Meet The Best New Band of 2006 From Hollywood, California: ORSON:

Jason Pebworth, vocals, piano

George Astasio, guitar

Kevin Roentgen, guitar

Johnny Bentjen, bass

Christopher Cano, drums

It’s a cold Wednesday in one of the greatest musical cities in the world, Liverpool, sitting in front of me are five chaps from the City Of Angeles, who might just be able to save ‘Pop’ music, and yes, this band could be that important…

I start by asking the chaps to fill us in a little on the history of the band, the words ‘Overnight Sensation’ and ‘Fast-traxx’ have been used by many people about the band. They have been hailed as the missing link between The Rolling Stones and Scissor Sisters, and they tell me that, “We have been trying to break through for FIVE years, so if that’s fast, we are sure glad we did not stay in the slow lane!” and with that the band sums up where it’s at in 2006.

Having ended 2005 in a whirlwind their debut UK performance was at Manchester’s In The City in October 2005, Jason tells us “Artic Monkeys had a sold-out show, so all the people that could not get in to see them, came to see us… Luckily one of them offered us a deal; right place, right time; luck plays such an important part in anything you do.” They were immediately signed to a major publishing deal with Universal anb by November they had been signed by Mercury Records and closed the year supporting Duran Duran in arenas. “That was just awesome, the audience really got into us every night, and the Duran guys were great.” February 2006 saw the release of their debut single ‘No Tomorrow’ and the band embarked on their first UK tour.

Orson play what their singer Jason Pebworth calls simply “two-guitar power-pop,” or, equally simply, “rock and roll that girls can dance to.” The first song that Orson released to the public, ‘No Tomorrow’, was the most downloaded i-Tunes ‘Single Of The Week’ in Apple’s history. The band had grown an army of fans through the Internet. Jason states: “We put up a lot of songs on the net, and it just seemed to explode, we were able to play some great local area shows, but it did not seem to be breaking nationally, so when we had the chance to come over this side of the planet, we took it. We spent the weekend, went back home and just spent so much time on the phone sorting out contracts, speaking to lawyers etc. Then we had this crazy, lucky break opening up for Duran Duran, we had the holidays at home, came back again at the end of January and now we officially live here. Six months ago we all had day jobs, supporting ourselves, so our plan? Well did we plan to be doing this? NO! but we will take it…”

Johnny: “Tonight’s show is sold out, which is becoming a theme for this tour, which is blowing our minds, all the stuff that surrounds us; being on TOTP, radio airplay, the cover of the Sunday Times magazine etc; is so surreal, it takes some time to digest. So we are just concentrating on taking the show on the road, playing great shows every night, it’s just about getting in the van and playing the gig. It’s now a nicer van, which we live in.” Jason continues: “Back in the USA we sold out all the copies of the album we had done just at gigs, but we needed to go to another level. So we decided to concentrate over here for now, and we have not done anything back home, and are going to be outside of North America for most of the year.”

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Orson formed in 2000 around a core of Jason Pebworth and guitarist George Astasio. The group took its name from Hollywood legend Orson Welles. There are two reasons for this. Firstly, they admired the great man¹s work. Jason: “Orson Welles was a maverick who took a lot of shit and made a lot of enemies, yet his art stood the test of time. Secondly, we saw a sandwich named after him and reckoned that the name just sounded good. We were in a little coffee shop in Hollywood and there was a list of sandwiches: the Greta Garbo, the Clark Gable, the Orson Welles. That got me thinking…” (Note: the sandwich was filled with Gouda cheese and pickles, and none of the band ate one.)

Over time, the Orson name has taken on greater significance. Jason explains, “We¹re having a little fun with the fact that we¹re based in Hollywood. There are so many bands from Hollywood, and none of them seem to have any sense of being from here. I love the mystique that this place has. That’s why we wear hats everywhere, as a nod to the Old Hollywood.”

The band has plenty of new material ready for record two, Jason explains: “We were in the process of writing album number two when we got the deal; we had at least two albums worth when we recorded the debut; and had to narrow five years worth into ten songs, so there were a few left over. We have 15 – 20 songs floating around ready to be recorded, but finding the time to do that could prove the hardest task, also the production on the first record was done by Noah Shane who is a local LA producer, an ‘Up & Comer’ is the term in the business, so we would like to use him again as a payback for his hard work. But also if you can imagine the hardest possible way to record an album, that’s what we did.” Jason expands: “We used Pro-tools which had people screaming at us to use analogue tape, but it takes too long, costs way too much, and you can waste half your budget… We did it in a garage, and it was how you would think; crates with records on, crates with amps on; real basic, broken drum kit, half-ripped poster of Neil Young on the wall, with a computer in the corner, that kind of shit! But cool shit!”

Drummer Chris interjects, “Noah had this real small room, that was a control room type of set-up; it was really a closet; then he had this medium sized room, and then he had a photo-suite which was by far the largest, a gymnasium style room, which his room mate (who is a photographer) uses. So we set up in each room and played each song three times! We then listened back and chose the best versions. When the drums were set up, it was a case of ten tracks played three times, then moving all the gear to the middle and then the smaller room and doing the same. So we were playing the songs 90 times, which was often not the best of things… The drums took two weeks, which was insane, because we were all just taking time off where we could from the day jobs. Whoever was available came down, but the end result was awesome.” I asked teh guys about musical influences. Chris has diverse influences, “I grew up listening to Motown, Staxx, Zeppelin and Maiden, which explains my heavy hitting yet melodic playing which fits right in with the rest of the guys.”

Jason Pebworth, however, is an unconventional rock singer. Before putting Orson together, he performed for several years in various theatre productions. He writes songs on piano, having never learned to play guitar, although he often wishes he had, because, of course, “it’s more authentically rock and roll.” And his influences are a mixture of just about anything and everything. “I love Broadway tunes.” he declares, “and I love Black Sabbath.” Growing up in Texas, Jason ‘absorbed’ soft rockers Hall & Oates, The Doobie Brothers, Steely Dan plus Memphis and Philly soul. The first album Jason bought was Queen’s THE GAME . “That album blew my little blond head off!” he laughs. “They were toying with post-punk and disco and it sounded terrific.” During his college years, Nirvana inspired him to think about being in a band of his own. Obsessions with Jeff Buckley’s GRACE and Radiohead’s OK COMPUTER followed. “Anything that was straight ahead, I really loved, like Elvis Costello, The Pretenders and massively into the Scorpions!” And now? “As a band, we’re into Led Zeppelin, Flaming Lips, Beck, Bjork. I’m a huge ELO fan basically, Jason confesses, “I’ve stolen from every human being that ever wrote a song!”

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Guitarist Kevin jumps right in, “I listened to my records as much as my mom’s. My mom’s collection was the Carpenters and Cat Stevens, which were awesome, but as a kid it’s kind of a dirty secret, listening to your parents records. But the kids I hung out with were a little older, listening to Sabbath and Kiss, so they were my first real Rock moments.” Bass player Johnny, however, is the dark lord of Orson, their Flea! “Growing up in Los Angeles in the 90’s, I made the point of having an LA Pride thing, which was part of my personality, Fishbone, Jane’s Addiction, Red Hot Chilli Peppers, and the bands that influenced them: Parliament, Madness! Mike Watt, cats like that and the music they were making. The more off-the- wall, the better. The sound of the LA underground was the soundtrack to my life.” Orson’s ‘Other’ guitarist George finishes off: “My style was always following whatever was new on the radio at the time, it just moved along real fast, growing up. Like Kevin, my mom’s records really had an influence, I’m not just saying this because we are in Liverpool… but The Beatles!”