Artist Information

Instrumentation
Brent Orndorff (27) Vocals, Guitar, Keys
Clayton Page (23) Electic Bass
Shawn Morgan (23) Drums & Percussion

Biography
Never be fooled by appearances. Blue News was formed in June of 2005 but all three members have been playing for several years.
So, it's not so surprising that they've already released their first album with Statue Records Hollywood. Front-man Brent Orndorff has been in several bands for the past 13 years and over that time he has recorded in 8 studios including his own, Blame Records, located in Indiana.

Brent's solo album, "Never Stop Playing" was released in 2003 and recieved great reviews and even greater opportunities, including a record release offer from Statue Records Hollywood and a performance spot in the New York Independent Film and Music Festival at Madison Square Garden.

Blue News has been playing for 10 months now and the band has accomplished even more than they expected. They have recorded their album, now available from Statue Records Group California, they've played live in several cities in 2006 and the band's fanbase keeps growing and growing each day.

The band's sound is influenced by anything they feel is soulful, good, original or innovative...examples being; The Beatles, Beck, Allman Brothers, The Presidents, Cream, Eric Clapton, Robert Johnson, Primus, Marvin Gaye, Bob Marley, BB KING, Reverend Al Green, Talking Heads, Jimi Hendrix and lots more.

You are a young group of guys that have a lot of experience, by saying that; do you get looked down upon by the music industry?
I don’t think the music industry is looking at us at all right now. I know that most “heavyweights” go off of the charts or CD sales and we haven’t reached that point yet. Hopefully that will change with radio promotion campaigns and record sales at some point. We just got our mastered album back from California and we are about to begin some heavy promotion. We are a newer band and we’ve just released our debut album with Statue Records Hollywood in January. I was offered the release deal after their A & R reviewed my solo album, which I released in 2003 under Blame Records (blamerecords.com)-a label I started in 2002. So, after Statue offered a deal, I wrote the material for the next album throughout 2005 (knowing that I would play with a trio) and began rehearsing and recording the album with Shawn and Clayton in June. We started out playing in a sealed-off stage in an old school building (which Clayton lives in) and then moved to my studio in the fall.

When you started playing did you have in the back of your mind that you wanted to be in a band? Explain please.
Not really… I started out in music when I was asked to sing in a band in school almost 14 years ago. 2 new students had a band and other classmates told them that I had a good voice. I didn’t ever really consider following music before this point. Some people in my music classes just decided I could sing. So, one day, the 2 students asked me to sing in their band because they had heard good things. I said ok and that’s where it all began. We started out playing Red Hot Chili Peppers, Ozzy, Bush and common covers of the time, but there was always a motivation to play original music. I actually didn’t start teaching myself to play any instruments until I was about 16.

Brent, in your Sonicbids bio you said that you started young but did Clayton and Shawn start young also?
Clayton started playing guitar seriously around 6 years ago when he was 17 and started playing bass around 2 years ago. He had listened to bands like Nine Inch Nails, Tool, and Rage Against The Machine and you can hear those influences in his own material. Shawn has played various instruments over the past 6 or 7 years…trumpet, guitar, bass, keys and drums. He never considered being a drummer until he started playing with this band. So, Shawn has actually only been a drummer for about 9 months.

Brent, you had a solo album that had gotten rave review. Why did you form Blue News?
I had played a lot of solo acoustic shows around the time I released my album and I got a bit bored to be honest. I liked the intimacy and it was a lot simpler but it was easy for people to tune you out and do their own thing. People pay attention when the band plays. They have to…We play LOUD. Playing acoustic is good in its own right but you don’t get a lot of people on their feet and moving and that’s one of my favorite things about playing music. Also, most of the songs on my album included bass and drums, so I knew I’d have to play with a band to get the same sound in a live show. Another reason is that I have been in bands before and I appreciate the joint effort in creating music. The songs take on a new life when people work together to create it. Everyone has to feel the same thing and sort of travel on the same wave for the music to work out. It’s very spiritual really… it’s all about communicating, enlightening and sharing thoughts and emotions.

