Orquesta is the singular project of musical oddball Orlando FitzGerald. The eccentric Irishman has been making music for half a decade now, as well as DJing, curating and promoting, and launching his own label Meles Meles last year. His efforts have garnered interest and acclaim from local and international press. This year he is one of just two Irish participants at the prestigious Red Bull Music Academy in New York, and he has just released the delectable “Bray” EP through RBMA. He’s crafted for us a mix that crosses the globe while making you dance before going inside your head and conjuring up emotions primal and wistful. He also kindly took the time to sit with us and talk about his influences, how he’s seen “Boogie Nights” more than 100 times, and why he’s only ever done one live show.

Stream/Download: Orquesta – Bray (RBMA)

Could you describe yourself, musically speaking? “I’ve been making music for ages, under different names. I started producing a few years ago, making Latin American-influenced club music, that was from DJing, but I found myself making less club music and then the Latin influence dropped off a bit. I just make music, mostly with my computer, a bit with my MPC, do all my percussion live. I do different instruments like guitar live, and occasionally have plans to big live projects. That’s pretty much it.”

You’ve been making music for a few years in lots of different styles, and under different names? “When I first started producing, I had only been making the stuff as Orquesta. I started playing in a band when I was younger with my girlfriend, punk bands (not particularly good ones) and metal bands. I didn’t just pick up a laptop and start to make music, music’s what I’ve always done”

So it’s just been a progression to this point. Do you mainly produce in Reason? “I use Reason and to record audio I actually use GarageBand and then I bring it into Reason. It’s okay. It’s not great, I’m just really used to it, I’m comfortable with it and I don’t like the idea of spending a few weeks learning a new program.” If the end result is good, it doesn’t matter what you use as long as you’re comfortable. “Yeah, there are certain things I’d like to change about Reason. I want to eventually, slowly, start using the MPC and maybe just hardware, maybe get a multitrack or something like, and do the editing on Cubase or something. I want to make “real” music. When you say ‘real music’, you mean outside the box? “I mean, yeah, not to a click track and with real instruments – not on a computer. Obviously that is “real” music, but for me, what I want to do doesn’t have that any more. It does at the moment, obviously, but for the future, that’s my plan. I want to buy a drum kit.”

And what’s your setup now, where do you record? “I moved home to my dad’s house two years ago to work on music, and then I’m moving out next month. I’m just in my bedroom there and to do instruments I just hang up a couple of towels, and it’s really primitive. It’s like a really bad sound card and a live microphone, I don’t know. It’s pretty basic. I’m not really an audiophile, I don’t think, I just like music. I don’t know any of the technicalities of music or anything, or the technicalities of recording, I kind of just do it. It’s more natural or organic? “Yeah, organic I guess. Just by ear. I get a compressor out and do it until it sounds good, not really know[ing] what I’m doing, kind of by ear. Although I’ve learned from doing it what things do, I did a course in music technology but I don’t have a clue, really. I was the worst in my class, seriously. I dropped out of a shitty art course and then did a course in Ballyfermot, music technology. It was pretty good. It was about the only free music technology course, I couldn’t have afforded to pay the 10 grand or whatever people pay. It was really good, I learned how to use Reason there, and how to use a studio – although I’m not sure if I could.”

Stream: Orquesta – Kokomo (ft Jape, Kathi Burke & Katie Kim)

You’re in this year’s Red Bull Music Academy – do you think that’s going to expand your experience? What do you hope to get out of it? “Well, there’s certain things I’d like to be able to do to my songs or just know what I’m doing a bit better. I’m talking like I don’t know anything, in retrospect. I’m just saying I’m not an audiophile, really. From Red Bull, just meeting cool people and making music with people is what I hoped to get out of it! I love collaborating with people and I love getting people to do vocals as well, or working with singular musicians.I worked with this amazing saxophone player and viola player. Just messing around and making music with them was fantastic. That and also the lectures, that’s pretty much the main thing. Someone was talking to me who went to it a few years ago. He was just talking about studio time,’ aw yeah, it was great getting loads of studio time!’ I have studio time all the time, I just use my computer, you know! Although I’m sure they have incredible dope stuff, I’m just really into the lectures. Man, the lectures are just amazing! The people they get are just unbelievable.”

