Started straight from lockdown in 2020 to touring with the likes of Heather Small to pop group, The Overtones, the energetic pop duo called Ooberfuse have captured the hearts of many audiences, singing their songs deep into emotion through the use of their empowering lyrics and unique music.

Critically acclaimed across the music world by the likes of (Rolling Stone, Music Week, and The Guardian), Oobserfuse is a duo composed of songwriter and vocalist Cherrie Anderson and multi-instrumentalist and producer Hal St John.

Recently, we had an insight into who Ooberfuse were and how their journey began…

So for people who haven’t heard of you, could you tell us who Ooberfuse are?
Hal: We are an electronic pop duo in a contractive form.

Cherrie: I guess Ooberfuse is a project where we try and blend different music influences, from Western pop and acoustic elements, and turn them into electronic music. It is like an intense infusion.

Your music is so unique and different to what we have heard before!
Hal: It’s like a musical smoothie! It’s hard to say it’s one thing, you put all these elements into a blender.

Cherrie: It’s like an intense musical fusion, that’s where we get our name ‘Ooberfuse’ from.

How did Ooberfuse begin?
Cherrie: We have known each other for some years now, but essentially we both live in South East London. When we started, I heard that Hal was looking for people to join his band, so I auditioned to be his backing singer.

Hal: I had to recognise talent and Cherrie’s voice is capable of conveying that human emotion, so I gladly stepped to one side and let her do the vocals.

When did the band start?
Hal: The band started just after lockdown, it’s still fairly new with our band. During that time, we wanted to experiment with our sound and when we started touring we wanted to see how audiences would react to our new musical sound.

Cherrie: It feels like forever, in terms of how our sound has grown from where it was to how it is now. We enjoyed touring with The Overtones in June 2022, and earlier in 2022 we also supported Heather Small on her tour.

How did you find your creativity during lockdown?
Cherrie: For us, it helped that we were in a social bubble due to living locally with each other, so we were able to continue working and writing new songs.

While you have toured with The Overtones, have there been any other favourite gigs you have performed at?
Cherrie: I’ll go first! There have been amazing gigs like playing with The Overtones at The Indigo at The 02, but one of the wonderful gigs was when we had to play in Iraq it was terrifying but also an overwhelmingly great experience to play our music.

Hal: On the Heather Small tour we played in the Oprah House in Newcastle. It was a very old building and looked like it just recently opened for that concert, but the reason why it stood out for me was because we had an interesting experience before we were waiting to get on stage.

We were chilling backstage with our drummer and while we walked out of the room, we went back and our drummer looked shocked and said he had seen a ghost.

Cherrie: We didn’t see a ghost! But in the dressing room, we could hear 1920s music and we ran into the theatre to see if they were playing music, but they were listening to 80s/90s R&B music, so it was a fascinating story for one of our gigs.

What is the experience like in writing and performing music?
Cherrie: There’s never been a set way, it’s different for each song we create. For example, for ‘Come To Me‘, Hal came up with the verses and I came up with the chorus. Honestly, it is a collaboration between the both of us.

Hal: There is an input from both of us and we eventually reach the same conclusion.

On your band’s website it says how Ooberfuse ‘Their songs are audio footprints left behind by people impelled towards invisible things’, what does this mean?
Cherrie: As we talk and look at people, we only see so much, but with music, it has a way of breaking down barriers and it shows our hearts to people as we sing our songs. We want people to feel inspired and hope for our music.

It’s like we did ‘Fly High‘ and we wanted to convey the message of ‘no, we are not going to let lockdown pull us down and we are going to fly’, we can motivate ourselves through the songs we create in the hope people also relate to it as well.

What was your recent single ‘Come To Me’ about?
Hal: It was a sense of total confusion and not knowing what direction to go in or you are not sure of your identity, and then an inspirational figure appears who you can focus on, and then eventually everything becomes clear. This inspirational figure says ‘Come To Me‘ and all becomes clarified.

Cherrie: That’s one perspective but the opposite perspective is when you see someone go through a difficult time and you want to say ‘I feel your pain, come to me and I will help you’ . I think this can relate to people wherever they are.

How would you describe Ooberfuse in 3 words?
Hal: Pushing the boundaries

Cherrie: Heaven meets earth.

Why not listen to Ooberfuse on music streaming services now?