Oren Polak – loves the new friends he makes every day
Oren Polak – loves the new friends he makes every day
Born in upstate New York and raised in the Washington, D.C. area, Oren Polak started singing at a very young age. He learned piano early on and later, began playing guitar in high school. Oren went to George Mason University, in Fairfax, Virginia, graduating in 1998 with a major in classical voice and minor in jazz guitar.
He played at local jazz clubs in the Georgetown area for about four years, and also performed at the Kennedy Center. He frequented U Street, a historic neighborhood famous for its cultural, music and food. It was also the birthplace of celebrated DC hero, jazz musician Duke Ellington. Two favorites clubs were Bohemian Caverns and Twins.
Polak performed with the band Karma Issue, playing mostly original music. Later he performed with Fuzz, a rock cover band that were booked for week-long gigs at Sloppy Joe’s in Key West (2013-2016). The Fuzz broke up and Oren continued visiting Key West, performing at Sloppy Joe’s and other venues like the Sandbar, Hog’s Breath, and Rams Head Southernmost.
In 2016, he met Jessica (aka Jess) who worked at Sloppy Joe’s. They began dating and were married in 2019. Oren likes the compact nature of Key West. In the D.C. Metro area, he drove 45,000 miles annually to perform. In Key West, live music venues can be 50 feet apart. Music is played all over town all day long – some venues have four shifts of music daily. In 2018, Irish Kevin’s offered him a really good package of four shows per week, so he moved to Key West fulltime.
Oren has noticed that Key West musical audience has changed over the last six years. As soon as he plays one country song, everyone seems to requests more country music. He tries to dress for the Rock vibe in long pants and nice shoes. He grew up in the 90s with punk, grunge, Alice In Chains, Pearl Jam, Stone Temple Pilots, and the music of Nine Inch Nails. He specifically tries to avoid giving off any kind of country vibe.
As a rule if he gets a request, twice in a week, for something that he does not know, he will learn it. He recently learned the song “Tipsy” by Shaboozey, one of the newer pop country stars. He has fun with it – “but it ain’t Pearl Jam.” Oren tries to keep up with new songs. He recently added an Old Dominion song, “One Man Band” that he heard at three different places in a week.
One of his favorite songs is “She Talks to Angels” by the Black Crows. He likes the slower melodic songs that are more open to improvisation. According to Oren, there are many musical voices and varieties in Key West, from Nick Brownell’s “Outlaw Country”, to a funky Mark King, or a soulful Marjorie Lee – Key West has a ton of talent.
During the COVID shut down, Oren started streaming music on his back porch, performing on his phone and collecting tips through Venmo. He would stream music Thursday through Sunday starting at 5:00pm. He ended up with about 200 viewers each stream and continues streaming performances to this day. He expanded to three cameras angles with an auto-switching system, added high definition video and stereo sound, and is streaming on Facebook, Twitch, YouTube, and X, all at the same time.
He offers a “Pete and Wayne” type wrinkle where viewers could pay him to stop playing a song that they didn’t like. He also streams some of his live gigs to viewers. Many have seen him perform while visiting Key West and later stream his performances from their home. They stay connected to Oren and Key West through his music. The music streaming also helps Oren reduce the number of live shows he has to perform every week.
Oren’s late night shows have larger audiences and are more profitable but the audience is there to mostly drink, dance, and sing. The earlier shifts are filled with people that are usually out searching for music. They may be looking for something more unique and of higher quality. Oren makes less money but loves playing music to the early audiences looking for that special song.
In January, while playing at the Hog’s Breath, he was leaning on the gate to the stage. It gave way and he fell, breaking his left thumb and tearing some ligaments. He could no longer perform. It was three months of rehab plus a few weeks of regaining his musical chops before he could perform.
Oren feels Key West is becoming a more difficult place to live – the lack of affordable housing and more expensive general costs have forced many to leave. Musicians are fortunate enough to make enough money to support their lifestyle but many service workers are not as fortunate. COVID shined a spotlight on essential workers.
Oren and Jess feel they were fortunate to buy a home in 2019. It’s older and needs a lot of work but they love it. They love their Key West friendships, and Oren loves the new friends he makes every day. He is thankful that there are so many people that come to Key West to listen to music.
I’ve known Oren since the Karma Issue and Fuzz days in DC. Few dudes are that talented or more genuine. He loves his wife and his life the most, everything else falls into place after that.
Bth Oren and Jess are two of the nicest people in the world. I’m lucky to call them friends.
Oren is a true treasure. We found him online during COVID and enjoy watching all of his lives shows from our house, or wherever we are! His eclectic mix of music, from Foo Fighters, Taylor Swift, to Whiskey Myers make his shows so interesting and fun to listen to.