Is there anyone in particular you’re looking forward to? “It hasn’t been announced yet. They’ve announced the events every night. I presume they’re not going to get Giorgio Moroder to play without having him lecture as well. I’m bummed.. Brian Eno’s in the first time and I’m in the second, though I’ve heard they lecture twice but I don’t know if that’s true. You never see two lectures on the internet. Live shows? I’m looking forward to them although there’s too many. I guess the United States of Bass thing is going to be absolutely amazing, they’ve got someone from each state who’s involved in bass music. They’ve got Afrika Bambaataa from New York, Egyptian Lover from LA, DJ Assault, DJ Magic Mike, Spinn and Rashad, DJ Funk, Big Freedia, all sorts of just good music. That’s gonna be a pretty fun night. I hope that James Murphy will do a lecture as well, because he’s doing that big DFA thing, and I like him a lot.” And obviously you’re playing as well? “Yeah, I’m playing with Benji B, FaltyDL, Somepoe and Dorian Concept. Somepoe, I think he’s in the course as well. I’m looking forward to it.”

So you’re DJing then. Do you mainly DJ? I know you did that one show last year in The Grand Social, but you haven’t played live much? “Yeah, I’ve only done one live show. I have a couple of things I’m going to be working on, I usually DJ because that’s what I’m really comfortable doing, and when I first made Orquesta it was just a studio project, I was doing little remixes and club songs to play when I DJ. Then it became less stuff that I could play when I DJ’ed, so the need for a live show came around. I didn’t want to set up a live show, cause most electronic live shows, they’re pretty boring to look at, coming from live bands I wanted to do something interesting like that. I got an MPC and got some friends who played instruments and did one live show because I didn’t want to load. When I used to play in other bands something else I learned was that people don’t really go to a lot of live shows in the same city if you’re playing over and over again. And all the people who were playing in my band had other things going on.” Who was in your band? “Brendan from Cloud Castle Lake. He plays guitar. My friend Cáit, who I DJ with sometimes, she played synths. My friend Ben, who doesn’t really play music but used to play the drums with me when I was a kid, I got him to take out some percussion instruments. And then I had my MPC, and Katie Kim did some vocals and Kathi [Burke] did some vocals as well. So, that was pretty fun.”

You have a blog with Cáit, and you DJ together – what’s that project like? “We have music that we listen to together, when I’m with her we listen to 80s disco and boogie and we’d like Egyptian Lover a lot. “White Horse” is one of our favourite songs ever, and some deep house as well, nothing too shitty, good stuff! She did a bit of DJing but she didn’t really know how to mix, and I was like ‘we should DJ together, if I teach you how to DJ properly will you be in a DJ duo with me?’ And she said yes, so we got a couple of gigs, but she moved to Berlin. We still put some songs up on that blog, just songs we like; it’s kind of just a fun project. But I have a lot of things like that; I do a lot of side projects.”

You had a screening of “Stop Making Sense” right? “I did it once at True Stories [the night Orlando used to run in Dublin’s Bernard Shaw] and once at The Twisted Pepper as part of something else. Talking Heads are my favourite band, easily, hands down, always have been. My dad used to play them when I was a kid, and now I have all their records and I like them a lot. David Byrne is one of my idols. If I could meet him or watch him do a Red Bull Music Academy lecture, that’d be pretty great.” So, that would be your dream lecture? “Yeah. Well, there’s a few dream lectures. Egyptian Lover would be pretty cool as well. I like Egyptian Lover. But David Byrne is the big one. Everything, my connection that I feel to David Byrne is past music and past anything like that. I feel spiritually he’s a big influence on me. Talking Heads represent a lot, through a connection to my childhood. They’re just great.”

Would you ever make a film? “I would totally be into doing that, but I have way more important things to spend money on. If someone gave me a really cool camera and a couple of weeks to do it, I would definitely make a film. I’d be interested in doing music videos and stuff, it’s just something that I want to do but I could never find the time or money to do it. But I watch a lot of films.” What’s your favourite film? “Like, of all time? “Jurassic Park”. I’ll have a favourite film for a couple of years that outshines how much I like “Jurassic Park”, but “Jurassic park” is the consistent [favourite]. Same [thing] as Talking Heads – it’s always there, there’s one-off things that’ll show up for a while. For a couple of years it was “The Shining” when I was 17 or 18, then it was “Boogie Nights”. I like dumb 80s films, and exploitation films. All these people into arty film, they like PT Anderson but they’re like ‘his best film is There Will Be Blood’. And it’s great, all his films are great, but I like Boogie Nights and they’re like ‘No, that’s his lowbrow film’, and I’m like ‘no, it’s amazing. It’s about porn!’ The soundtrack is unbelievable. It’s just sick, hit after hit. And the actors, Don Cheadle is just the coolest. I like the 80s imagery. I think I’ve seen that film more than a hundred times. Three or four years ago when it was one of my favourites, I used to be getting drunk with people in my house and I’d say ‘Okay, I’m putting it on’ and everyone would leave and go to the club. I’d say ‘No, I gotta finish watching it, I’ll follow you there!’ and I’d put it on after getting back from things, it was just my go-to movie. I’ve probably seen “Jurassic Park” about a hundred times as well, but [Boogie Nights] is over a shorter time.”

