Owen Fegan

Owen Fegan (born November 1, 1972) is an Irish musician, singer-songwriter, producer, multi-instrumentalist, photographer and creative director. He is best known as the keyboard player and songwriter with the alternative rock band Rubyhorse. As a solo artist — VEMO — his debut EP Maps of Mars is slated for release in 2017.

Owen was born in Cork, Ireland, and formed Rubyhorse in 1988 with schoolmates Dave Farrell, Decky Lucey, Joe Philpott, and Gordon Ashe. After the band’s relocation to Boston in 1997, three studio albums (A Lifetime In One Day, How Far Have You Come, and Rise), two major-label recording contracts (Interscope Records and Island Records), a single Sparkle which peaked at #21 on the Billboard charts in the summer of 2002, a collaboration with George Harrison on the track Punchdrunk, TV appearances including Late Show with David Letterman and Late Night with Conan O'Brien, and international tours with artists including R.E.M., INXS, Culture Club, and Def Leppard, Owen played his last show with Rubyhorse at the World Peace Music Awards in Bali, Indonesia in June 2003 and moved to New York City to work on his own music, and pursue his lifelong passions of art and photography.

His photography has appeared in major commercial campaigns, as well as magazines such as SPIN, Rolling Stone, and Blender, as well as Tom Petty’s Runnin' Down A Dream alongside Mark Seliger, Annie Leibovitz, and Danny Clinch (who coincidentally shot the Rise cover for Rubyhorse).

Soon after his move to New York City, Owen joined SPIN Magazine as Creative Director, and has held the title at Rolling Stone Magazine, New York Magazine, and streaming music service Grooveshark. Owen currently serves as VP, Creative Director at New-York based tech company Yext which filed its "IPO", on April 13th, 2017.

In the years since his departure from Rubyhorse, Owen continued to write music, working his way through an array of musical directions while developing his skills as an audio engineer and mixer. In 2013, he built his own studio — The Binery — in New York City and began writing and recording new material under the name VEMO.

Combining the pop sensibilities of Rubyhorse with more seasoned songwriting and production style, his new EP Maps of Mars features four tracks from these sessions which were almost entirely self-performed, recorded, and mixed.

Heaven features drums by Gordon Ashe (Rubyhorse) and lead guitar and additional vocals by Chris Buckle (The Majorleans, The Picture). Buckle also plays additional guitar on My Sad 71. The EP was mastered by Fred Kevorkian (The White Stripes, The National, Ryan Adams) at Avatar Studios in New York City.