Baton Rouge-created band Orange Joe will release its first full-length album after announcing the new project in December 2016. After building funds for over a year, the record will drop sometime this spring. Select singles will be released prior to the entire album.
“I’m thinking closer to the summer, maybe April,” said lead singer and principal songwriter Phil Chandler. For this new project, the group has deviated from the modern rock/punk style of their first EP, “Pass It On.” Instead of a more fluid sound, each song will be different than the one before it.
This album has been years in the making for the band. Orange Joe formed when lead guitarist Forrest Friedman, bassist Chris LeSage and Chandler became roommates at Southeastern Louisiana University. After the band’s drummer, Seth Jones, came on board in 2015, they just needed a band name.
“We’re really bad at naming things. We had a long list of names and we spent months trying to figure it out,” Friedman said.
The band decided on a name based on a joke from “Futurama” while on vacation in Tennesse.
“There’s a moment in one of the episodes where Fry calls himself Orange Joe,” Friedman said. “It’s not even really a joke, but we thought it was funny.”
With a new name and more than 20 original songs, the guys began to break ground on their first EP in 2015. Their recording sessions took place in Tennessee because of Friedman’s connections with a studio.
“We went up to Memphis, and it was the first thing we did as a band. I think we did the whole thing in three days,” Chandler said.
Despite the hasty recording process, the band has met with success. All five of itssongs on “Pass It On.” have received more than 1,000 views on Spotify. They also continue to book gigs regularly.
Orange Joe started playing shows around Baton Rouge with groups like Foxhunter and Common Folk. The band still regularly book shows at the Varsity Theatre and the Atomic Pop Shop, but lately have been playing bigger venues in New Orleans. Orange Joe has also played in both Texas and Mississippi.
The band performs frequently with local powerhouses Neutral Snap and Nice Dog, where they started debuting some of their new songs that have not been previously recorded.
With an unofficial spring break tour approaching for Orange Joe, the band members are hoping to have their record completely finished by then.
“We’re in the home stretch,” Friedman said. “At this point, it’s just a matter of getting everything mixed and mastered. We’re cranking them out.”