Orlando Weeks: “I never thought music would be my career”
Orlando Weeks never planned to be a professional musician. Instead, his teenage dream was to be a visual artist. However, a curveball arose while studying when he formed The Maccabees with friends. To his surprise, the band became a much more significant entity than Weeks ever thought imaginable. Now, two decades on from their formation, Weeks is finally set to realise his life-long ambition to have his own exhibition in London.
The presentation will take place at The Copeland Gallery in London from June 6th to June 9th. During the day, the space will display his work in public for the first time, and in the evening, Weeks will perform a career-spanning set, premiering tracks from his new studio album, Loja, which is also set for release on June 6th.
Weeks has accomplished many impressive feats in his career, whether selling out multiple nights at Alexandra Palace with The Maccabees or writing the festive graphic novel The Gritterman, which was later turned into his stage play. Nevertheless, the idea of sharing his art with the general public is filling him with trepidation.
As we speak over Zoom, a week before the exhibition’s opening, Weeks is still in Lisbon. His family has built a new life in the Portuguese capital, rejuvenating Weeks on a personal level. Additionally, it’s provided him with a creative space of his own for the first time, allowing him to build a sanctuary to make music and illustrations.
The record’s title, LOJA, comes from the Portuguese word for ‘Store’, as Weeks’ studio space was an unused shop before the former Maccabees frontman lovingly adopted it. Surrounded by boxes of prints, which he’s soon set to transport to London, Weeks explains to Far Out how Loja was not initially part of the script and only materialised after another record was scrapped.
The aborted project was titled Tonk and was inspired aesthetically by an album cover by War and an exhibition by Helen Frankenthaler, which Weeks describes as “colourful and abstract.” However, while the visual aspect of the record was well-rounded, the songs presented a more testing challenge.
Weeks elaborates: “I went and did a session with Nathan (Bullion), Hop Up’s producer. We were almost there, but then, as I lived with it and he lived with it, we both agreed that I needed to spend more time writing. Then, Idles were playing in Lisbon a while ago, and Joe (Talbot) came here for a bit. He showed me their new record, and there’s is called Tangk. The relief I felt…I was glad I had gone a different route.”
After dodging the potential obstacle of releasing an album with an almost identical title to his friends, Idles, Weeks was satisfied he’d made the right decision in rejecting Tonk. Unlike his previous records, the artwork alongside Loja isn’t intrinsically linked to the album, which has been liberating for Weeks, who notes, “I was making work that was a response to the record, but with this with this open, I’ve been just making work, and I will continue to work along the same lines after Loja’s gone.”
Even though the art isn’t necessarily related to the songs on the new record, Weeks insists there is “a parity between them,” which will create a “more multidimensional” live performance. If all goes to plan, Weeks will take the exhibition to various other major cities across Europe and even received a message about one possible exciting location shortly before our conversation.
Although he still plans to tour Loja in the traditional sense, he’s hopeful that the exhibitions can sporadically exist side-by-side, allowing him to express the full spectrum of his artistry, which is impossible to do with songs alone.
During The Maccabees, Weeks took a backseat from sharing his visual art, but it was still an important part of his life, even if it wasn’t for public consumption. “I never thought music would be my career. I definitely didn’t think I’d still be doing it 20 years on. Art was always my first passion and the first I felt like I was any good at,” Weeks frankly admits.
While he’s been “making stuff all the way along”, including the cover work for the first Maccabees record, Weeks reached a point where it became a private hobby. As he wrote the lyrics for the group, the singer felt his art put further spotlight on him during interviews when they “were such a democratic band”. Weeks concedes the attention made him feel “weird” and said it put an “unnecessary strain on things”.
Now, it’s been almost a decade since The Maccabees parted ways, and Weeks is finally ready to revisit that part of his career during The Copeland Gallery exhibition, exclusively revealing, “I think I’m going to play a Maccabees song, I’m not sure what yet. It’ll be nice to see how it feels. I might do it on the first night and not enjoy it, but it feels far enough away. I asked the boys if they would mind, and they didn’t mind at all.”
The dust has firmly settled on The Maccabees split, with the band bidding farewell in 2017. Felix and Hugo White are set to release their debut album with new band 86TVs this summer, a project with Orlando’s full support. “I’m yet to see them live, which is what I really want to do. They haven’t played in Lisbon yet, but when they do, I’ll be front and centre,” he excitedly promises.
While it’s barred him from watching 86TVs, Weeks’ new Portuguese surroundings shaped Loja, a love letter to his new life, noting, “I love it here. I’m still finding little things daily that remind me how grateful I am to be in a new place. I hope the record has a feeling of the slight giddiness of being able to be in this beautiful city and the newness of it all.”
Weeks likens the feeling of “freshness” he feels since moving to Lisbon to “new love,” which makes him wake up every day being “blessed with emotion.” This sentiment bleeds into the optimistically sun-soaked sounds of LOJA.
It was his partner who spearheaded the move to Portugal, and on the track, ‘You & The Packhorse Blues’, Weeks expresses his gratitude for “finding a way to improve my life and our life as a family”. Although he never saw himself as a beach person, Weeks enjoys spending his spare time swimming in the sea and taking advantage of the outdoors. However, while he’s progressing with his Portuguese, his son is “getting better and better, and I’m determined not to get left behind”.
For the recording of Loja, Weeks swapped one coastal location for another and headed to the Isle of Wight to work with producer Sergio Maschetzko. While the weather was a culture shock, it resulted in his most collaborative album since leaving The Maccabees. Due to Covid-19 restrictions, Hop Up was a “very insular” experience. In contrast, his thinking this time was, “I’m going to take some musicians to a studio, and we’re going to be a band for a bit.”
In addition to Sami El-Enany, William Doyle, Alexander Painter, and Luca Caruso, who form the staple of his band, LOJA also features guest appearances from Katy J Pearson, Tony Njuko, and Wet Leg’s Rhian Teasdale.
Pearson was the catalyst for his collaboration with Teasdale on ‘Dig’ after she “vaguely introduced” the pair. “Rhian had asked me to be in a Wet Leg video, and I politely declined. I’m worried I’ll ruin my videos; the last thing I want to do is ruin someone else’s. But, it meant that I had an ask in the bank,” he reveals of the song’s origin.
Weeks believes it’s imperative “not to get stuck in your ways,” whether in his personal life or working with new people like Teasdale musically. His move to Lisbon has been a reminder that “newness is good,” which he sings from the rooftops on Loja.
Although the album is released digitally on June 6th, it won’t be available to buy physically until August 23rd. While this will likely impact sales, it doesn’t matter to Weeks. He’s focused on creating and moving on to whatever comes next. Two decades into a career he never thought would occur, Weeks is more energised than ever, and Loja beautifully bottles this effervescence over 11 tracks.
Loja is out now digitally through Fiction Records and is available to pre-order in physical formats here.
