LoOmis

LoOmis is the ongoing persona of Patrick Bailey, a New Orleans songwriter whose sound is so novel, it’s difficult to compare him to anyone. Since 2008, the project has dropped 17 releases that focus on brooding indie rock. Much of Bailey’s adolescence was spent watching friends from the West Bank of New Orleans make music and become locally popular and relevant. He kept to himself, creatively explorative, internally conflicted with finding an outlet of expression amid the congested musical cohort of New Orleans. However, much of that energy would pay off as he commenced his first project, Meadow Flow. Much like LoOmis, the early iteration of Meadow Flow mixed the intention of hip-hop beats with the outer skin of ambient post-rock. On the first few releases, Bailey alone worked through kinks to find cohesion while maintaining his integrity. Later in the 2007, the band deviated to a more rock-focused approach with grooving drums to keep some layer of hip-hop flare. While some of the music was not conventionally popular among New Orleans audiences, it offered something new to their palates. With Meadow Flow generating new ideas, Bailey was losing the sensibility the project was based on: chill, precise beats in course of boundless guitars. Bailey created Loomis as a way to keep his origins alive. Most of the early 2000s were gruesome in the New Orleans music scene and it became unsuitable, so Bailey set his sights to San Francisco to stretch his legs. At this point, LoOmis was able to get some marinating but the transition ended as more of a retreat with a humble and invigorated return to the swamp. However upon his return, Bailey directed his path towards another project, Static Masks. Despite his attention being elsewhere musically, LoOmis is still there: a puckish shadow domineering and pulling at its host’s spirit.