THE Orange Lights are a five-piece band, made up of Paul Tucker – formerly one half of The Lighthouse Family – guitarist Ewan Warden, bassist Chris Gittins, drummer Alex Lucas and singer Jason Hart, who used to play guitar for Spiritualized.
Paul and Jason met a couple of years ago and, after realising they had similar ideas for their music, formed the band with other friends.
Their debut single, Let The Love Back In, was released earlier in the year and follow-up Click Your Heels, with a Wizard Of Oz-inspired video, is out now. The debut album Life Is Still Beautiful is out on Monday. The band are also on tour supporting Shack throughout October – see www.myspace.com/theorangelights for more details.We catch up with Jason as he enjoys a pub lunch...
WHEN WAS THE ALBUM RECORDED? Jason: We’ve had it finished for about eight or nine months now. I can’t wait to get it out there and it’ll be nice when it’s released, because it’ll bring the whole thing to life. It’s like putting a flag up saying ‘we’re The Orange Lights’. Up until this point, we’ve just been getting everything in place.
HOW DID YOU KNOW YOU COULD WORK WITH PAUL? Jason: Paul and I are very similar in a lot of ways, not so much our personality, but the things that have inspired us over the years. It’s a fantastic feeling to go into someone’s studio and have them play you songs they’ve been working on and for them to sound similar to your own. I think we’re cut from the same cloth.
HAVE THINGS BEEN MADE EASIER BY THE FACT YOU’VE BEEN A SESSION MUSICIAN FOR YEARS AND PAUL WAS IN THE LIGHTHOUSE FAMILY? Jason: I don’t know, you know. Yes, we’ve both done things before, but that didn’t open any doors, I think it made it harder if anything. In some respects, we had to go back to the beginning. We just did our demos like anyone else would, but we were lucky to get an amazing producer in Ken Nelson, who has worked with everyone from Coldplay to Badly Drawn Boy. He has a magic touch.
YOU SAID IT’S BEEN EIGHT MONTHS SINCE YOU FINISHED THE ALBUM – HAVE YOU STARTED THINKING ABOUT THE SECOND?Jason: We’re always writing and working on new things. We’re a baby band, but Paul has been right to the top of the tree and he knows especially what a long road there is ahead of us. It’s important to enjoy the little victories and if people like the album and people show up at the gigs, that’s what’s important now. If people like what we’re doing, then we can make another record.
TELL US ABOUT ‘CLICK YOUR HEELS’? Jason: Paul and I wrote that together. It’s about when you’re in a relationship with somebody and you get to that point when you think ‘I’ve had enough of this, I want out’ but you can’t. The song is about just clicking your heels together and getting out of it instantly, without all the baggage and crap that goes with it. Easy! That was a personal experience for me at the time too, so that’s why I wrote it.
HOW HAVE YOUR LIVE SHOWS BEEN GOING?Jason: Not too bad. It takes a while to nudge it into shape, but I think that’s started happening now, everyone is comfortable on stage and the creases have been ironed out.