Brent, how does it differ from recording on someone else's label from your own?
When I recorded on Celestial Records with Groove Parade back in 1996, I had no control in anything really. I was just the vocalist for the band at that time and I wrote most of the lyrics. The producer and manager handled all the recording, pressing and distribution as well as the booking and promotion. It was all done on a very small scale though. They released a 2-song single on tape which was only released in a few stores and then we toured a bit in Indiana and Illinois.
The new release deal with Statue Records is unlike anything I’ve done before. They are handling the pressing, distribution, licensing and radio promotion. It makes it a lot easier when you don’t have to make your own CDs. I hope I never burn another CD in my life truthfully. Now we are looking around for help with management and booking, which the label doesn’t handle.

Do you have more/less control over the edits?
I have more control, although I have been allowed to mix most of the songs I’ve worked on in other studios. I enjoy having artistic control over the entire process but you also need input from others to do it right. I’m always asking “Do you think I should do this, or add this or change this?”, and it probably gets annoying for the people around me. You have to consider others when you write a tune, when you play it with other people and when you are recording and mixing it. I also admit that I’m still limited in what I can do in my studio, but Statue makes up for what my studio equipment won’t allow me to do in the editing process. I mixed the album to the best of my abilities and then they kindly mastered it. We’re really happy with the job they did on mastering the record. The songs all sound a lot clearer and balanced now. I’ve actually decided to take all the old recordings off the internet and replace them with the newly mastered versions. That should only take me a few weeks. I also just had 50 CDs ready to mail out and I am trashing them all and sending the new Statue release instead.

According to your website it says that you are part of another group.
I was a part of the band NONA in 2004 actually. We had an offer from Red Galaxy in Los Angeles but ended up turning it down and splitting for other projects. That group ended before Blue News began playing but I left the band’s music on the site because I like it. NONA came up with some really great progressive/experimental stuff and I still want to do an electronic album in the future.

And do you work a day job on top of that?
I don’t work a day job at the moment. I probably would if there were any decent jobs in the area that I could pull off with my schedule. I’m always looking for possible jobs and applying, but nothing ever turns out. I have accepted that it’s my calling to play music. I also do some recording work with other artists in the studio from time to time and I do some “odd jobs” for people. All the rest of my time is devoted to my family, the band or finishing my degree online. I also like working on my house, which is a renovated barn that’s over a century old (You really can’t tell anymore). I just don’t really have time to add anything to my schedule right now. I’d like to work and have a steady paycheck, but for now I just rely on financial aid from school and music.

Do Shawn and Clayton have other projects also?
Clayton has written a lot of his own material and wants to record it soon. Shawn has some riffs and melodies that he has written too but neither of them has time for other projects at the moment. We are always meeting new musicians and keep an open mind to different possibilities for the future. He and Shawn had worked on some of it before we started Blue News. We have worked on a couple of his tunes in the past few days actually but he is still in the writing process. I think he may record an album and release it under the name “Boy”. I’m sure someone would want to release it. He has a lot of cool song ideas.

How often do you all get together to practice and play a show?
We practice 3 – 6 times a week on average, although we take a few days off sometimes. Our show schedule has been random so far. Our first gig was a festival in Brown County in August and we did a mini-tour of the Midwest in January and played cities like Chicago, St. Louis, Indianapolis, Louisville, and Muncie. Since then we have just been rehearsing and planning to put our own shows together, including some free outdoor shows at our studio and a CD release show. We want to be playing a few shows a week in the coming months, but time is an issue when it comes to organizing tours.

Did you all go to college? And if you did what was your majors?
Clayton and I are still in college. I attended ISU and majored in Classical Guitar for a while, but I am finishing a Liberal Arts degree online at Saint Leo University now. Clayton’s major is Visual Communications.

Shawn and Clayton do you have day jobs?
Clayton works a few nights a week in a bakery and he will be in classes this summer. Shawn is working afternoons and evenings at BW3s.

Or is this band your fulltime job?
This band is a fulltime job most of time, yes. Even when we aren’t planning for shows, we have to constantly look for new opportunities to get exposure for our music. The amount of time and effort it takes is a bit ridiculous, but we do it in the hopes that it will pay off and that our music may become a good part of someone’s life. There is no better feeling than knowing that you are influencing someone in a positive way…and with music, it’s possible to do it more often.

