The Orange Apples Set to Make Live Premiere

For Scott and Craig Labor, their newest band, The Orange Apples, has been a long time coming. 

Natives of Southampton, the brothers have been working on their music together for more than three years now. 

In that time they have cut several records, compiling a lengthy catalog of songs.  They’ve also managed to develop a legion of fans, distributing their work online through social media sites.   

But until now they’ve remained primarily a studio band. 

“It’s been strictly a recording project up until recently,” said Craig Labor who doubles as drummer and one of the vocalists for the group.  “We’ve played maybe three shows in three years.” 

The Labor brothers hope to change that though.    

Just recently joining up with keyboardist Andy Klein, guitarist Sean Lally, and bass player/guitarist Mike Ritz, The Orange Apples have already booked their first major gig. 

They’ll make their live premiere on Monday, August 22^nd at Silk City in Philadelphia.    

“We’ve had other, crappier bands in the past,” said Labor.  “But this band is just really awesome.  We’re trying to have more of a live project going on than a recording one.”      

Drawing influence from bands such as The Mothers of Invention, The Kinks, and The Flaming Lips to name a few, keyboardist and guitar-player Andy Klein likened the group’s sound to the psychedelic scene of the late 60’s.

“It’s a lot like real early Pink Floyd,” said Klein.  “You know – really tripped-out Syd Barrett.  That kind of thing.”

It’s easy to hear all of these influences in the singles currently available on their website. 

A healthy mix of traditional instrumentation and electronic effects seems to be the band’s calling card.

“It’s definitely a chill scene,” said Klein.  “All vinyl all the time - lots of sound effects going on.”

And although the Labor brothers previously wrote and recorded all their music alone, now that they’ve more than doubled their number with some first-rate, veteran musicians, it’s becoming much more of a collaborative experience.

“The past couple of records were just me and Scott,” said Labor.  “We both kind of did the writing separately and then brought it together.  Lately though we’ve been writing stuff together, writing stuff as a band.  We live with most of the people [in the band] so it just works out.” 

Labor has some pretty big plans for the new band and is currently at work setting up a tour along the east coast.  

But before all that, they'll have to play their first gig - this Monday at Silk City.

"We have a lot of new stuff in the works right now," said Labor.  "[Silk City] should definitely be a party though.  We should have a decent amount of people out there - it's going to be a really good time."