In this interview spotlight, I chat with Half an Orange about their latest project, challenges, technology and more.
Full Q&A along with links and music below.
Where are you from and what style of music do you create? (In your own words, not necessarily in marketing terms or by popular genre classifications.)
We are from the state of Ohio in the United States. Our music tells the story of our lives and experiences. We grew up playing acoustic music and began producing electronic music when we met in school. We sing, write, record, perform, and produce our music.
What led you down this path of music and what motivates you to keep going?
Making music is part of who we are. We rarely have days where we aren’t in the studio writing and playing. Whenever we feel sad or down we immediately pick up an instrument as a way to center and find ourselves.
How is this new release different than previous ones? Were you trying to accomplish anything specific?
Our newest song, Time Travel Kool Aid, releases February 4th. A lot of our fans wanted to see us challenge ourselves vocally with a more physically demanding performance. This song has arguably our strongest vocals to date.
Name one or two challenges you face as an indie musician in this oversaturated, digital music age? How has technology helped you (since we know it does help)?
Getting noticed is by far the hardest challenge in digital spaces. Our strategy is to try and be different. We began animating our music videos ourselves as a way to tell our story in a more unique and personalized way. Our newest song, Time Travel Kool Aid, has the biggest budget we’ve ever had for our animation. Investing in our brand and story makes the biggest impact on fan growth.
What was the last song you listened to?
We just put together the last cut for the Time Travel Kool Aid music video 20 minutes ago. That was the last song we heard. Kind of embarrassing to say it’s our own song we last heard.
Which do you prefer? Vinyl? CDs? MP3s?
Music videos. We LOVE music more than anything. However, there’s nothing better than taking our fans on a full journey through our universe with both video and music.
How about this one…. Do you prefer Spotify? Apple Music? Bandcamp? Or something else? Why?
Spotify and Apple have both been incredibly supportive of our music. We’ve been featured on some of their biggest playlists. Spotify’s new Spotify Canvas feature has been a blast. By using it, we actually turned our Mostly We Grow EP into a game. Head to the Spotify Canvas on Mostly We Grow Part 1 or Part 2 in Spotify and see if you can find the two hiding orange astronauts in the Spotify Canvas.
Where is the best place to connect with you online and discover more music?
Subscribe to our YouTube channel or follow us on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, our SoundCloud. We have a pretty active Discord server too.
Anything else before we sign off?
Mostly We Grow.
