Okey Dokey - Once Upon One Time [CD]

The new album finds Johny Fisher and Aaron Martin expanding their swinging rock music to encapsulate cosmic orchestral pop, squishy funk, swelling folk rock, and everything in between-shattering any boundaries they'd previously set for themselves. Once Upon One Time is the latest evolution in a creative partnership that dates back to 2016, when Fisher-who'd previously been in a carousel of bands with Martin-grew tired of work as a hired-gun touring musician and made the latter an artistic offer he couldn't refuse: "I went back to Aaron and said, 'Please, start a band with me, I'm dying to,'" he recalls with a laugh. Since then, the duo's released two full-lengths-2017's Love You, Mean It and last year's Tell All Your Friend-that attracted an increasingly rabid fan base and eventually caused the group to be a regular touring act as well. "Okey Dokey has never just been Johny, Jeremy, and I," Martin states. "It takes far more than the three of us to make our records-it takes our family and friends, our team, our video directors, photographers, press agents, our beautiful audience, and our love. We're done just being a band. We're a community now."