Okapi

Okapi is an avant-rock duo from Asheville, NC featuring husband and wife Scott Gorski and Lindsey Miller. The duo employs upright bass, cello, and voice. Their raw and intricate songwriting is cathartic but inviting, carrying honest and satirical messages that aim to stimulate a universal confrontation with reality, while encouraging consciousness, healthy growth, and individual empowerment in the curious and attentive observer.

Three years ago, Scott Gorski and Lindsey Miller struggled to get gigs. Today, the duo might be Asheville’s busiest touring outfit. Gorski has mostly recovered from a serious car injury that threatened his ability to play the bass. They also recorded their second album, titled “Carousel II.” It’s a sequel to their 2018 album, “Carousel I.” One thing hasn’t changed—the serious, heady tone of Okapi’s music, both lyrically and instrumentally.

“What we try to promote is individuality,” Gorski said. “We try to promote consciousness, awareness of oneself and of one’s environment, and embracing the true nature of reality. And that’s been the message from the get-go,” Miller added. “But this second (album), I feel like you can hear more of the exhaustion and more of the anger from trying to push ourselves to be strong individuals in a world that’s crazy and with a lot of people that just don’t care.”

They’ve made music together for nearly 10 years, since Gorski placed a Craigslist ad in search of a sax player and drummer. Miller, a cellist, answered anyway. They shed the drummer and Gorski switched from an electric to an upright bass.

Despite playing instruments most associated with classical music, they said they see themselves more aligned with indie rock. That’s echoed in the anger threaded into their music—anger at societal conformity, environmental complacency and limited attention spans. “If you are angry or emotional and you’re able to articulate that well enough through art, it’s fulfilling and you’re able to momentarily let go of it,” Gorski said. Gorski has pushed through his distaste for social media to cultivate performance outlets off the beaten path. And as they find new, unconventional places to perform, they find new ears for their unconventional music.