“Turning Back Again” is simple, yet nonetheless enchanting: Orchard invites listeners into his world of observation and action, sharing the sights and sounds of a wanderer searching for blips of knowing in an uncertain world. His first significant album release since littleboybigheadonbike’s 2018 album BIG BLUE BUTTERFLIES, Old Friends On The Mountain looks to mark the beginning of an exciting new chapter in Will Orchard’s nascent, yet already quite vibrant musical career.
- From ATWOOD MAGAZINE
There’s a small stream in forested Connecticut separating the often brittle world we live in from a more beautiful, unseen world where spirits watch you, laughing at your joys and crying at your sorrows. Magic rain falls on your roof one night, nearly leaking pure memory into your mind. The next night, a silver horse emerges from those woods and wanders into your house. You wake up with an inexplicable, lingering sense of joy in your heart. These are the visions in the mind of Will Orchard - a prolific songwriter bred in New England.
Around age 16, Will began an endless internal journey that was rooted in mindfulness and catharsis. As he began to churn out over 150 songs each year, creativity became less and less possessive. As songs would pass through him, he grew to see them not as his own, but small morsels of magic simply filtered through him. By the time Orchard began to tour around the US at age 19 under the moniker LittleBoyBigHeadOnBike, he had self released literally one hundred collections of songs on bandcamp. Mostly self produced, these releases were often colorful and experimental, paying little regard to consistency and instead favoring collage-like storytelling.
Following a long spree of DIY touring in 2017-2018, Orchard took a few months of reflection to rethink his methods of creating. Now renaming the project as simply Will Orchard, he emerges with a concise, vulnerable record titled Old Friends on the Mountain. Having found a new sense of truth in Americana sensibilities, Orchard self recorded eight songs in various living spaces around New England, often peppering the arrangements with sparkly but subdued electronics and ambience. Proceeding to work with engineer Jeff Prystowsky (The Low Anthem), the record was mixed in two long days in Providence, RI. Old Friends on the Mountain is entwined with longing: for lost imagination, friends long gone, and memories slipping away. Each listen reveals more depth on both a sonic and emotional level - you might find yourself recalling your first Halloween, or the feeling of wet grass on your bare feet. The record pays tribute to the quiet, unsung moments we have with ourselves - moments that help us learn to embrace the people we truly are.
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