Oh Wonder share video for new track, ‘True Romance

Directed by Alex Michael Kennedy and Tim Toda in the US, the video for ‘True Romance’ is an intimate and cinematic window into the world of Oh Wonder: charting the journey from morning to night, and from the band’s relationship off-stage to connecting with their hugely impassioned audience on-stage. ‘True Romance’, which takes inspiration from the film of the same name, acts as a bridge in many ways between Oh Wonder’s ’22 Break’ and ’22 Make’ projects, which will be revealed in full next month.

’22 Make’ unpicks a turbulent period in the incredible story of Oh Wonder. Its first half, ’22 Break’, dropped with little warning towards the end of 2021: here were universal themes (loneliness, inadequacy, resentment, fears for the future) as experienced by one couple in real-time, all blown up in the pandemic. Not many bands can make a break-up album that culminates in them tying the knot – but then again, Oh Wonder have never been like other bands. Coming out of ‘22 Break’ and all the soul-searching that it forced them to do, Josephine and Anthony got married and channelled all this into ’22 Make’: a whole new album soundtracking the light at the end of a tunnel.

“When we nearly broke up during the pandemic, we used music as a way out,” Oh Wonder write, introducing the project in its entirety recently. “We wrote all our pain, sadness and confusion into a collection of songs that we eventually released as the album, ‘22 Break’. But for us, that was only half of the story. We managed to survive our rocky patch, and emerge stronger than ever and full of love for each other. It only felt right therefore, to write about the other side, where you realise not just that you’re meant for each other, but also that it also takes two people to make a love flourish. We are thrilled to be releasing ‘22 Make’, an album full of love and life-affirming songs that reflect on fate, gratitude and being there for someone.”

This transformative period continues Oh Wonder’s remarkable, homegrown success story. 2020’s acclaimed album ‘No One Else Can Wear Your Crown’ continued a run of back-to-back top 10 albums from the band who have – on their own distinct terms – become one of UK pop’s more unsuspecting breakthroughs (2.7 billion streams, 1.7 million adjusted album sales, and vocal fans in the likes of Billie Eilish). Oh Wonder even founded and literally built from the ground-up the hugely popular Nola cafe in Peckham early on in the pandemic.  Through opening up to their fans and each other, the ‘Make or Break?’ poised by ‘22 Break’ and ’22 Make’ appears not so much a question, as an active choice – to be as honest as possible, to move forward, and to begin a brand new chapter in the ‘True Romance’ of Oh Wonder.