Oh He Dead

BIOGRAPHY

Oh He Dead is a study in contradictions. The D.C. band sounds as smooth and lux as leather, but there’s also a levity there, like a feather in flight. They’re not afraid to crack each other up with a crude joke or an impression — and their shows are basically one big hug. Dark and light, pain and joy, the band is best summed up by the origin of their name, which was coined by frontwoman CJ Johnson. When asked what happened to a cheating boy who was shot by his lover in a song of hers, she responded bluntly: “Oh, he dead.” And that’s how a legend is born.

Those contrasts and contradictions are ever more evident on their third studio album, Ugly, out August 23 on Wally Baba Records. A suite of songs that encompasses everything from death to new love, the album acts as a kind of foil to their 2023 release, Pretty. A poppy, polished affair, Pretty is the flipside of Ugly, which Johnson describes as “your insides — whatever you write in your journal at 4:00 a.m. Homemade, raw, acoustic, sexy and messy.”

The origins of Oh He Dead run deep — and they’re forged from Newbegin and Johnson’s years-long relationship, which started when the former taught Johnson in high school history and musical theater. "Whether as Rizzo in Grease or Maureen in Rent, she was just a forcefield. By the time she graduated I’m pretty sure the whole school knew she was going to be a rock star of sorts,” Newbegin says. The band rounded out over the ensuing years, adding Alex Salser (guitar), Adam Ashforth (drums),  Piano Whitman (keys),  John Daise (bass), and Colin Sidley (bass).

Mixed and mastered by Jimmy Mansfield, the record was a true labor of love, with late nights in the barn spent tweaking and twisting the songs to the band’s will. “Ugly is not meant to be just sad. All the songs are about the beauty of the darkness that leads to more light,” Johnson says. Yin and yang, birth and death, beauty and ugliness, Oh He Dead straddles worlds — all while keeping your feet moving until gravity wins out. Here’s the next chapter of an epic tale.