Can I get more my vocal and a touch more my guitar.
Not a lot of jobs have someone you know like right in front of you
cheering you on, you know?
It's nice to like fill a room with people that you you don't know any
of them but they like took time out of their their lives and like money out of
their wallets to come see you.
I love that like every day when we're on the
road there's the possibility that somebody is going to change my life for
the better
The Orwells are playing to a packed house at ANR music bar in Columbus Ohio
it's the band's 34th show since February and are running on adrenaline.
Like so many bands before them, they started with jam sessions in their parents basements.
For the Orwell's it was in the Chicago suburb of Elmhurst.
We started this group
just about around seven years ago. Most of us were freshmen high school, Mario
was a sophomore and we covered "Barely Legal" by The Strokes and recorded and put
it up and I was the first thing we ever did.
Backyard gigs turned into local shows, the national tour dates and TV
appearances. Still in high school, they'd already arrived.
The bands that I looked
up to and I think most of them looked up to
they were never huge and that's kind of where I feel like we are now.
But the road to success is longer than it used to be and the band is preparing to tour
again. They pack up the rental band after a
couple hours of sleep, the Orwells are back on the road to promote their 3rd
album.
Just in three years it's like it's the approach was so much different
compared to what it was when we had originally gotten into this thing. When
we were putting out Disgraceland it was a lot about do playing radio shows
or you know pushing units physical units CDs and and and vinyl records and stuff
like that and this time around it was all about streams.
But streaming apps like
Spotify, Pandora and Apple music pay less than a penny per song. That doesn't add
up to much after you've split it with the record label and five band mates. So
they've sold the rights to some of their songs, which have been featured in video
games, TV shows and commercials. These days it's how bands get by
Selling out
isn't really a thing anymore because like if someone calls you a sell out
and they just stream music it's like how do you expect me to make money?
You have to go out on the road more and play more shows and sell more shirts
because you can't stream t-shirts yet so there's still a way to do this.
From Chicago, it's about a six-hour drive
to Columbus. Sleep is important but so is
checking and updating the band's social media.
A lot of festivals now look at how
many Twitter followers you have and will plan your slot accordingly. It's not why
we're you know it's not we're making music to have enough Instagram followers
to you know it's to reach I don't know stupid I think it's stupid too but I got
you know I mean I understand the merits
it's just a bummer that like you can't make a good record and play a good live
show and like that's it like now that's like half as important as it was
After the show the band unwinds and greets fans. In the morning they'll pack
up the van again and be back on the road. Next stop: Detroit.
You know we don't have
private jets we share hotel rooms with each other we do you know just like all
that stuff it's obviously not as glamorous or something like you know
like "Almost famous" or something makes it out to be.
It's, it's much more of a kind of just a little bit of a grind, but a good one, a
fun one.