Nick Toohey – Orsome Welles

I’ll never forget the first time I saw Orsome Welles, and indeed my first encounter with these progressive metallers from Melbourne. It was during Orphaned Land‘s tour down under earlier in March this year where Orsome Welles served as the first opening act for the night alongside Voyager at The Espy, Gershwin Room. Aside from a brilliant show overall, what really sticks with me that night were the fans anticipating the live showing of this small, humble band from Melbourne. Having written about it at the time, I remember how there had been a few issues with passes that night, and how I and several others had been left waiting for confirmation to head inside; to the point that it cut into the first five-odd minutes of Orsome Welles’ set. But it was the frantic nature of those around me that stuck. Everyone was so voracious and eager to get inside, to the point where once word was given we’d been green-lit so to speak, in a mad rush, they all flocked to the front of the pit. Seeing that happen that night for what was such a relatively unknown local band was a remarkable thing to watch. Since then, Orsome Welles have been hard at work getting themselves out there in the scene and building towards the anticipated release of their debut EP, ‘Erth News Bulletin’. So, with all that being said, it was my recent pleasure to speak with Nick Toohey, guitarist for the band, about the latest on all things Orsome Welles.

Despite Toohey being rather tired having seen Melbourne beer-metallers (yep, that’s a term I just made up) Barbariön the night before – what Toohey himself described as a “very entertaining bunch!” – we had a good chat. I kicked things off by asking after the concept behind ‘Erth News Bulletin’. “There’s not a concept [as such], it’s more we recorded a lot of our songs and picked the ones that came out the best. We aim to write music that’s a little bit different to what’s out there. [Michael] Stowers,” Orsome Welles’ vocalist, “always likes to write his lyrics to be interpreted by the listener so they can put their meaning to it. We don’t like to tell people how to listen or how to think about what our music is about. We like to place the stepping stones for them to stimulate their minds. That’s the premise behind ‘Erth News Bulletin.'”

When asked what he felt the new EP did to build upon Orsome Welles’ sound, Toohey’s answer was interesting. “Well, it sort of encapsulates the diversity of what we do. There’s some significantly different sounding songs on there and I think what it does is it captures the diverse taste of every member of the band. We’ve all got our different likes and different genres that we come from, and a lot of that spills into the EP and I think it works out really well.”

To help promote ‘Erth News Bulletin’, Orsome Welles’ will be performing their EP launch at The Workers Club, Fitzroy this Friday (December 12). They’ll be joined by Full Code, Alithia, and Troldhaugen. I noted how excited they must be for this. His response had both of us cracking up: “Ah dude, it’s up there—it’s all the way out there, it’s on fucking Mars, man! [laughs] We’re totally excited!” Given that this show has by all merit been a fair while coming, I mused over the awesome energy Orsome Welles will undoubtedly bring on the night. “Yeah, we’ve been working our arses off – pretty much all year – working towards this moment. We’re really excited.”

Their plans moving into the New Year? “We’ve got a tour lined up with Caligula’s Horse which we’re really stoked about. We’re just looking to play a few more of the bigger shows and hopefully get back on Progfest, [as well as] writing new music. I think that’s the most exciting part about the EP release is the closure of those songs. We can move on, as writing is really what we love to do.”

‘Erth News Bulletin’ out December 12

Considering the rather unique mix of prog rock and metal Orsome Welles provide as a band, I mused to Toohey what are some of his influences musically: “For me personally it would be Coheed and Cambria [which are] one of my favourite bands. And then a bit of old school metal, like Black Sabbath. I sort of come from a more hardcore background, as well. My musical taste is retarded, I guess! [laughs] It’s all over the shop, man!” We shared a good laugh after this as I described to him I’m considered myself to have strange music taste for much the same reason, as I can go from blasting out some death metal to listening to a country track or something.

I asked if he had any last word’s he’d like to offer his fans before we wrapped up the interview. “The lineup is something we’re really stoked about. These bands are all going to bring something really special and unique, and we’ll be playing probably the longest set that people will have seen from us. We’ll have new merch, we’ll have the EP there, and we’ve got a few stage props that we’re hoping will impress. It’s going to be pretty high-energy and The Workers Club has a great atmosphere for this sort of gig.”

‘Erth News Bulletin’ EP Launch

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