_{By Abi Falin Horspool}

“Jacob and Sons” from Joseph and the Technicolor Dreamcoat was Jacob’s anthem as a three-year-old growing up in Virginia. He’d run down the hallways of his home yelling the chorus. By age four, he was plinking out the Harry Potter theme song on piano by ear. In sixth grade, he started doing choir. And then his theater teacher found him and recruited him into doing musical theater.

Going into college, Jacob thought he was going to try for Broadway. Two weeks before application deadlines though, he changed his mind and decided to pursue a music degree. Berklee College of Music accepted him too, but Jacob chose BYU. 

I met Jacob freshman year. Immediately, I could tell he’s a people person. Always smiling, always trying to be involved, full of ambition and humor. He started a band called The NCMOs, poking fun at Provo’s culture. Anyone who’s attended BYU can relate to at least one of the band’s songs—from “Squaw Peak” to “R M” or “Swig.” While at BYU, Jacob applied for the commercial music program and even auditioned for The Voice, but things just weren’t going his way. Despite his talent, his applications were rejected.

Jacob wanted to serve a mission for his faith, but hadn’t decided when, so he started busking all around the western US, from Salt Lake to Flagstaff. It was a simple life, living out of his car while singing and playing the guitar in the streets. “I was playing music to empty streets for like eight hours a day,” Jacob said. “I [was] just sitting there singing and [was] so happy.”

Eventually, Jacob crash-landed on an island off the coast of Washington called Whidbey Island. Jacob said there was nothing for him to do except work, so he got four jobs. In the meantime, he started posting TikTok videos with the question in mind: How hard would it be to become TikTok famous? According to Jacob, it’s “not that hard.”

Back in the day, Jacob had long hair and looked a lot like the actor who plays Fred Weasley in the Harry Potter movies. Jacob quickly discovered that millions of people on the internet think Fred Weasley is “a very handsome lad,” and three million of those fans found him on TikTok. “Then, slowly but surely,” Jacob said, “I converted them from being Fred Weasley fans into Jacob Oman fans.”

Jacob released his debut album, OMAN, which his fans adored. My personal favorite song from the album is “Homesick,” a pensive ode to growing up in Virginia.

“But I had two years in Ecuador ahead of me,” Jacob said, as he had received his mission call for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. “I cut my hair and said, ‘I’m going off to Ecuador, everybody. Peace out. See you in two years.’” While in Ecuador, Jacob Oman wrote 104 songs during his free time. The songs were about everything: his friends, his feelings, dogs he met on the streets of Ecuador—the goofy, the sad, and the serious. One day, Jacob was reading in the Old Testament and got curious. “I was like, could I write a song using only lines from the Book of Moses and the Book of Genesis?” This exercise developed into a song titled “Eve.” 

Fast forward to 2024, Jacob’s home from his mission and he has a huge stack of 104 songs—two years’ worth of music—which he plans to release a whole lot of in the coming months.

“Eve,” the song derived from scripture, became the first song Jacob released upon his return from Ecuador. Produced by Jorge Rojas, “Eve” is a soundscape full of drums, guitar (both acoustic and electric), choral sounds, piano, and string arrangements. Jacob says that while the song includes tongue-in-cheek scriptural references, it’s a song that everyone can enjoy because first and foremost, it’s a love song. “If there’s some aspect of ‘Eve’ that you enjoy,” Jacob said, “you’re going to like the rest of what’s coming out.”

He also promises more folky songs, jazz-inspired pop songs, and piano ballads. Up next is “Insecurity,” which he describes as “The most confident-sounding song about feeling insecure ever recorded… the epitome of faking it till you make it.”

Jacob hopes “to be somebody that everybody can agree on.” In Utah, there can be some tension between people who believe different things, but Jacob gets that. Talking about religious and non-religious individuals in the Provo area, Jacob remarked, “You might not get along on a lot of things, but you [can] both listen to Jacob Oman.”

Sure, he’s TikTok famous for his Weasley-looks, and Provo knows him for his freshman-year band, and maybe you’ve heard a song or two from OMAN, but there’s even more good stuff on the horizon. Jacob says that while the 104 songs he wrote and recorded in Ecuador were headed in the right direction, he’s excited to take them the rest of the way. “I have so much to give,” Jacob said.

Make sure to follow Jacob Oman on Instagram. You can listen to his latest release, “Eve” below!