The Orchestra (For Now) Interview

The Orchestra (For Now) are so good London Symphony Orchestra are retiring

O(FN) Live at The George's Tavern - credit @roustghoti on youtube

Whoever said less is more clearly has never heard of The Orchestra (For Now) as all 7 of them have been making noise throughout the London scene since their first gig in may. In a time where every band is a gloomy post punk act trying to convince you they're super serious, The Orchestra (For Now) are a breath of fresh air and a whole lot of fun. In the hours leading up to, and after, their latest headline show at The Windmill, we sat down and had a chat.

It's been a busy couple months for The Orchestra (For Now) gig after gig after gig! What’s been your personal highlight gig wise and what’s one thing you’ve learnt?

For sure was at a shoddily put together gig in Camberwell. We ended up playing to about 20 people, but just in front of the stage this guy was doing the most intense salsa dancing, pirouetting around a photographer also doing her own little dance. We also noticed Oobah Butler from VICE in hysterics watching the chaos unfold. Never got the footage. We’ve learnt a lot since forming in March, main thing is how tricky it is to get 7 people in a practice room together.

You’re a few hours away from another headline at the notorious Windmill Brixton, any pre show nerves?

We are relaxed. Illness has messed up our set list and Bill has had to relearn the bass parts (normally guitar), but the show goes on. Izzy (bass) and Lingling (violin) are both unwell. It’s a shame we had these wicked transitions and new stuff but it’s not possible tonight.

When was the last time you played as a 5 piece?

August. That was a fun gig for Pink Eye Club’s album launch

What did the band look like (formation wise) when it was first formed?

Started from an old project under the name Joe Jazz Ensemble. Had a brief transitional period late 2022 and finally formed in March. Although we played our first gig as a seven piece in mid September. That was a great night actually. GTA V’s 10 year anniversary. We forgot to officially announce GTA VI tho. They’ve now pushed it back a few years

I think it’s hard to put a genre label on you guys. in the material i’ve heard online i see it as a weird blend of jazz pop and alternative but how would you guys put it?

It’s definitely got some jazzy, alternative vibes; some pop as well. We’ve heard people say prog rockish elements. We just out here having a blast!

i’m gonna ask specifically about some of the material i’ve heard online (it’s really good). Deplore You / Farmers Market is the perfect set opener with a cinematic and almost ballady feel, how did writing this song come about?

It was the first and easiest song we've ever written. Joe (keys and vocals) brought the bare bones from a piano demo and we all worked on arranging and structuring. That was the song that brought us all together - whenever a new member joined it was the first one they learnt, and it serves as a good opener because it gets an audience on side.

How easy is it bringing a new instrument into a song like in this one? Me and my band are debating whether or not to bring in more members for more instrumentation?

For us we were lucky as nearly half of us are studying at Guildhall so the musicianship is insanely high. It really boils down to can they play the stuff well enough, are they committed and most importantly are they a good hang. But it’s tough as a big band, especially at this point without any label backing or representation. We book our own shows and organise around our busy degrees, but are yet to find the right fit when it comes to management or anything. So the answer is go for it cos big bands are cool but be ready for the organisational nightmares and make sure they’re all flames people that you get on with

A cool thing i like about your set so far is that every song feels vastly different from the one before it. from songs focused on the lyricsm to complete instrumental pieces to the epic closer that is wake robin, what drives you as band to make such a contrast in your music?

I think it boils down to fear of stagnancy - we don’t always want to be loud, we don’t always want to be quiet, we don’t always want to be fast, not always slow, there’s lots of fine lines that we like to play with. If we’re in a writing session and something sounds even remotely similar to another song we normally have a chuckle and move on. We could easily write 8 Deplore You’s, or an EP of Wake Robin stuff, but we’re happy at the moment with having that diversity of style - keeping each song fresh. We’ve had a joke recently that as long as we open with Deplore You and close with Wake Robin it doesn’t really matter what comes in-between

You said you were working on some demos recently, how are they coming along?

So we only have one officially recorded demo, but we record every gig in full using a field recorder so we have hours of recordings - for the retrospective live album in 2045

Well at least i know who to bet on for the 2045 Mercury Prize!

Okay how about this, if Orchestra (For Now) had an infinite budget for one gig, what would you do? 100 extras doing ballerina? A proper light show for visuals? A guest appearance from Olly Murs?

We’ve been getting into this on our group chat. Consensus is pyrotechnics, we’re in really tall platforms and a medieval battle raging on beneath (fair chunk of our infinite budget goes on life insurance payments) - oh yeah and we’ve been considering using small mirrors so we can always all be facing front, so we’d pay someone to design a really intricate mirror system so we can all see each other through wing mirrors. That or we buy the exclusive performance rights of Carly Rae Jepson’s discography and go on a never ending tour.

Okay last question and most important one, drink of choice for The Orchestra (For Now)?

Something Herbal

Find all The Orchestra (For Now)'s socials and videos here:

https://linktr.ee/theorchestrafornow

Dedicated to Dan Dutalesco (Miss you man come back to Cardiff soon)