OF THE ORCHARD "WE'LL BE OKAY TOMORROW" REVIEW AND INTERVIEW
You can listen to the full interview with Of the Orchard on our Patreon..
Album art for We’ll Be Okay Tomorrow by Of The Orchard.
Imagine yourself on a perfectly sunny day cruising down the highway with the windows down and the music cranked to 11. Now imagine the feeling of hanging out with your best pals after school, eating nachos, blasting your favorite songs and singing along wildly as you forget your worries and soak in the moment. That comfort and familiarity of the simple pleasures of life is at work within this album, and it grabs you from the first song and doesn’t let go until the very last notes fade away.
The debut album from Minneapois-based Of The Orchard, “We’ll Be Okay Tomorrow”, is a bold and confident statement from the relatively new band. Starting in 2017 with the goal of creating 10 music videos in 10 consecutive months, vocalist and guitarist Ben Vanden Boogaard was joined by guitarist Zach Ward, bassist and vocalist Alec Thicke, and drummer Lewis Wethall to begin writing music and playing shows. Over the next two years, the band developed a tight chemistry together along with a homogeneity of their personal music styles that eventually led to this - their first full length LP.
The album begins the crack of a cold beverage (literally) and launches directly into “Champagne of Years”, featuring an excellent back beat that displays tightness and complexity without appearing complicated for the pop-punk style. Ben Vanden Boogaard’s lead vocals soar and take you immediately into the world of this album. Gritty guitars lead the way for the second track, “Hometown Heartbreak”, along with a technical drum part that is played flawlessly and drives the song into a chorus perfect for radio. “Tipsy on a Tuesday” features an energetic bass line from Alec Thicke, pushing the song forward the whole time with a nice woody, plucky tone .
Songs like “Out There” and “Heavyweight” provide a rhythmic departure from the predominantly driving punk style, the latter featuring acoustic guitar and a half time beat that harkens to an almost Goo Goo Dolls era of alternative rock. These tracks are well placed within the track lineup so as to keep the album from becoming too stylistically one-note. They also give the band a chance to show off their range of writing and playing styles, which they do with apparent ease.
“Find Me” is a great example of a mashing of styles, having a garage rock drum beat along with driving acoustic guitar to keep the song in more of a pop arena. That leads into “Chasing Heaven”, which is another curveball from the band - this one being almost entirely pop in nature, but featuring tones of overdriven guitars and a catchy melodic lead guitar line from Ward. Wethall, on the drums, is all over this track filling the spaces with creative fills and sneaky transitions while keeping the pace consistent and forward-moving. Just over halfway through this track, the entire beat changes on a dime and the song transforms into a new, satisfyingly slower rhythm that comes to a smooth ending. This is yet another example of the songwriting talent and musicianship shining across this album.
Overall, the blending of musical styles on is, perhaps, the most striking element at play; this album isn’t easily pigeon-holed into a specific genre. At its core there are heavy doses of pop-punk and rock ala early-aughts bands like Fall Out Boy and Panic! At The Disco. But as the album progresses, there is a lot more to unpack and enjoy - sprinkles of pure pop, driving sections of “road trip rock”, and lovely breaks of indie pop - that keep every song fresh and keeps the listener guessing from one song to the next. The songwriting is extremely tight and well rounded, one can easily tell how much care went into crafting each song to fit onto this record.
“We’ll Be Okay Tomorrow” closes out the record perfectly; a slower feel with chunky guitar chords that evoke a feeling of arriving at home after a long journey, with a feeling of bittersweet happiness inside that the trip is ending but the experience was worth it. The pacing on this record is well done, taking you on a ride that doesn’t let up, doesn’t get stale, and delivers a consistent style of production and songwriting from start to finish. A fine example of pop-punk at the forefront with splashes of other styles layered in, this album will make a fine addition to your listening catalog. The final lyric almost says it all, “I know this freedom is just something we borrow so let’s not waste tonight, we’ll be okay tomorrow”.
(Melodic Noise) What was your favorite aspect of recording this record?
(Of The Orchard - Ben) Probably the relief of finishing the writing. We had the song forms effectively done in April and I didn’t have the final words written until August, so once the vocals were done I had a lot of relief and could enjoy it a little more.
(Of the Orchard - Alec) For myself, probably some of the guitar stuff, just because I am also a guitar player (not just a bassist) and I love trying to dial in guitar tones. Working with these guys on that aspect was fun.
(MN) What is the next step for you, another album or an EP or single?
(Of the Orchard - Zach) Yeah, we have a few stray songs - one that didn’t make the album and a few from the ‘10 in 10’ that are up on Spotify as ‘One’, ‘Two’, and ‘Three’- that we’ve redone as acoustic versions and are on the horizon to record. I think the game plan going forward is eventually another full length will come, but with the tenor of the music industry right now you have to have releases pretty steadily. So, we are looking at a few EP’s after this of alternate song versions, B-sides, and little mini collections from the album that all follow the same theme.
(MN) Tell me how you guys formed as a band.
(OtO - Ben) We all met at the formerly known Mcnally Smith College of Music. Then after I graduated, I was doing a solo singer/songwriter thing and was looking to play more full band stuff. I was getting tired of just the solo acoustic and wanted the full band atmosphere. So, I recruited these guys and we decided to undertake this project where we were going to record a new song along with a music video every month for 10 months in a row. Midway through, as we started playing more, it felt more like a full band with everyone collaborating and having fun kicking it. We decided to change from just being my solo project to a full band, pick a name and start doing things as a full band
(OtO - Alec) But it’s good to note that the name still has to do with Ben, cuz it’s all about him.
(OtO - Ben) Of course, you still had to bring it back to me! But yeah, ‘Of The Orchard’ is from my last name, Vanden Boogaard, which, from Dutch to English, translates to ‘Of The Orchard.’
You can listen to the full interview with Of the Orchard on our Patreon..
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Review and interview by: Samithy Vandercamp, Writer @SamithyV
Edited by: Eric Martin, Writer @eamartin95
Also edited by: Andrew Perrizo, Owner/Writer @PlaylistTC
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