Influences: Oh Wonder

The sounds that inspire...

Oh Wonder woke up one morning with a plan.

The two-piece decided to release a song per month over the space of a year, building up into a full album project.

The band's debut album will be released on September 4th, a vivid collection of dreamy pop songs which never forget to push back the boundaries.

Clash invited Oh Wonder to expand on their influences – here's what we got back.

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Death Cab For Cutie – 'Brothers On A Hotel Bed'

This was the song that really sparked our writing relationship a few years back. Josephine visited Anthony's studio in North London whilst he was producing a mutual friend's record. We spent the evening playing each other our all-time favourite songs, and we both adore 'Brothers On A Hotel Bed', so we just put it on and sat listening in silence. It was a beautiful moment.

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Joni Mitchell – 'A Case Of You'

We both grew up listening to our parents' favourite records from their youth, so from an early age we were both intimately acquainted with the likes of Joni Mitchell, James Taylor, Kate Bush, Elton John and Labi Siffre – the songwriting heavyweights of that generation. Consequently we both share a great respect for the art of traditional songwriting. Joni was always on the car stereo during long drives, and a soundtrack to both our childhoods. 'A Case Of You' is a song that we think will live on way beyond our short years on this planet – we hope it will be listened to in hundreds of years' time, and people will continue to praise it for beautifully encapsulating what it's like to be a human in love with another human.

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Coldplay – 'Magic'

We've always been Coldplay fans ever since the release of 'Parachutes', and we admire their progression between each album. 'Magic' is a fine example of how a band that have been going for over 15 years can still be current and push musical boundaries. We really respect bands and artists who don't sit still and become complacent within their work.

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Sigur Ros – 'Gobbledigook'

The energy captured in this record has been a huge inspiration for how we approach our production. Sigur Ros manage to always convey such beautiful human emotion, not only through the vocal textures but also the feel of each and every layer that creates such a mass of sound. Watching their live show in Amsterdam a few years back was one of the most powerful experiences we've ever had, along with the rest of silent, awe-struck crowd.

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Frank Ocean – 'Pyramids'

Frank Ocean is a musical genius. 'Channel Orange' is one of the most perfectly executed and forward-thinking albums of the last few years. He's written what are essentially catchy pop songs but made them feel fresh and unique. We were really inspired by his production when we wrote 'Without You' and his use of classic sounds and textures to create a really fresh track.

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The Cinematic Orchestra – 'To Build A Home'

This was a song that really connected us both when we started writing together. It has such raw emotion in the lyrics, and seems to be a perfectly appropriate soundtrack to any meaningful moment. The vocal performance by Patrick Watson is something that every vocalist should should aspire to achieve – it's restrained, but poetic and brimming with feeling – and the simplicity of the arrangement creates this wonderful space for the lyrics to shine, which was a massive inspiration behind our approach to the writing and production of our track, 'All We Do'.

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Oh Wonder's debut album will be released on September 4th.

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