By Matt Morrissette
Although overflowing with talented musicians and passionate fans, the music scene in Delaware has always been haunted by a few head-scratching qualities and some cyclical hard luck.
For starters, there’s far greater interest in bands that for decades have played the cover scene at Delaware’s beach towns than bands that have put out acclaimed records or toured nationally or internationally.
Meanwhile, for musicians that choose to play mostly their own original music, the landscape of the scene has constantly shifted beneath their Chuck Taylor-ed feet. Periods of momentum powered by clubs specializing in local, original music with proper stages and sound equipment have been followed by periods of dwindling options for original music acts.
In an effort to create more stability for original musicians in our area, three true believers in the power of local, original art — Pete Romano, Melissa Forsythe, and Julia Sipple — launched last year the Original Music Association of Delaware (OMAD), a non-profit organization that seeks to uplift the scene its three co-founders hold so dear.
“The catalyst to embark on this endeavor at this particular time was largely the closure of three cornerstone venues in Wilmington,” says Romano, OMAD’s board president. “This left a void in what was a thriving scene, just a few short years ago.
“Of course, the pandemic’s hand in all of this shouldn’t be understated. But seeing the ebb and flow in sustainability of places at which to play music is also a motivation. It’s very hard work and not necessarily one that pays huge dividends.”
Romano has been a fixture in local bands including The Cocks and Strawman for nearly three decades as both a drummer and guitarist. He was the catalyst in building the stage that created the post-pandemic live music scene at the sadly defunct Jackson Inn, and he also helped return live, original music to the legendary Kelly’s Logan House in Trolley Square.
Romano’s OMAD partners and co-founders are no strangers to the scene. Serving as board treasurer, Forsythe is best known as the co-owner of the celebrated Rainbow Records in Newark as well as for booking the annual local music festival, Hot Jam, established in 2013. She also has played bass and keyboards in a host of bands, including the Sarah Koon Band and the all-female punk band Butterscotch Grimm.
OMAD’s board secretary Sipple likewise is a longtime supporter of local music, both as a fan and a fundraiser, while also serving as an event planner for other local non-profits.
Sipple also works as a videographer and administrator for the Koh Show, a local-music streaming program that’s filmed by a who’s who of local musicians. She comes from a highly-musical, community-minded family that inspires her involvement in the scene.
Forsythe says it was Sipple who sparked the initial idea of joining forces.
“Julia came to me one day at Koh Show and said she wanted to do it, and I knew we had to make it happen,” Forsythe says. “That was about two years ago now at this point.
“When we were talking about who else we wanted to do this project with us, Pete was the obvious first choice because we knew he shared our vision for what we could accomplish if we just put our heads together.”
When the three co-founders first got together to discuss forming a larger organization, they reviewed the hard work they had been putting towards the local music scene over the years, and asked themselves what was missing.
“It became clear that while Koh Show does a fantastic job at promoting a wide net of artists directly to your device, more and different types of help are needed to support the original music scene in Delaware,” Sipple says. “We started having discussions on how we could best help fill this void, and ultimately decided on founding our own non-profit, filing our first round of paperwork with the State of Delaware in January of 2024.”
To all three board members, there is strong agreement that the “O” in the acronym OMAD is the very heart and soul of their organization. Without denying the entertainment and economic value of musicians that elect to focus on playing covers, those artists simply don’t incur the financial burdens of recording, pressing copies of albums, and creating and producing merchandise and promotional materials such as music videos.
Additionally, musicians producing original music face a harder path to sources of revenue to pay for these needed things.
“Original is indeed a key aspect of this organization,” Romano explains. “Our goal is to support the artists who create unique and innovative music, both stylistically and emotionally; artists who are sharing their love of music and, at times, expressing their personal experiences through songwriting. We feel this is paramount to a creative culture.
“This is not to denigrate or cast aspersions at musicians that do not create their own music, but that is not what we are about.”
With the tedious and time-consuming work of establishing their organization (and dealing with the IRS) taken care of by Sipple, the three board members are now ready to get to work. The shows that Romano has been booking for the past few years at Kelly’s Logan House and Squeezebox Records, as well as Forsythe’s shows at Rainbow Records, will now be united under the OMAD banner.
Membership and donation drives are soon to come, including Spring Jam at Rainbow Records in which the bar sales will go to OMAD.
There are also ambitious plans for local business partnerships, grants, fundraisers, and festivals. Their loftiest dream is to have an all-ages venue of their own to showcase the local talent they believe in and want to introduce to a wider audience.
The founding members do have complimentary skills — Romano’s experience and tenacity; Sipple’s selflessness and logistical prowess; Forsythe’s musical knowledge and hard-earned public trust — and they appear to have the backing of a tightknit musical community. That’s an important foundation for an organization taking bold first steps.
— More at 302OMAD.com