You’re into dinosaurs as well? “Yeah. I like dinosaurs. I don’t really know much about them any more, but I like them a lot. Dinosaurs and space, I suppose, are two things that I’m interested in.” Space really informed the “Final Expedition” EP? “I got really into space, I was never into science when I was in school, then someone said ‘Carl Sagan’s really cool’ and I’m like ‘who’s Carl Sagan?’ Then I googled him and thought ‘Oh, this guy’s funny’. Specifically the Apollo space missions. I read a couple of really amazing books about them. That became kind of an obsession. After that, I was interested in space in general, but that specifically. I find it very amazing. It’s probably the best thing humans have ever done. Music’s always been around, even before humans, I suppose mastering music is pretty impressive but if you know the details of it, it’s such an incredible feat to go that far through terrain that doesn’t make sense to us here. It’s just incredible. It’s the ultimate expedition. I got drunk at this wedding two years ago and I was talking to this guy who remembered when it happened and how he was listening to it on the radio, and he was telling me this story and I was almost crying! It was very inspiring, and the story behind it, how brave everyone was, it was so dangerous. How much work everyone put into, it it was the ultimate coming together of human knowledge and human bravery. No one’s done anything like that since people were sailing across oceans that they didn’t know where they went to, but it’s in a modern age so I find it easier to relate to.”

You’d never consider being an astronaut? “No. I wouldn’t be able to. I would be too scared.” Is that why you’re so in awe of these people? “Imagine being in a machine that could give way at any second, you’re just out there. Space is terrifying. It’s so far away. I kind of worn off the whole space thing, I mean I’m still totally interested, but it was probably my obsession for about a year only. But I still think it’s amazing, and I still share my opinion on it, but I’m just more interested in other things now.”

What’s your current obsession? “I know he’s come up before, but I guess Egyptian Lover is a bit of an obsession at the moment and I’ve been listening to Moondog a lot, and Kraftwerk. They are all not related to the sort of music I’m make or anything, but I’m just totally into them. I want to make an EP about Moondog.” Who is he? “Moondog was a jazz musician from the ’50s, I think, and he was a blind homeless guy from New York who lived somewhere else in America first, and he learned how to compose jazz and classical music, and then he went blind. After this, he moved to New York and he was homeless and used to make all his own clothes that were Viking themed. He was famous as a homeless person, but what most people didn’t know was that he was a really respected jazz musician. And he met all these bands and recorded loads of music, and it was amazing. Especially his early stuff, it’s very percussive so there’s a very Latin-y influence in the instrumentation of the percussion, and there’s kind of an oriental feel to some of the melodies, but his music is really amazing. I think Honest Jon’s reissued loads of his stuff recently. He’s dope. He’s amazing!”

Would it be a tribute to him or would it be influenced by him? “I’d sample some of his stuff and imitate some of the melodies but it would still be Orquesta, it’d still be very like what I do. I guess it’d be an homage to him but I was also covering and remixing his material. That’s something I’ve been thinking of. I’m also thinking of something separate to Orquesta that’s covers of Kraftwerk. Well, not covers of Kraftwerk but something with that kind of sound. I have a field of music that I want to pursue, that wouldn’t really fit into Orquesta. I have like fifty projects at a time that I want to do, and I pretty much never do any of them. Some of them are with people, some are just by myself. Every time I hear a song I’m like ‘Yeah, I want to make a song kind like that’. When I hear a song that I like or a sound that I like, like I see a picture of an old musician, I’m like ‘Yeah, he’s cool, I want to do his kind of music’. Only the good ones filter through. Well that’s not true, they’re all good!”

