The pandemic and the ensuing shutdown hit the local music community hard. Some bands dissolved entirely. Others morphed into something different from what they were before. Still others managed to get by with sparse shows and releasing streaming content. Then you have the crazy musicians who decided to start entirely new projects while the world seemingly burned around them.
One group of wild note crafters came together in 2020 to form Red Eye Orchestra, an up-and-coming indie rock outfit that genre bends jam elements with pop-punk vibes. Originally a songwriting outlet between AJ McKenney and Christian Robert, the band released their self-titled debut in 2020 as a demo tape. After releasing singles for two years and playing whatever shows they could muster, Red Eye Orchestra has finally released their first complete work in the EP Wishing Well.
The band considers Wishing Well to be a short album conceptually. The group produced, mixed, and mastered the EP themselves as self-production is at the core of the band’s DIY ethos. By incorporating analog technology into their recording process, Red Eye Orchestra made the record sound warm and smooth. Improvisation is built into the structure of the songwriting, adding a depth that can only be reached via live playing. For the band, music lives in the moment and not in repeated takes in an isolation booth.
After giving the EP a thorough listen, I think Red Eye Orchestra has captured a kind of ephemeral magic. They want their music to continue the tradition of listening to records with headphones in a dark, cozy room. With slick organ melodies and lively trumpet solos mixed in with the standard band formula of guitars and drums, Wishing Well feels culled from the classic immersive sounds of the sixties and seventies. Their single “Dirty Old Dawg” is the best example of this vintage vibe; however, each song on the EP is filled with blissful moments that add to the record’s dynamic sound. Overall it’s an impressive effort that rewards repeated listens. With Wishing Well, Red Eye Orchestra appear to be hitting all the right notes.
More Info:
Bandcamp: redeyeorchestra.bandcamp.com
Facebook: @redeyeorchestra
Instagram: @redeyeorchestra
SoundCloud: @redeyeorchestra
Twitter: @redeyeorchestra