I’ve kept my eye on The Orielles for a few years now, seeing them play in Brighton numerous times. After a string of singles and EPs, the band have now signed to Heavenly Records and have released their first single on the label ‘Sugar Tastes Like Salt’ which sees the band at their most refined but also starting to play around with their sound. They’ve started to shift away from the surf-pop tag that has followed them around for so long and are concentrating on developing their songs further. I met up with them in a small pub by Brighton’s train station to talk about the band’s beginnings and their future. They are a few dates into their current UK tour, which will run throughout April, playing dates all over the UK.

How’s the tour been so far? Is there anywhere you’re looking forward to playing especially?
Sid: It’s been really good so far! Sheffield’s always really good, it’s quite mellow there.

Henry: Liverpool and Manchester as well.

You seem to have adopted Manchester as a second home, what do you like about the city?
Sid: Well, Esme and I are from there originally so we have family and friends there. I guess it’s our closest city from Halifax.

Esme: We’ve sort of got a scene down there with loads of our friends’ bands

Henry: There’s also lots of really good venues down there as well.

Going back to the beginning, you’ve said you met at a party. Were you writing songs individually before or did it all just come together when you were in the same room?
Esme: Me and Sid couldn’t play when we decided to be in a band! Our love of music started after that, we weren’t really that into music before I don’t think.

What bands did you all bond over when starting out, any albums in particular?
Sid: Pixies were our main influence starting out. We really like the way they work with dynamics.

Henry: It’s the loud quiet, loud quiet thing. The first song Sid showed me by the Pixies was ‘Here Comes Your Man’ off Doolittle. Beach Boys as well!

Sid: Pet Sounds was a massive influence for us.

You draw a lot of influence from films for your lyrics. When writing, are you trying to capture the mood of scenes/films in the songs as opposed to taking inspiration from your day-to-day lives?
Esme: We’re all really into film, I think it accompanies our music so well. It’s interesting to see which bits of our music fit to different styles of art. We’re all into everything to do with film!

Henry: Plus to bands watching other music videos, we’d want to make something that we’d want to watch ourselves and be entertained by and visually stimulated by.

You’re now signed to Heavenly Records, what attracted you to them as a label?
Sid: Definitely the roster!

Henry: Yeah the roster, plus we felt that they were putting out the best music at the time in the UK.

Who are you listening to at the moment?
Henry: So many bands. Beachtape for starters, Trudy [& the Romance], Luxury Death.

Sid: Played with a sick band last night called Vinyl Staircase.

Did you find the trip to Canada was a turning point for the band?
Sid: We just had a really great time!

Esme: It was really surreal, we came away and loved it so much, we had the idea to move there.

Henry: We got to see loads of really good bands: Tops, King Gizzard. What’s the word? It was an enriching time.

What’s the next release going to be?
Esme: ‘Sugar Tastes Like Salt’ is going to come out on 12 inch, 7 inch and cassette and then another single, probably at the other end of summer.

Sid: We’ve got our next single already recorded – I think that’s out around June/July.

Wrapping it up now, you come to Brighton quite a bit, what is it about Brighton that you like?
Sid: V Bites, the deep fried olives at The Hope & Ruin.

Esme: It’s got quite a close knit community of bands.

Henry: There’s a string of decent venues and it’s a seaside town as well!

Facebook: facebook.com/theorielles
Twitter: twitter.com/TheOrielles