Shawn and Clayton have you been in any other bands before this one?
We have actually all played together in the past but we never took it as seriously as we do now. Once I released my solo album and got a release deal with Statue in Hollywood, we started playing together more seriously than before.

If you were in one, what kind of bands were they?
The stuff that we played in the past was really odd-sounding hard rock with unusual time signatures and chords. It wasn’t ever recorded to be used for anything. Looking back, It was just us jamming on crazy riffs to get better at playing and recording.

How long have you played your instruments?
We’ve all played various instruments for 6-14 years.

What do you feel is the best form of promotion for you?
We know that we need to get on the radio and promote with print advertising to really get our name out there, but we are involved in a few websites that do a good job of promoting. We are in the process of getting digital distribution in place with sites like iTunes, eMusic & Napster. Word of mouth is very important too. You know a band is taking off when you hear people talking about them. As always though, the best promotional tool for any band is playing live shows or selling records. We are actually about to start a tour of open mics in the Midwest soon to let people know who we are.

Do you plan on performing outside of the Midwest in 2006?
We have been contacted by B.B. King’s Blues Club in Hollywood, so we will probably plan a mini-tour to the West Coast and back this year. We also have a lot of new fans joining our mailing list from the East Coast, Canada, UK and parts of Europe, so it would make sense for us to promote and tour those areas soon.

What are your thoughts with airplay on radio, is that something you strive for when writing your music?
We have a few different radio promoters lined up and we will be doing radio campaigns for the album. I’m always researching different people and companies that do good work for a reasonable rate. We concentrated on making a good overall album but many of the songs could go over well on the radio.

You have to strive for something that people will enjoy and relate to. You have to use a melody and rhythm combination that people will find catchy and try to hook them with insightful lyrics. Most songs follow a certain format and it’s all relative to what goes on the radio. You don’t have to abide by really strict rules when writing a song but there are guidelines if you want anyone to like it or play it on the air. You have to strive for what will fly on radio, but it’s a delicate balance, you can’t stifle the art or take the soul out of a song. It should be what it should be and you shouldn’t sell a song out just to market it.

Do you find that with the internet and digital music at your fingertips, that now is the best time to be involved in music?
This is a tricky question…I think it is and it isn’t the best time. It’s not black and white really. There are a lot of opportunities with digital music and the internet, but there are also a lot of limitations for unknowns. Once again, it’s about marketing and promotional strategies… it really drains the artistic mood to have to delve into so many business matters. It’s like being a solo performer in a play while you are taking money for tickets, running the lights and sound, producing and directing. It makes it a bit harder to concentrate of wowing the audience with the performance…and that should be the main concern for a musician. Hopefully the future will allow other people to handle some of those aspects and lighten the load. I would like to be able to just concentrate on playing at some point.

Where would you like to see yourselves in the next two years?
We’ll probably continue hanging out in Indiana while we aren’t traveling and playing shows. Hopefully, in two years we will have a ridiculous schedule, playing shows more often and selling records to support ourselves. Ultimately, we want to have a constant touring schedule, sell records and grow our fan base. We’re just starting out so we need to get new fans to come out to our shows when we play different areas. I think we’ll have a second album finished by that time too, but we aren’t planning on releasing anything else until we see how our first album does.

Thank you very much!

Website
http://bluenewsband.com

Discography
Never Stop Playing (solo album)

Featured Tracks:
"I Love You So"
"In Ten Cities"
"Watching, Waiting"
(all recieved radio airplay from college, online radio and smaller stations around the US.)

Blue News (Blame/Statue Records 2006)

Featured Tracks:
"Rescue Me" (Midnight Special Radio-Live365.com)
"Swim Or Drown" (Garageband.com Blues Rock Radio)
"Promiseland" (FearlessRadio.com)
"Mississippi '65" (IdolUnderground.com)
"On That Dark Road Again" (iRadioLA.com & 90.7 LA)

Radio campaign with Vigilant Promtions to begin in the Spring/Summer of 2006