by Jesse Davidson
Marc Orrell is a man of many talents. Not only is he a guitarist, spontaneous pianist, and songwriter but he is also the band leader and vocalist for Wild Roses. Formerly, Marc has played guitar in Dropkick Murphy’s and The Black Pacific. He’s also a rad dude that was rad enough to answer some questions we had for him after seeing Wild Roses at the Lancaster Moose Lodge. We caught up with him via the internets and this is what he had to say.
Jesse Davidson: It’s been a few years since Wild Roses was founded. How has the experience of being a front man and leading a band been compared to just playing in a band?
Marc Orrell: I moved to Los Angeles 7 years ago and it’s taken a while to find the perfect bunch of guys that I have now.
You jam with some… and they don’t work out… and you move on to find the next. For me, being a leader means making decisions. I try to be fair and kind in my decisions. I tell myself, “Treat others the way you want to be treated… Also… Will you hurry up, Love? Some of us want to jam today…”
Be fair. Be quick. That’s proper leading to me.
JD: When I saw the band live, I was only able to experience “Mild Roses” as it was dubbed because you only had JC August on pedal steel with you. How did you, JC and the other three members of the band meet and form the group? (Sean Winchester on drums/percussion, Chris Cheney on electric guitar, and Jeff Roffredo on Upright and Electric Bass)
MO: We all live in LA. We were kinda distant friends of friends in the beginning but I got up the courage to call them. They’re so fucking talented. I’m so lucky. I love them all.
JC and I did a WR tour with a few other members in the earlier days. Then I took a year off playing live and did some recording in Nashville. Jeff has been playing bass with us for about 2 years. Met him on the ’11 Warped Tour. He with The Aggrolites. Me with The Black Pacific. Lunch mates.
Chris and I are old buddies from DKM touring days. Since then, we’ve done some songwriting together and he said he missed playing in a band, being in LA and so far away from TLE in Australia. I said, “Man… you can come jam with us if you want.” He fit like a glove.
Sean rehearses in a room down the hall from my rehearsal space. I convinced him to come jam with us as well. That was over a year ago. Such a solid drummer.
Since then I got the offer to play in the live band of Fat Mike’s (NOFX) musical “Home Street Home” up in San Francisco. Besides the musical director, Mike didn’t have anyone else. I was able to recruit all of Wild Roses (except JC) to move up to SF for a month and play as the live band. Amazing experience.
JD: With Dropkick Murphy’s and now Wild Roses, it seems like you prefer to play in bands that feel like large ensembles with more moving parts than just a straight up rock band. How do you feel about that?
MO: It doesn’t feel large to me. That seems just right to fit our type of songs. Much more interesting too.
JD: Forgive me if you’ve been asked this a million times but how did end up joining Dropkick Murphys? I’m a goober and I like to know that kind of stuff.
MO: DKM were originally a 4 piece. Guitar, bass, drums, and vocals. Then my buddy James Lynch joined as a second guitarist, making them a 5 piece, and my head exploded with joy. Shortly after, the original guitarist, (Rick Barton) left the group and the band wanted to continue with two guitars. James called me up since I had just quit high school at 17. Long story short, through a few tryouts, I got the job and my first gig was in Tokyo, Japan with Dropkick Murphys. I was over the fucking moon.
JD: In doing some research for this, I read an old interview for Epitaph Records in 2003 where you talked about touring and called yourselves, “Pirates sailing the seas of asphalt”. That’s a great expression because being in a band is kind of like that. Has your years touring changed your perspective on life at all?
MO: Haha! That sounds like a Matt Kelly line!
My touring days have slowed down at the moment. WR has done a couple but nothing recent. Ask me again next year!
JD: What are some way you’ve learned about the music business over the years?
MO: I try to stay out of the business side. I’m a musician first. I can show you a G major chord…
JD: Given what instruments you play and types of groups you’ve played with, you can hear wide variety of influences in your playing and songwriting. Do any of these influences come from a non-musical place?
MO: I love Bob Ross. The PBS landscape painter. I don’t know if that comes out as an influence in my writing but I really dig his outlook on life (minus the god bothering). He has lines like, “We don’t make mistakes… We have happy accidents.” And the peaceful vibes he gives off. Naturally and effortlessly creating in the most harmonious way. I wanna do that. The paint brush and knife sounds scraping the canvas make my heart slow down a few BPMs too.
JD: Is there something you haven’t done as an artist yet you’d like try in the future?
MO: I’m dying to be a cartoon voice! I wanna be a cartoon! A goofy one too! I’d love to be a cartoon as myself freaking out about being a cartoon. Or a monkey. Or a robot. Or a robot monkey.
JD: Any news or info on Wild Roses coming up you’d like people to know about?
MO: We’ve been doing some recording, and playing shows in California. No set releases yet. Follow us @wildrosesrock for shows and updates. Stay tuned!
Thanks for your time Marc. For more info on Wild Roses, click the links below
Wild Roses: Facebook
Wild Roses: Instagram