Roy Orbitron Is: Conor Meara (guitar/vocals), Noah Baum (violin), Ricardo Lorenzo (bass), Theis Hoekstra (drums).
We Formed In: Hamilton, New Jersey, October 27th 2011.
We’re Based Out: Bordentown, New Jersey
The Story Behind Our Name: Roy Orbison of Vernon, Texas with -tron, extracted as a suffix from the word “electron” and as such denoting a device, tool, instrument; more generally, used in the names of any kind of chamber or apparatus used in experiments. It’s also used to name electronic devices, a number of elementary particles and particle accelerators. Orbitron is also the name of a really sweet concept car by Ed Roth and the name of various spinning carnival rides.
New Music Coming Out?: We’ve just successfully reached a crowdfunding goal via PledgeMusic for a budget to make our first full length album. I’m not sure when it’ll all be finished and available but I’ve got 15 songs to play around with and the first two studio sessions booked.
Our Sound Has Been Likened To: “Recreational drugs may or may not have been used in the recording of this music, but they will definitely help your appreciation of it. And that’s a compliment.” – Jim Testa, Jersey Beat
You have such a crazy unique sound – what bands and what life experiences inspired this sound? And what made you love it so much that you wanted to make it the sound of the band?
Well, it’s the only kind of music I can write. And I think it’s evolved a lot since I picked up a guitar and started writing and singing 3 years ago. I think bands who approach a project with a specific genre or an idol to imitate either don’t listen to enough music or aren’t very creative people and their music will probably be boring too. As any kind of artist I think you have to take in as much as you can, good and bad, to really figure out what works, why, and to develop your taste. Then when something traumatic happens you have a huge musical vocabulary for the emotions to find their way out of your head and into a song. I have full custody of my 3 and a half year old son. The circumstances surrounding that and the years long emotional and legal battles, and fatherhood itself, really kicked my ass in gear and made me stop being a bassist on other peoples’ tunes and start writing and singing my own. I don’t know what to call us, but I really love when people try to name it.
Also, since your sound is so unique did you have a hard time gaining fans or getting gigs?
I’ve always felt like an outsider to different musical communities and scenes, whether it was DIY shows in Philly when I was in high school or south Philly bars or Brooklyn and Lower East Side, the New Brunswick basement scene, the Jersey bars with acoustic open mics and the cover bands at the Shore. That’s been a real bummer at times but never made me consider ever stopping… that drive is internal. We’ve recently started meeting people and bands in Asbury Park and it’s the first place that have been really accepting of what we’re doing and supportive. There are some really amazing bands and people out there, with an infrastructure of venues and people who go see live music to boot. We played our first show there at the end of March thanks to an invite from Wreaths and we just keep getting offers to come back.
What do you love about being in Roy Orbitron?
That’s like asking what’s to love about getting laid. It feels good and there’s always new things to try. And it’s a lot more honest and real than all those hours sitting behind a desk at the day job.
What’s the wildest thing to happen at a Roy Orbitron show?
Not much really… people most just get confused or ignore us. We just played a show at Asbury Lanes with White Reaper and Tony puked his brains out in the parking lot, that was a pretty gnarly.
There are so many bands in the Asbury scene — what do you think separates you guys from the rest of the bands out there?
I don’t really know the Asbury scene well enough to know all that’s out there, I just keep on discovering talented people. I’m not going to stop playing music until I’m dead (and buried in my grave). I work pretty damn hard at it and play with some really cool musicians so as far as Asbury goes, you’ll be seeing us around until people don’t want to hear us and we don’t get asked back, then we’ll be playing somewhere else.
If someone has never heard your band before – what song would you recommend you they check out in order to fully get what Roy Orbitron is all about?
My favorite released song right now is “Brimstone Suckers,” off our most recent EP Elston Allen Gunnn.
What Do You Have Planned For the Rest of 2015?
Girls’ Boyfriends. It’s our first full-length album. Writing practicing preparing and recording it is all a lot of time and effort on top of surviving the day to day. It’s gonna be loud.
Roy Orbitron performs with Lowlight and Des & the Swagmatics for Happy Mondays at The Wonder Bar in Asbury Park, NJ.
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Bill Bodkin is the Owner, Editor-in-Chief and Co-Founder of Pop-Break. Most importantly, however, he is the proud father of a beautiful daughter, Sophie. He is beyond excited that Pop-Break will be six years old in 2015 as this site has come a long, long way from the day he launched in it in his bachelor pad at the Jersey Shore. He can be read every Monday for the Happy Mondays Interview Series as well as his weekly reviews on Law & Order: SVU, Mad Men and Hannibal. His goal, once again, is to write 500 stories this year (a goal he accomplished in 2014). He is a graduate of Rutgers University with a degree in Journalism & English. Follow him on Twitter: @PopBreakDotCom
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