Jof Owen

Jof Owen is the New Music Editor at Holler. Now based in East London, he was born and raised in the English countryside in the small Buckinghamshire village of Wendover, and graduated from Winchester University with a BA honours degree in Contemporary Cultural Studies.

He is perhaps best known for being the singer in the indie pop band The Boy Least Likely To, who he formed with Peter Hobbs in 2003. They released their debut album, The Best Party Ever, in 2005 to widespread critical acclaim, earning spots in both Pitchfork’s Top 50 albums and in the Rough Trade Shop top 10 of that year.

Their song ‘Be Gentle With Me’ became one of those breakthrough songs that lent itself to a myriad of contexts with a video starring Rashida Jones. Their songs featured in everything from Greys Anatomy to Juno, from Coca Cola to car adverts.

They were one of the last wave of mid-noughties indie bands who could happily play the Pitchfork stage at SXSW and appear on KEXP at the same time as enjoying mainstream success back home, with appearances on Popworld, GMTV and the Smash Hits Poll Winners Party.

The band’s second album The Law Of The Playground, resonated just as quickly as the first, with ‘Stringing Up Conkers’ featuring in an Apple iPhone advert and ‘When Life Gives Me Lemons’ on the soundtrack to the hit Emma Stone movie, Easy A and more recently the Peter Rabbit movie.

Jof Owen formed the band Legends Of Country in 2015, inspired by his long standing love of country music and growing up watching Calamity Jane and listening to Johnny Cash and Marty Robbins. They have released two albums, Talk About Country and Anything But Country, on their own label.

As well as The Boy Least Likely To and Legends Of Country, he is also one half of the indie pop duo Bubble & Squeak with Poppy Hankin from Girl Ray.

Alongside singing and songwriting, Jof Owen has also written about country music for Holler, The Line Of Best Fit and Riposte magazine, as well as having a monthly fears column in Rough Trade Shops magazine. He has appeared as a guest on the Sentimental Garbage podcast with Caroline O’Donoghue talking about Twee, Gilmore Girls and Shania Twain. He also works for Thirty Tigers.