Interview: Orchards @ ArcTanGent
Orchards by Jez Pennington
We caught up with Orchards at ArcTanGent festival, where the band brought their signature energy and vibrant sound to the stage. The Brighton-based band—comprised of vocalist Lucy Evers, guitarist Sam Rushton, and bassist Daniel Firth—have been gaining attention with their infectious blend of math-pop and indie rock, complemented by their dynamic live shows. With new singles "Sweetie Pie" and "I Feel Terrible" already captivating fans, Orchards are not just back—they’re evolving, experimenting, and ready to make their mark once again.
We chatted to the group before their ATG set all about their evolving sound, their upcoming tour, and what it means to be the "amuse-bouche" of the festival circuit.
Cannot wait for your set! We saw you at Truck which was great, but this ATG crowd feels like your people. We’re so looking forward to it.
Sam: It's only the second time we've played ArcTanGent, isn't it?
Lucy: And the first time was what? Years ago. I had short hair back then.
Daniel: I feel like most festivals we play now, we're like the odd band out, which is kind of cool. I like that.
Orchards by Jez Pennington
Lucy: Someone once called us an "amuse-bouche" or a "sorbet," and I quite like that.
Sam: The bill went: Conjurer opened, then us, then Rolo Tomassi. And we were like, "Yeah, we'll be the amuse-bouche, the palate cleanser in the middle of it all."
Lucy: The palate cleanser!
And we’re back for the 10th anniversary of ATG! How does it feel to be part of that?
Lucy: Oh, happy birthday!
Daniel: I was saying this on the drive down, when we first started the band, ATG was like the dream festival for us to play. So it's cool that we're back for our second year now, especially on the 10th anniversary. It's really cool.
Lucy: Is it ramm-o?
Daniel: Oh my God, my Instagram is just filled with people I know here posting about it. It's like a mate's fest, isn't it?
Lucy: So is 2000trees, especially for us. All of our mates are always at these festivals, so it's nice just to hang out.
So you had a single out recently, in June called "Sweetie Pie"?
Lucy: Yeah, we've just released it, called "Sweetie Pie." We've released two singles so far this year, "I Feel Terrible" and "Sweetie Pie," with fun videos.
You say that like it's a bad thing?
Sam: Lucy is wearing the dress from the "Sweetie Pie" video.
Lucy: I'm not, actually! It’s Daniel that’s colour blind, not you.
Sam: You’ve got two pink princess dresses?
Lucy: No, this is pink; the one in the "Sweetie Pie" video is green.
Sam: Oohh yeah, it is. You’re right.
Lucy: I was debating on the way here whether to go with a green corset and white jeans or a big pink puffy dress. And I was like, fuck it, no one else is gonna be wearing a big pink puffy dress. So I'll look like a big hot, overheated raspberry in the middle of the festival.
Orchards by Jez Pennington
It is a sea of black here.
Daniel: Yeah, that's why we’re all wearing something colourful so we stand out!
Lucy: Sorbet! Raspberry sorbet!
Sam: Literally amuse-bouche!
Tell me more about what you're working on. You had an album out in 2020. What have you been up to since?
Daniel: We released our debut album in 2020.
Lucy: On the 13th of March, and it was Friday the 13th. I still blame myself.
Sam: I'm not saying it was our fault, but...
Daniel: After the lockdown, we wrote a five-track EP called "Trust Issues" that we released in 2021. Then we had a bit of a hiatus, did some different things, and focused on other stuff. But now we're writing new music with our friend Jack and recording. That's where "I Feel Terrible" and "Sweetie Pie" came from. We've got more songs written, but….
Sam: We can't say much more.
Lucy: It's a secret. (Read between the liiines.)
Daniel: There might be more music before the year's out ;)
Sam: I hope there is.
Lucy: Me too.
Well we can tell from the new singles, and maybe things we’ve heard, theres ‘dark sonics, sickly sweet vocals, jangly welcoming guitars, and an air of bitterness’. That's a lot of emotion.
Lucy: Ooohh, we are full of emotion, I’ll be honest with you. What I like to say is, we write happy-sounding songs for very sad people. That's what we've done with this album. Not to get too crystally with everyone, but there was something called a Lion's Gate Portal last August, and there’s another one this August. It was a very emotional time for everyone in our lives. And I thought, "Fuck it, I'm gonna write a breakup album." I don't usually write lyrics about love explicitly, but eight couples we know broke up in the same two weeks. It was on our minds. So it’s very introverted, I guess? Lyrically, I always try to be a bit weird, odd? Sad probably. We've sort of run with that.
