The Orwells: "Rock'n'roll is a ghost of itself" • News • DIY Magazine

Chicago upstarts The Orwells return this week with their rawkus second album, ‘Disgraceland’.

Understandably, the term ‘rock’n’roll’ has been used repeatedly when it comes to describing the five-piece - but this doesn’t come to them as much of a compliment.

“People are probably just getting bored of [rock] because it’s been happening for so long,” bassist Grant Brinner ponders, “…I don’t think rock music is a good genre to put things under.”

Guitarist Matt O’Keefe nods, “Rock’n’roll is like John F Kennedy - it’s like a huge part of the country but it’s not there anymore,” he says, before being sensitively cut off by the band’s other guitarist, Dom Corso - “Yeah. It’s brains exploded in Texas… It’s a ghost of itself.”

They seem equally jaded by the older music idols they looked up to whilst growing up, collectively agreeing that they all appear to be victims of their own success.

When asked if they could think of anyone they still look up to, there’s a bit of a pause. Matt mumbles something about Jack White, but then dismisses it – “Nah. He got hit by the blunderbuss bullet.”

Read the full interview in the new, free DIY Weekly, available to read online, or download for iPhone, iPad or Android from Monday 2nd June.

Tags: The Orwells, News