Formed in 2002, and relocating from Ireland to the West Coast in 2013, Alt-Rock power trio ONOFF features lead singer/guitarist Paulie, drummer/backing vocalist Stevie 10 Bears and bassist/backing vocalist Dave.
Just in time for Valentine’s Day, the band will be returning with their first single of 2024, titled “What Matters Most.” It arrives ahead of their new, 11-track album which will be landing this year. The full length record was tracked with Brian Wheat, bassist for the multi-platinum selling Rock band Tesla at his studio J Street Recorders in Sacramento. The album was mixed in New York.
We’re very pleased to premier the track “What Matters Most”, alongside a lyric video, here on Wildfire Music + News today.
The track wears its heart on its sleeve in more than one way, spreading an anthemic message about love and what prompts and contributes to love in this world. ONOFF don’t bury that message in a complex narrative, for instance a love song that tracks the ups and downs of a relationship. Instead they choose to focus on a recurring chorus that plainly states “What matters most is in your heart.” While there is a sense of communicating with another person and reassuring them, the song takes on a wider context for us all.
The track is composed with clear melodic Rock through-lines, creating as uplifting a mood as the vocals and lyrics, and they bring even more energy to the affirmations in the song. Knowing how much ONOFF enjoy their live shows, this will clearly be a stand-out track for upcoming performances, encouraging the audience to reaffirm their sense that our inner selves are, indeed, far more important to our lives and how we will be remembered than our outer appearance or our material possessions.
Interestingly, the single art and lyric video for “What Matters Most” take us in a direction that fuells our imaginations, conjuring a sci-fi futuristic world and the building of robots or perhaps future-humans. Those visuals and the world they conjure encourage us to think about what we are, quite literally “made off” as human beings and which parts contribute most to our sense of identity and how we are known in this world.
It’s very clear that even in this machine-led reality, a touch of humanity is significant, and that humanity is only possible when people retain “heart”, their emotions and their sense of connection to others. To take that a step further, the single artwork depicts a more fully machine being interacting with a partly human machine being and their point of contact is a human heart. We might well draw the conclusion that the only thing standing between a machine-like way of life for humans and something more meaningful is to retain our ability to love.
Paulie shares about the track:
I came up with the initial concept for the song right after my Mother’s funeral a few years back. As I made a speech at the top of the altar, I looked down at a packed Church. People were gathered outside as there was no room left inside. This was a testament to how much she was loved by everyone. In comparison, I attended a funeral the year before where the church was completely empty. The man was selfish and angry throughout life & treated people like shit. He also enjoyed a lavish lifestyle full of materialistic things. The contrast of these two funerals resonated with me greatly.
In the end, all we have when we leave this world is people’s memories and impressions of us. The materialistic things we cannot take to the next life. When it really boils down to it.. As the chorus goes.. “What matters most is on the inside, what matters most is in your heart!”
Since their move to Sacramento California, ONOFF have gained a reputation for their energetic live shows and touring. They’ve played sold out headline shows at venues such as Whisky a GoGo, Slims, Bottom of the Hill & The Great American Music Hall in San Francisco, and countless other venues.
