#roy orbitron

This is a music video I directed for New Jersey band Roy Orbitron!

XPN cut this interview down to two lines so here’s the unabridged where I run my mouth. working on a tune for Speak Into My Good Eye’s 2nd annual 24-hr songwriting challenge… stay tuned!

Q: How do you feel that last year’s submission turned out?

A: Last year I wrote a song called “Condoms in My Leather Jacket,” which was pretty cool. The version I recorded was loud and raw with a crude drum machine and loads of distortion. Real rough. We’ve been reworking it for our new full length album though so a whole year later it’s resurrected and I really like where it’s headed.

Q: Were you surprised with this result?

A: I was surprised I was able to write and finish something at all. The result was definitely the bones of something cool and I thank SIMGE for putting me to work that day.

Q: What time did the band actually get around to begin writing and recording?

A: I couldn’t get the guys together so I did it by myself. I was actually down the shore with my son that day. When I saw a Facebook post about it I panicked for a minute like “SHIT. DAMMIT. OK. THAT’S TODAY. OK. I CAN DO IT.” So I was on the beach in the morning writing lyrics, putting them to guitar during my son’s nap, recording voice memos on my phone, working out the melody and tweaking words on the beach that afternoon with headphones on and just sort of singing to myself all day. Turns out the beach isn’t a bad place to work on a tune. After dinner we drove back home and once I got little dude in bed and asleep around 9pm I had a cigarette then started recording. I think I finished and e-mailed it out with a good ten minutes to spare.

Q: How does the 24-hour time window make for a different songwriting process?

A: It didn’t allow time to collaborate with the rest of the band at all or to overthink things. Pressure and time restraints are generally self-imposed if you’re not making art professionally so the 24-hour challenge challenge is a nice external pressure and provocation. I usually kick around guitar ideas and melodies for months until I’ll rein one in and start putting a song together and I don’t think I had ever put together something “complete” in one day. Even after the form, the chords, the guitar parts, and the melody are all there the band’s interpretation and how we wind up playing it together always effects the song too; from how I play the parts and sing it to maybe sparking a completely new tangent to work on or upending the form. 24 hours isn’t a lot of time at all. Instead of spending all those months really feeling out the intricacies of a song and bouncing it off of bandmates and friends I just went for loud and distorted. And that feels really great too. It’s all about harnessing energy I think, and energy’s generated in a lot of different ways. You never know what kind of energy will get you somewhere creatively. In this case I was soaking up some sun, staring at the ocean, watching my son play in the water, and thinking about condoms. And my leather jacket. And about writing songs and about a distracting girlfriend who didn’t write songs. And a deadline.

Q: Are you thinking about what direction you want to take the song this year or does that feel like cheating to think about it at all?

A: I want to write a clever inoffensive hooky pop song with fuzzy barre chords like YJY. Or like, our generation’s “Tiny Dancer”. Something that’s fun to yell along to at a show. I’ve always got song ideas kicking around but I hope I come up with something fresh because if I don’t it’ll feel like cheating even if y'all would never know it. We’ll see what happens.

Q: Do you plan on playing last year’s submission at the kick off concert?

Heroin in New Jersey: By the terrifying numbers

“A recent report by New Jersey Advance Media notes that the per-capita rate of 8.3 heroin-related deaths per 100,000 people os more than triple the national rate reported by the Centers for Disease Control. In addition, heroin ‘now eclipses homicide, suicide, car accidents and AIDS as a cause of death in the state,’ according to the report.”

If you pre-order Roy Orbitron’s full-length album on PledgeMusic the money will go straight to City of Angels NJ, a non-profit that fights heroin and other addictions in New Jersey with compassion and total dedication. It was started in party by my uncle Kevin after his son, my cousin KC, died of an overdose. Link to order here.

 our friends YJY have a SUPER limited edition clear vinyl copy (only one public copy) of their EP, the only public copy of which will be auctioned on eBay *** LISTING TODAY*** and all proceeds are going to City of Angels as well. BID NOW.

(via https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HU0SfIwgm00)

In celebration of Roy Orbitron totally killing their Pledge Music crowd funding campaign, we here at Radio Static think it’s as good of time as ever to share their brand new video for “Navajo Juggalos” off of their latest album “Eston Allen Gunnn.” A while back we reviewed the album and since then they’ve made some extreme steps on recording their new album while making a generous contribution to help people who’re recovering from alcohol/drug abuse.

The video is one of the strangest ones I’ve ever scene. What does a half naked native american women, graveyard, shaman, meter maid cart, burning American flag and a hero(?) with a motorcycle helmet have in common? You’ll have to watch the video over and over again to find out. As for the plot line, it’s really fucking dark… I mean dude gets is dick cut off, DARK. All the while, theres a choppiness to the video that is deeply unsettling and it’s all put to this super upbeat song! This is not to say I didn’t enjoy the video, because I love the strangeness to it, but I wanted to give you guys a heads up on what you’re walking into, here. Like I said in the album review there’s so much I could point out that I really like, but when the song really takes off and the mini cover of The Turtles “Happy Together” comes in, it really sets the song off in another dimension! So press play above, get into Roy Orbitron and if you’re into a road trip, go see them live at Asbury Lanes with White Reaper, Villanelles and Glycerin Queens next Wednesday May 6th! After your done with the video, listen to the rest of the album below and get stoked on their upcoming release “Girl’s Boyfriends.”