A year ago, MTV News production assistants Rya Backer and Steven Roberts realized that their devotion to chasing stories was seriously getting in the way of their love lives. That's why they dreamed up "First Date," a regular feature that allows them to get up close and personal to some of our favorite hot new artists.
By Steven Roberts
My First Date with Oh Land was one of my favorites. Not because she was a drop-dead gorgeous Danish songstress, but because we got to make art. Our date was at Color Me Mine in Tribeca, and I was immediately overwhelmed with joy. The shelves were loaded with stuff you can paint ... from dog bowls to dinner plates, and everything in between. What can I say? My apartment was sorely lacking in "painted bulls---."
Anyway, my producer Rya, was adamant that I pick something that both Oh Land and I could paint together. Naturally I picked the Tyrannosaurs Rex, but she was totally against that. She wanted us to paint a bowl, but I thought that was lame. After throwing some shade at each other for the next 10 minutes, we decided that Oh Land and I would paint coffee mugs. They were nice and small and I could use my mug for my morning vodka.
Oh Land showed up a little late, but beautiful people can do that (I'm late all the time.) She was a bit of an artistic soul, so she loved the idea of painting the coffee mugs. We chose our colors (I chose a few shades of orange and chocolate, while she grabbed some pink, yellow, silver and black), and got down to business.
My producer would later say that Oh's technique was very refined and delicate, while I just took a sponge and proceeded to stamp paint all over my coffee mug. Either way, we were really into it. Rya had to repeatedly ask us to look up when we talked to each other. Oh was a gentle soul and it was a nice laid-back date, so I was cool just listening to her sweet and serene Danish accent as I sponged away. Everyone agreed that Oh had the better mug at the end (it was vaguely circus themed) but I was proud of my "Clockwork Orange," post-constructionist, I-don't-even-know-what-I-was-doing cup, too.
Tags Drinking In The Morning, First Date, Oh Land, video