The mix you made for us – what’s the best setting to listen to? “That’s a hard one, I was thinking about it. My girlfriend works in a restaurant and they play mixes. It’s kind of dancey for the first half and then it’s ambient, neo-classical and bits of weird, world music-y type music. She was asking where would someone listen to it? I guess [as] someone would listen to it in transit, that’s where I listen to most of my music, I guess on the bus or walking around town. I walk an incredible amount a day, at least six miles a day. I live out in Bray [a town in Wicklow, south of Dublin], and to get out there. I have to walk from the bus to my house, and I listen to loads of music, and then on the bus into town. So you definitely couldn’t put it on in a restaurant cause about halfway through, it just drops out. You could dance to it, I put the dancey part at the start, if someone wants to put it on at a party they could dance and then turn it off halfway through when they get bored. It’s also good maybe like winding down, if you could time it so that you’re walking and then you get home at that halfway point, then you go into your bedroom and relax. It’s two mixes in one. I didn’t want to make a straight club mix, but I want still wanted that cause I DJ in clubs.”

It’s severely eclectic but you almost wouldn’t notice. Have you learned that through DJing or is that just a reflection of you? “That’s a difficult question. I play a lot of types of DJ sets. With Cáit, I play disco and sometimes I play straight hip-hop sets, sometimes I play straight dancehall, sometimes I play Latin-y bassy stuff, sometimes I play UK garage or whatever, I play anything really. But that’s me catering for what I think people expect when I’m playing a night with a couple of people. I’ll play stuff I’m into, but it’s catered for someone. I guess this mix is really the best types of all the different music that I like. The eclecticism, it’s just music I like and music I would play in an ideal set if I was playing a headline set in a club and not supporting someone. I think what ties the songs together is they have a similar feel, there’s no real bangers, it’s just nice vibes. [As far as Djing is concerned] David Rodigan is my ultimate DJ idol. He’s what DJs should be. You should watch his Red Bull Music Academy lecture. He’s absolutely the coolest guy ever. He’s so unparalleled in his love of a particular genre. He stands for it. Even if you don’t like reggae – I have friends who don’t listen to reggae a lot and they’ve gone to see him, and he just has such an infectious character,. He’s so passionate about the music that he plays, and he does not give two fucks about how he comes across. He’s a middle-aged English guy, but he’s respected throughout Jamaica and everywhere because he’s so passionate. He has dubplates from everyone. He has a legendary dubplate collection; he wins all the big clashes you know. He’s unbelievable. He has a dubplate of “Maria Maria” by Wyclef Jean with Wyclef Jean singing “David Rodigan” on it. Watch the Red Bull Music Academy lecture, he’s so cool.”

I know you like The Sopranos – who’s your favourite character? “Sil, definitely. I went to a Sopranos-themed party, I dressed up as Sil.” Did you do the “just when I thought I was out” line? “Yeah, of course! Everyone was like ‘Do it, do it!’ and this one guy was like ‘I’m sorry man, that was terrible’. Because it was really bad, there was a big silence afterwards. It was a load of guys and we had a load of gabagool and we went ‘Oh! Gabagool!’ I like The Sopranos a lot. It’s not my favourite show or anything. Actually, wait, maybe it is. I like “Tales From The Crypt”, that’s pretty good. It’s a show from the 80s that had cameos from pretty much everyone. There’s loads of shows like that, there’s Tales From The Dark Side, Tales From The Crypt. It’s kind of like Goosebumps. I have all the Goosebumps, I’m going to watch them some day when I have not loads of stuff to do.”

Truancy Volume 70 – Orquesta by TRUANTS

Truancy Volume 70: Orquesta

Webley Edwards – Fire Goddess
Tomas Barfod – Baxter St.
French Fries – D’Angelo
Orquesta – Qingming (Download at Dummy)
R2Bees – Agyeiii (feat. Sarkodie & Nana Boroo) (Mad Mation’s Bedroom Dub)
Murlo vs. DJ Tray – Spring & Refill (Orquesta Quik-Blend)
FCL – It’s You (San Soda’s Panorama Bar Acca Version)
Sonora – La Selva
My Cousin Vinny & Daims – My Body
Kirko Bangz – Drank In My Cup (Jim-E Stack Remix)
Brian Eno – Invisible
Orquesta x Kid Smpl – First Morning
King Midas Sound – Blue
Konono N°1 & Sylvain Chauveau – Makembe
Les Baxter – Taboo
Moondog – Dance Rehearsal
Kate Simko – The Creative Part
Max Richter – Infra 5

Photo by Dorje de Burgh