Orchards by Jez Pennington
We wrote the first the single we released at the start this year with our wonderful friend Jack and Natty from Fickle Friends, and they brought out a really different version of us. I guess we're used to writing in the same way, and we sort of stripped everything back and started afresh and tried to write more consciously, I suppose.
Sam: Yeah, the writing process was very different this time. Because we've been writing together for years now, we find ourselves very easily falling into the same musical tropes. it's us in a room smashing out riffs and screaming at each other. But this time, to work with other people and to do things really differently, everything was written and recorded in the studio
Lucy: And really picking stuff apart this time.
Sam: We've always tried to take things as far as we possibly can until we take it to a point where it’s a bit mental, and then we bring it back a bit. And we’ve kept that approach about us so it still sounds like us.
Daniel: We're definitely very proud of the new music we've been writing. It's a big change for us; and it's nice to be a bit more personal and introspective.
Lucy: We're very emotional people. We've got a Sagittarius, a Virgo, and an Aries all in one room—of course, we're going to write weird shit.
Daniel: It's a shitstorm of emotions.
Lucy: Oh, it really is. And that will…oh no I shouldn’t say.
Sam: I knew you were! I was about to mute your mic!
Lucy: That will all become apparent as to why something is called something.
Orchards’ latest single, “Sweetie Pie,” is out now via Big Scary Monsters. Stay tuned for more updates from the band, and catch them live on their mini-tour this October.
Ooh well you’ve already answered some of my questions about meanings and vibes so let’s just ask, if you’re writing, what can we say about narratives and sonics we’ll be exploring in the future?
Lucy: Oh, it's very different.
Daniel: Sonically, we've gone a bit more rock and roll, but heavier in some ways. We've even got our first-ever ballad, which includes recordings of a train.
Lucy: And the front door of our producer's house is featured in a song!
Daniel: We even managed to get the Wilhelm scream in there.
Sam: There's a Jaguar growl on "I Feel Terrible."
I…don't know if you're pulling my leg.
Sam: No, it's there. Watch us today when we play "I Feel Terrible" and see if you can hear the Jaguar scream.
Daniel: But then also, he kind of grew up as we did, as a metalhead. So it does have the riffs and a bit of heaviness. He likes to go a bit nuts with it. Not too sparkly pop.
Lucy: It's fun having four little emo kids in a room going, "let's write something cute and sparkly". Whatever comes out is kind of what it is. There's odd shit.
Odd stuff on the way, and a headline tour this October?
Daniel: Yes, our first headline dates in about two years. We're doing a little mini-tour. It's gonna be really fun. We'll be playing, I imagine, a lot more new stuff.
Lucy: To run some songs out, you know? That's how we trial stuff as musicians. We write songs to play them live.
Sam: I reckon people lie when they say ‘I just write songs for myself’. We write music that we love, but we write it to play it live.
Orchards by Jez Pennington
Daniel: To party with our friends.
Sam: Yeah, to have our fans engage with us. There’s always some fans that crop up in our minds when we write tunes and we think, “oh they’re gonna love this bit.” We are an energetic band live and we can’t do it without people giving us the energy back.
Lucy: We're very energetic. I honestly don't know where it comes from—caffeine I think?
Sam: It comes from the crowd, deffo for me.
Daniel: It’s just the stage fear. You just let it all out jumping around.
Incredible. So when we’re not writing, who are you listening to right now?
Daniel: I've been smashing Brat by Charli XCX. I love that record. I’ve been a Charli stan for many a year.
Sam: I've been smashing Willow's new record, "M Pathogen." It's contemporary jazz but I swear there's bits on it that are like math rocky. It's crazy. It's amazing.
Lucy: I'm standard, as always, I'm listening to Chris Stapleton and I will do that until the day I die. And if anyone out there in the world can get me a ticket to his O2 show, I'd be really grateful.
Sam: @orchardslive on Instagram. DMs are open.
Anything else we should know?
Lucy: All our socials are @orchardslive. We're trying to be Tiktok cute, so if someone wants to come be Tiktok cute with us, that'd be really nice.
