Phase 1

It started in 2018 when Bogdan phoned his cycling buddy Alexey saying, “You have a guitar, right? I just bought a drum kit, and I want to jam with you.” They met up and jammed. As expected, it was terrible. However, it formed a base for what would be a long-standing music collaboration. Bogdan was committed to playing drums and rapidly improved, and Alexey started taking songwriting and learning his instruments more seriously after he spent several years focusing on other passions.

Very quickly, they met other musicians and played both together and separately in different kinds of metal, blues, and jazz bands, including Edinburgh bands Age of Parasites (later Marobaki) and DVNE. However, they had wide-ranging interests in all kinds of music, from the harsh and angry to the sweet and mellow. They really wanted to play as many different things as they could and combine them in their own way.

Time passed, bands came and went, and 2020 hit. Alexey and Bogdan would meet and play all kinds of different ideas together. Some of these meetings resulted in two improvised “shitcore” EPs (a joke on grindcore) under the alias of Pleasures in Bikini Bottom with ideas and song titles that deprecated themselves and the genre in general, and a completely improvised synth and drum jam named “Ðνζ⁊” (Dust). This had elements of drone, industrial, drum ‘n’ bass, and King Crimson-style progressive rock.

It was around this time that they started working on what would become Oxæns songs.

Phase 2

In 2022, Alexey and Bogdan produced the Sala EP, named after the studio where they recorded. The title also translates to “Island” in Lithuanian. This project served as a foundation for developing new ideas and connecting with other musicians to bring their music to life on stage. Bogdan discovered Art, a guitarist, and invited their cycling buddy Alexander to play bass. The lineup was completed by Ivan, a friend of Alexander’s, who joined on keys. This was marked by the debut performances of Oxæns as a live band.

Their first show was self-organized at Sketchy Beats, a community art space and café in Edinburgh, where they played alongside their psychedelic sludge project, Obsidian Sand. They then performed in Dunfermline, followed by a show supporting the Polish stoner rock band Over the Under at Bannerman’s in Edinburgh.

Transformation

In 2023, Bogdan’s family life was struck with one very good thing and one very bad thing, which resulted in him moving to Lithuania. Alexey was also affected by personal issues and ended up relocating to Spain. Oxæns, as it was meant to be, was no longer. However, the band goes on as a remote project…