Orphan Boy are a band who've been on the block for a few years now, and with four performances at Glastonbury under their belts, it's bemusing to undestand why we're still featuring them in this section. But, they're a band whom we feel deserve more credit as still there's a fair few number of people out there who are yet to hear of the Orphan's. With their new album, 'Coastal Tones', set to be released next month, we thought it was time we grabbed a word with our fellow Grimbarians.
1. Who are Orphan Boy?
Orphan Boy are a four-piece band from Cleethorpes. We are about to release our third album, 'Coastal Tones', on Concrete Recordings. Since forming in 2005, we have battled away in the indie margins, built up a diehard following called The Orphanites and coined our own style of music: council pop; this has since evolved through lad art and now post-council pop. Highlights of the Orphan Boy career so far include four performances at Glastonbury Festival, tour supports with The Enemy and Babyshambles and support from the likes of Steve Lamacq, Janice Long and John Kennedy.
2. Who are your biggest musical influences?
Our first album 'Shop Local' was largely influenced by The Clash and Gang Of Four. Our second album 'Passion, Pain & Loyalty' by The Clash and Pulp. And our third album 'Coastal Tones' is mainly influenced by 'Shop Local' and 'Passion, Pain & Loyalty'.
3. You've just released your new single, 'Beats Like Distant Tides'. What has the response been like?
The response to Beats has actually been excellent; I can't remember a single bad review. Except The Sun said something about my spoken word part, but I can live with that.
4. You've recently played your 10th anniversary gig, so we can hardly call you newcomers. How have you found the past 10 years and is the time finally coming for you to be recognised do you feel?
Ideally the time for us to be recognised was back in 2006 when we released our first single. When the music industry eventually catches up with us one day it's got a lot of explaining to do.
5. What's next for Orphan Boy?
Our local football team, Grimsby Town FC, have asked us to write and record a song for them. So I imagine the promotion for that will be underway when this goes online. After that, we'll be releasing our next single 'From The Provinces' followed at last by 'Coastal Tones', which is the culmination of all of our musical endeavors over these last ten years. Sometimes I wonder why we put ourselves through all of the motorways and late nights and the deaf ears we encounter while trying to balance our double lives and keep our sanity. Then when I listen back to the music we've made I realise that we simply have no choice in the matter.
6. Where can we hear and find out more about you?
We have stuff buried in SoundCloud, but I would direct any newcomers to the tracks on Spotify or the videos on Youtube. And not just the official videos, but all of the live footage that has been recorded by Spikey (a long-time Orphanite) down the years. Or I suppose people could do the old fashioned thing and buy our music. It's all on iTunes and Amazon etc. Or on the Concrete Recordings website it you want to buy organic.
Listen to Oprhan Boy with 'Beats Like Distant Tides' via Youtube: