There’s a lot to be said for taking the time to get things right. Melbourne-based troupe The Orphanage know this all too well, and that’s why these are such exciting times for the eclectic folk-rock outfit.
There’s a lot to be said for taking the time to get things right. Melbourne-based troupe The Orphanage know this all too well, and that’s why these are such exciting times for the eclectic folk-rock outfit.
The Canberra-born six piece are set to release debut album Till Death this week, an event that marks the culmination of three years’ work and an extensive gigging schedule, including an inter-state tour and residencies at the Edinburgh Castle Hotel and infamous Old Bar.
25-year old lead singer and songwriter Tom Woodward, something of a veteran of the scene after years of solo playing and several recordings, is content with the length of time it has taken, admitting the band have been something of a naturally progressing entity since inception.
"The band started playing in 2008, and it was originally just my solo stuff and the band was there to back me up, but it’s kind of evolved, as things tend to do in the Melbourne music scene, into its own thing," Woodward states.
The 21st century in all its infancy has witnessed a continued draining of originality in favour of mass-production and placebo marketing across entire artistic spectra. So it can only be a good thing for creative control to be in the hands of those who create, and it is genuinely refreshing to see the personality of a band represented in a recording such as Till Death on so many artistic levels.
Till Death has a certain stripped-back approach in various ways. Stark black and white minimalist artwork and song lyrics in no particular order on the inlay of the CD reflect a raw approach to the whole project, and this is evident in the music – nine blues-laden tales of whisky-fuelled adventures delivered in inimitable, uncompromising fashion. It harks back to a bygone era, but has a unique, modern quality in the ferocity of its sound, a fact Woodward alludes to when explaining his intended ‘assault’ on the listener.
"I wanted it to be like an old vinyl record. We wanted to do something that was like a quick punch in the face that just leaves you reeling, and then you think ‘I want to listen to that again’," Woodward states, while stressing this was the best way to expose the listener to The Orphanage’s sound, not simply art for its own sake. "We were really trying to capture the energy of the band more than conceptualise an album. We’re going for an old school thing – you put it on, it plays, it ends, it doesn’t drag on. So what’s left is just the songs."
Woodward is clearly looking to follow a more traditional musical template, and has a philosophical view on the current climate of free downloads and the general cheapening of the musical experience.
"People talk about the album as an art form becoming obsolete, songs are given away on the internet and so on, but then albums that bands release are getting longer and longer. I like the idea of the album being that concise art form."
Though the production on Till Death delves into several detailed arrangements that reinforce the hard-hitting nature of the sound, The Orphanage’s success to date has been based on a solid live act. This is a fact not lost on the band, and made the issue of song choice a vital part of what they’re trying to achieve with the recording. Woodward reveals the whittling down and ordering of the songs was something of a painstaking process in itself.
"The particular nine songs on that album have been honed over the last three years though a repertoire of about thirty songs down to that nine, and they’re kind of the staples of our live shows," Woodward says. "We’d been playing the songs as a band for about two years, and they changed over that time, from being a kind of ramshackle, jam-my kind of arrangement, to developing actual parts. Then in the studio it went a bit ramshackle again as we deconstructed the parts and overdubbed and played around with it."
When dealing with such a major project there is always a sense of relief upon completion, and while work continues on other fronts, the frontman is clearly happy that this particular process has reached a conclusion. Woodward explains the liberating nature of recording and completing the album, and the freedom to be able to explore new projects, saying "It’s sort of getting all this history down and documented and releasing it, and that allows us to let it go. We’re really free now we’ve done this to go in any direction. I’m not sure what that’s going to be."
No matter what The Orphanage decide to do, it seems that the album will act as a catalyst for future recordings, with initial work underway on a potential follow-up.
"We want to work on new songs, ’cause we’ve kind of vented all these songs, so we want to work on some new arrangements, and we’re thinking about doing another album, probably in a year’s time, and playing shows in the meantime."
Get along to THE ORPHANAGE’s Till Death album release party at The Worker’s Club Friday March 4, with support from Michaelangelo And The Tin Star and Plague Doctor.
