Vents MagaZine Music and Entertainment Magazine
Related Articles
Writing has been a constant in Ozzie D.’s life since age 12, when her first poem, “Salt & Pepper,” appeared anonymously in a children’s poetry compilation. In the years since, the singer-songwriter, author, and illustrator has filled pages with imagined adventures and stories drawn from her own experience. Her books include The Adventures of Frog Man and The World of Fuzzwald & Friends, while her songwriting catalog includes 156 songs registered with ASCAP. For Ozzie D., songwriting is an everyday instinct: Melodies arrive readily, she sings them aloud, and words keep following. That steady creative impulse gives memories somewhere to go. “On That Evening” returns to an early, painful memory: the first boyfriend who broke her trust.
In eighth grade, Ozzie was a cheerleader going steady with a football player she believed was committed to her. Behind her back, he was involved with her friends. The song places that discovery within a brief account of growing up, opening with her birth before arriving at a young woman beginning to understand herself. “My thoughts before me, like books on a shelf” connects that emerging self-awareness to the writing that has accompanied her since childhood.
Then the story turns abruptly. She discovers the cheating and leaves, recalling his promises before confronting his plea for forgiveness. “Many times you said you’d be true,” she sings, holding his assurances against his actions. By the final refrain, the emphasis falls on “my love,” shifting attention from her heartbreak to what he has lost. That same readiness to sing has taken her beyond formal performances. She recalls delivering “On That Evening” a cappella on a cruise ship, where listeners mistook her spontaneous performance for part of the scheduled entertainment.
Giving her words a musical home took a collaborator who understood her ideas. Dane Billig created the music for “On That Evening,” working remotely with Ozzie to translate her vision into the accompaniment. His ability to hear what she was trying to accomplish made their working relationship particularly meaningful. His death was a significant loss for her, and the release of the song and its official lyric video honor his memory and the musicianship he brought to her work.
The lyric video follows the relationship through imagery of a couple, with the words onscreen carrying the story through its broken promises and aftermath. Smoky jazz-club settings complement Ozzie’s musical sensibility, lending the personal narrative an intimate, late-night atmosphere. The visuals move between the couple’s story and those club settings, keeping the relationship alongside the musical world surrounding it. As Ozzie brings “On That Evening” to listeners, she shares a formative chapter of her own life while ensuring that the collaborator who helped her express it remains part of its story.
For the latest on Ozzie D. visit https://www.facebook.com/aleisa.davis/
