Today on No Sleep in the CLE, Justin Markert sits down with Cleveland rock band Ottawa. In a year and a half Ottawa has accomplished quite a bit for a local band.

They talk about the meaning behind their name, songwriting process, favorite local bands, and the philosophy that a good melody is a good melody even if it’s a NKOTB song.

Music featured on this episode: John Kalman, Ottawa

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Stream today’s episode below. Scene profiled Ottawa as our Band of the Week in December. 

This article appears in May 20-26, 2015.

Eric Sandy is an award-winning Cleveland-based journalist. For a while, he was the managing editor of Scene. He now contributes jam band features every now and then.