist and mapped out a liveaction video that distills summer fun into about three minutes: Omär and his friends swooping through the streets of downtown on scooters, dropping by Squeezers Juice Bar in King William for treats, blowing bubbles at the Arneson River Theatre and ending the day with an epic water gun battle.
“That was the first time, of course, that many of us had gotten together in any capacity since March, so that was one of the more fun days I’ve had in a long time,” he said. “Plus I love scooters.”
On Expressnews.com: Live music is slowly coming back in San Antonio
The single is on Omär’s new album “If You Feel,” which RCA Records will release to digital platforms on Friday. On the album, he deals with his relationship with his wife and his faith, among other things.
“This is the first album that I actually really went introspective,” he said. “There are about four songs where I just thought about something
internally, and it had nothing to do with love or relationships. It was kind of my own therapy, to a degree.”
A native of California, Omär moved to San Antonio about 10 years ago, and this is where he began his solo music career. He started as a rapper, performing Christian hip hop under the name SPZRKT before shifting into being more of a crooner. He left the city for a while, then felt compelled to come back. Part of that springs from the work he has been doing with Family Life International Ministries. The church is in a transition period, during which a close friend of Omär’s is moving toward becoming lead pastor.
“I didn’t necessarily want to move back, but I felt that God had put on my heart for me and my wife to move back here. And so we did,” he said.
Being based in San Antonio has given Omär a few distinctive opportunities. He got to sing the national anthem for a Spurs game during Manu Ginóbili’s last season, and for the past two years, he’s given concerts on Feb. 10 — a nod to the city’s 210 area code — at Paper Tiger. Those shows have drawn fans from other states who drove in to see him, he said.
“I’m hoping that what comes of kind of my national recognition is that people here, when they realize that I’m here as well, will have the mindset that it doesn’t really matter where you’re at,” he said. “Do whatever it is that you want to do, no matter where you’re from. Just go for it. Because that’s what I did.”
Omär typically records on his own in
his home studio on the Northeast side. For “Like I Feel,” he planned to shake things up. His label had arranged for him to record in Los Angeles between March 2 and 30, right after his last tour wrapped. He did some sessions there but was home by March 14 because of the coronavirus pandemic.
He ended up finishing the album in the home studio he had been trying to break out of for a bit.
“So it’s an odd mix of what I’m used to and where I wanted to go,” he said. “It wasn’t all that bad because I did have an idea of how to work alone already. But it still sucked because I was getting into a new groove as far as musically.”
Omär has a substantial following online — 43,000 subscribers
to his Youtube channel, 91,000 followers on Instagram and 47,000 on Twitter — and he makes it a point to keep his fans posted on what he’s up to. But streaming stuff from his house isn’t the same as performing for them live.
“I’m a big stage performer,” he said. “It’s hard for me to take my style of performance and just sit in a chair and sing. Which is funny, because that’s how I was gonna begin my career — just ‘Oh, I’m gonna be similar to John Legend and just sit and sing.’ And then, I think that summer was the summer where LMFAO had all their big songs, ‘Party Rock (Anthem),’ and I was like, man, I want to go have fun, too.
“So I’ve got this show that’s a bit of a mix – it’s really high energy – more energy than you’d expect from somebody who’s supposed to be a crooner. To the point where I don’t like stripping
down my performances. So that’s been difficult.”
He did give one in-person performance in Atlanta a few weeks ago. His wife encouraged him to say yes to it because the money was good and also because of all of the safety precautions in place, including on-site COVID-19 testing,
That gave him a lot of peace of mind, he said. But it likely will be a while before he does anything else like that. He’s eager to get back to live performances, but not so eager that he’s willing to risk his health and the health of his fans.
“I don’t see myself wanting to put myself in that situation continually,” he said. “That’s one of those things where I’ll have to wait and see with everyone else.”