Justin Price – Orsome Welles

Orsome Welles are a band I am quite fond of. Ever since I first saw them open for Israel’s Orphaned Land back in 2014, they’ve been a band I’ve had my eye on. After their brilliant EP launch last year for ‘Erth News Bulletin’ at The Workers Club, Fitzroy, I was keen as a mercury-coated bean when I found out the Melbourne proggers would soon be unveiling their new single “Swim” at the same location. With the single launch set for this Friday, Metal Obsession had the pleasure to catch up with band drummer and all-round fine fellow, Justin Price.

After exchanging pleasantries, we got right into the thick of it, with myself asking if Justin could tell our readers a bit the band’s upcoming single launch, and how high their excitement levels must be for the show: “The single’s definitely got a different feel from the EP in terms of the production,” Justin began enthusiastically. “We spent a whole heap of time on one song, putting as much of our energy into it as we can. We hope that it comes across as having a lot of love put into it. I mean, we loved those songs we recorded on the EP, but they were songs we’d had for, like, three years and we just tried [at the time] to smash out as many as we could in the recording time we had. This time around we’ve focused all our efforts into a single track. Just as a way to show [the fans] what we can sound like when we put all this energy into a single project. It’s sort of like a lead-on into next year for us.”

As stated in the band’s press release, “Swim” is said to “showcase an exciting new musical direction and a condensing of every part of [Orsome Welles] journey so far as a band”. I asked if Justin could elaborate further on what this meant for them. “In terms of a musical direction, it is in a way,” Justin mused. “Our writing styles have been fairly slow. It took us three years to get eight or nine songs going. This one was more of a spur-of-the-moment thing. It was actually the first song written by our vocalist [Michael Stowers], as well. Basically, he wrote the entire thing. He put together the melodies, the chords, and I think it was done in the height of this fucking cold winter, and it sort of harkens back to the previous songs we’ve had. I think for him, [it was] reminiscing on those times. [Personally], when I get into winter, I feel a bit depressed; from the oppressive cold, rain, and stuff like that. It’s definitely a reflection of [Michael’s] feelings at the time.” He then added, “Stow’s interesting. For a lot of our music, it’ll be a jam on a single riff for an hour or something. And during that time, he gets his little notepad out and just starts writing. I don’t know how he does it! [laughs] He’ll just sit there, listening to the music, feeling it, and he’ll just start writing. He’ll basically come up with the lyrics that we’ve got set for the rest of the song. He’s a very good writer in that sense. He’s got a good feel for it.”

I asked if Justin had much of a part in the songwriting aspect, or no? “I do in terms of fill sections,” he said. “I basically vibe off the bassist in terms of ‘feel’ when we’re writing something. My major thought patterns on writing is the feel of the section, where the dynamics should come up or down; whether it should get chunkier here, or climb down to a nice little melo-section.”

Shifting topic for a moment, I asked after how the experience was for the band on their recent support slot for South African alt-rockers, Seether. “One, it was the biggest audience we’ve played to. Just being at that venue [and] walking through the doors, I’d never been at that section before. I’d been at the other stage. Seeing where we were going to play, it was like, “Yeah, this is going to be fucking awesome!” It was really cool seeing a real tour, you know? This international band: they’ve got all their crew with them, everyone’s got a job to do. It was really cool seeing the ins-and-outs of that side of performing, and seeing how everyone worked in a way. We had so much space for our gear. We’re used to such small venues in Melbourne and interstate where you’re basically walking over instruments just to get to the back of the stage. It was a really cool experience to actually be a part of this big event. I don’t tend to get too nervous when I play, but I definitely did when I walked out onto that stage. Everything was dark and you could see the crowd, and it was an absolute swarm of people. As soon as we walked out, people we’re cheering. 95% of people there didn’t know us, so it was a little weird not having the regulars up the front destroying their necks, windmilling to our songs, but between each song, everyone was going nuts. It was really, really cool!”

“In April, we’d opened for The Ocean,” Justin then recollected, “alongside Caligula’s Horse. It was a different experience from Seether, in terms of the crew and venue size, but it was still really cool to see how big bands worked. To see how they promote themselves among their fans, how they interact with crew and stuff like that. We always try to be as professional as we can. Our father-figure and mentor, one of our mates and band member’s cousins, he sort of looked after us for the past couple years, doing our sound and he really iterated to us we need to be as professional as possible when we’re on tour. [Helping with] setting up, being the last ones to leave, packing up. So that’s how we try and run the band, when we’re away from home and doing shows in Melbourne.”

I questioned if, following their “Swim” single launch, if Orsome Welles had plans to next turn their attention primarily to their much anticipated sophomore album? “We’ve been talking about it in the last year. [We’re] looking at 2016. It wasn’t said in the press release, but this single was a way to find an engineer/producer we want to work with. So I think we’ve found who we want to work with, for our first release. Next year is looking like we’ll definitely be recording next year, and most likely going to be releasing it next year. It’s definitely on the cards, man. I’m super excited for it! We’re just going to finish the rest off and hopefully put out something super mint. The thing I’d like to do would be recording in summer. I mean, what’s better than that? ‘Cause this joint we’ll be at has a pool, it’s got decking out in the mountains. The best thing would be doing it in summer: doing my drum tracks and then jumping out in the pool. That’d be fucking sick. But we’ll have to see how time permits. We have a bit of time now to finish off our writing and making sure everything’s super tight, and it’s got a good crew to work with on this.”

Next was something I’d always wanted to know, and that was the genesis of the name “Orsome Welles” itself. It led to quite an interesting and unexpected response! “When the band started, it was a uni project. It was something that the other four guys needed to put together for their university course. A part of their studies. So we got together and it took us weeks to think of a name. It was the week before we were supposed to perform for one of their marking sessions, and we were wracking our heads as to what to name the band. Because we wanted something that was cool or didn’t seem like something we’d just picked out of a hat. So, I think, we were talking about Futurama, and there’s an episode where they have Orson Welles’ head for a mock invasion of the earth by Lrrr from Omicron Persei 8. And I think one of us said how “awesome” it was, and we’re like ‘Orsome Welles, yeah! That’d be funny as!’ Then the next day, we’re like, ‘That’s actually pretty good! It’s dumb, but no one’s got anyone remotely close.’ And I think it was kind of that ‘dumb’ name thing we wanted to run with. Like, ‘Yeah, we’re rockers or we play a bit of metal here and there, but we do take the piss out of ourselves a bit’. On stage, we just try to have  so much fun with the performance part, and I think that’s kind of where the name stemmed from. It was a bit of a joke at first and then we just kind of ran with it.”

Lastly, I asked if Justin had any last words he’d like to offer his fans anticipating their upcoming single launch, “This new song is definitely a new direction for us, but it’s mostly a new direction in terms of how we write and how we’re focusing on getting the music out there. It’s a big step up in sound quality and musical writing from the EP. So you can definitely look to see more of that in the coming 12 months from us, and definitely come down, because we may have some free stuff for you!”

Don’t miss Orsome Welles at The Workers Club, Fitzroy this Friday (September 11) as they launch their new single, “Swim”. They will be joined by Glass Ocean, Arakeye and TUX. Tickets are available now via Wild Thing Presents, Oztix, and the venue.

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