With CARNAGE: Frozen Veins, Omnya deliberately chose the complete opposite of his previous live act. Fire made way for ice, red turned into blue, and with exclusive music, visuals and a special outfit, he aims to fully immerse fans in his ‘World of Frost’. Despite receiving plenty of requests for the live act, Omnya deliberately wants to perform it only a handful of times each year.
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Hardstyle has played a major role in Omnya’s life for years. Long before he stood behind the decks himself, he spent years attending the same events as a fan that he now performs at as an artist. His passion for the music eventually led him to become an artist himself and, as he describes it, to “turn his biggest passion into his job.”
CARNAGE has become strongly associated with Omnya over the past few years. Rather than leaving the concept behind entirely, he decided to develop it further. “CARNAGE really became a thing. People started associating CARNAGE with me very quickly, and we didn’t necessarily want to move away from that. But promoters and fans are often looking for something new.”
That’s why he decided to completely turn the concept on its head. “We decided to keep the CARNAGE name and basically create the complete opposite concept. So instead of fire, everything is ice, and instead of red, everything is blue. We’re still building on the CARNAGE concept, but we’ve put it in a completely new jacket.”
“I try to pull people into another world for half an hour”
According to Omnya, Frozen Veins is supposed to be more than simply a different set. Everything surrounding the performance follows the same theme. “It’s a themed live act. All the lights turn blue, all the visuals revolve around ice and that whole theme. I have an outfit based around it as well. I really try to take people away from reality for half an hour and bring them into what I call my World of Frost.”
That complete experience is important to Omnya. Simply playing a selection of his own tracks and calling it a live act isn’t enough for him. “I think it’s really cool to connect a story and a theme to a live act instead of just doing Omnya LIVE and playing your own tracks. Personally, I think that’s a little too easy.”
Frozen Veins also differs musically from his regular sets. Omnya has produced several tracks specifically for the concept. “I have multiple tracks that were made specifically for Frozen Veins. I’ve only played them during my Frozen Veins live act and I don’t play them in my regular sets, because I want to keep them exclusive.”
“Six times a year at most”
That exclusivity doesn’t apply only to the music. Although Omnya says Frozen Veins has received plenty of booking requests, he doesn’t want the live act to appear too often. “We’ve had quite a lot of requests for it, but I just want to maintain that exclusivity. Six times a year at most, and that’s it.”
He believes performing it more frequently would eventually take away from the strength of the concept. “If you see this every week, I think it quickly loses what makes it special.” That’s why he’s aiming for only a handful of performances. “We want to keep it nice and exclusive. Maybe four times in the Netherlands and then a few shows abroad.” Frozen Veins also offers something extra musically. Alongside his regular Omnya tracks, the live act features music created specifically for the concept that isn’t played outside of Frozen Veins.
New ‘DEAD SERIOUS’ EP drops Friday
Alongside his live act, Omnya also has new music lined up this week. This Friday, he and Faceless will release their new ‘DEAD SERIOUS’ EP’, with the two acts remixing each other’s music. The EP features ‘Why So Serious?! (Omnya Remix)’ and ‘Burn In Hell (Faceless Remix)’.
Besides Frozen Veins, Omnya talks extensively about his career, his favourite performances, his move to End Of Line and the many new collaborations he has coming up in the latest episode of PLAFONDDIENST. Listen to the latest episode of the PLAFONDDIENST Podcast via your favourite streaming platform.
Images via: Omnya
