Orphan City

from WikiMusicGuide, the free music guide. Your music wiki.

Orphan City is a two part, un-signed band from Marietta, Ohio. Front man, Donovan, formed Orphan City in 2006. According to their web site,

"Orphan City covers day to day relateable experiences in the lyrics and mixes genres of: Indie/Electronica/Folk/Post Rock/Ambient music, but doesn't limit the musical possibilities." [1]

Contents 1 History 2 Band Members 3 Influences 4 Musical Characteristics 5 Equipment 6 Discography 7 Awards and Contests 8 Side Projects 9 External Links

History

• Donovan Butts was born in Charleston, West Virginia and was raised in Riply, West Virgina until the age of 8. His family moved back to Charleston with him, until he was the age of 11. He then moved to Marietta, Ohio with his parents and older sister, Courtney. He started playing music in 7th grade, shortly after his father bought him a guitar at a pawn shop. The self taught guitar player was part of many bands including: TPT, Leonardo Leonardo, and Madeara Frames.

• Annalea Thompson was born Washington D.C. and moved to Marietta when she was the age of 2. She started to play the panio when she was 7 years old. She, then later, learned to play the bass guitar. She met Donovan through joining the band Madeara Frames, in late 2006.

Donovan was working on music for Orphan City when Medeara Frames broke up. Annalea showed further interest in working with Donovan, so she asked to join Orphan City with him.

Band Members

• Donovan Butts (born February 14, 1988) - Lead vocals, guitar, programming/keyboard, and drums. Donovan records and produces all the songs for Orphan City. He is also a proud Christian.
  

  

  Annalea

  "Orphan City isn't Christian music, but I don't play negative music either. I praise God in prayers and in my daily life. I play music for God, because He's blessed me with the gift of music. I have such a diverse style in music that if I played Christian music, I'd feel limited to one subject. It's cool to think I'm just your average person whose a musician, but I have a strong relationship with Christ." (Orphan City Blog "Finding God", line 69-76) [2]

• Annalea Thompson (born April 1, 1990) - Keyboards

• Courtney Butts (born February 17, 1986) - Live Keyboards

Influences

Donovan gives Danny Elfman as a top musical influence. He is also influenced and inspired by Dntel's Jimmy Tamborello, Pink Floyd and Indian artists, The Radha Krishna Temple.

Annalea is influenced by Sufjan Stevens, Elliott Smith and Sigur Ros.

Musical Characteristics

Orphan City has a unique sound with each song they orchestrate.

• "Icelandinc Conversations" is pulled together with a soft sounding panio, glockenspiels, vibraphones, and other bell instruments. It mixes real drums with glitchy electronic drum beats, completeing the dream like sound scape.

• "Cardboard Passports" incorporates the more folk style of music they play, with the acustic guitar and piano. The songs starts off slow and then it builds up until the end.

"Cardboard Passports is about me (Donovan) feeling overwhelmed with everything going on around me. At the time, I was unmotivated because I lacked confidence in everything I did. I think it's a song that everyone can relate to." - Donovan

The sound of their other songs seem to follow the same orignal pattern, just like song titles them self.

Equipment

• Micro Korg
• Korg Prophecy
• Acoustica Mixcraft 3, Pro tools
• Boss drum machines/samplers
• Moog
• Propellerhead
• Rode microphone
• E-Mu and Studiologic midi controllers
• Fender bass/guitar
• Marshall stack

Discography

In 2006, Orphan City released their first album, self titled "Orphan City", as a solo project. This album consisted of 17 songs. "You have God in you" was the first demo off that album. (Fan made music video for "You have God in you.[3]) They also released a video for the song "Landing Music" [4] Orphan City is curently working on their second EP, as a duel collaboration between Donovan and Annalea.

Awards and Contests

Orphan City won the first round of the 2007 Bodog Battle of the bands. They lost the second round of the compitation. They then went on to the Wildcard compitation and got second place with 21.8% of the votes. They did not advance any further. [5] [6]

Side Projects

• Counting Dinosours - An electroclash, screaming, band with screamer, Nathan Stewart, created January 5, 2008. [7]
• Donovan's Beats - A rap/hip hop solo project, created September 2, 2006. [8]

External Links

http://www.myspace.com/Orphancity
http://www.myspace.com/CountingDinosaurs
http://www.myspace.com/DonovansBeats
http://www.myspace.com/ChristianMyspacePage