Interview: Orchards

Brighton-based Orchards are a DIY band that are bringing their best when it comes to alt-pop.

SlantedPress had a chat with Orchards’ frontwoman Lucy Evers to find out more about the band’s debut EP. Forming a few years ago, Orchards wasn’t your typical alt-pop band, instead they started off in a slightly different direction. Orchards “started off as a rockier, heavier side of math”. “I joined the band about three years ago and it’s just all gone from there,” Lucy tells me, “we released our first single, which was ‘Peggy’, which is maybe our mathiest song, and got progressively more indie and pop from there. The band name is from an Eastbound & Down outtake that Will Ferrell does.”

With the EP Losers/Lovers now out, I ask Lucy what it’s like to have a finished body of work out. “It was a relief to have something that was created by all four of us together, because some of the singles were written previous to me. So, it felt really lovely just to have a body of songs that we all worked really hard on together,” she says. “It was good to have a body of music out that we all really cared about as well. Like, musically and lyrically, it was something we all really enjoyed and liked writing. I think the songs off the EP are some of our favourite to perform live.”

| “The slog, the grind and the hard work is totally worth it.”

Lucy and I spoke openly about the band all having other jobs to support themselves and the band. Out of interest, I ask Lucy if she feels the pressure of handling an everyday job and as an upcoming musician. “The fact that we have part-time jobs means that we don’t have to worry, we don’t have to stress. It’s difficult sometimes to get time off work to go gallivanting around the country, but it’s worth it because that’s what we all want to do in the long run,” she explains. “It’s what we want to do forever and it’s a slow start, but it’s totally worth it when you get out and actually play shows.”

“Not to namedrop, but I went to a show by The 1975 about six years ago and I asked George what advice he’d give to young and upcoming working musicians and his only phrase was “don’t give up. Keep going”. He was like “because we’ve been doing this for eight years and look where we are now” and that was 2012 and now look at them, so it’s worth the graft. If you love what you do, it’s totally worth the graft.”.

From the Losers/Lovers EP, the band released ‘Age Of You’ as a single. I ask Lucy what inspired the choice of picking that song over the others. “It’s my favourite to play live, and lyrically it was a hard one to write, so it’s quite cathartic to play. When I sing it on stage, I feel like I’m going to therapy every time. Out of all of the songs, I think it’s the most fun.”

Last of all, with their debut EP out, Orchards have also announced their first headliner tour. Although the band had played a few headline shows here and there, Lucy feels optimistic about the upcoming dates. “I think we were all quite nervous and worried people would be like “oh, we could see them another time” but the response has been really lovely and it’s selling well,” she tells me. A unique selling point about Orchards’ tour is their supporting acts. I ask Lucy to elaborate on the feature a little more. “We’re hoping to do more local supports than not. Just so we can go out and meet and support other bands,” she explains, “we really want to be advocates for supporting local and independent artists and promoters, because they work really hard and don’t often get the payoff.”

ORCHARDS 2019 UK Headline Tour Dates:

26th March – Nottingham, The Bodega – 14+ 27th March – Manchester, Jimmy’s – 18+ 28th March – Glasgow, The Garage (Attic Bar) – 14+ / under 16 w. adult 29th March – Sheffield, Record Junkee – 14+ 30th March – Cardiff, Clwb Ifor Bach – 18+ 31st March – Birmingham, The Sunflower Lounge – 16+ 2nd April – Bristol, Crofters Rights – 18+ 3rd April – London, Camden Assembly – 14+

Edited by Ethan Cumberland |

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