The Orielles

The Orielles’ glistening and fresh take on guitar pop has opened some big doors for them this year. Their debut album ‘Silver Dollar Moment’ symbolised a triumph for alternative music in general. We caught up with sisters Sidonie and Esme Hand-Halford after they’d just returned from Iceland.

Q: From the outside your year has been huge, how’s it all felt at your end?

Esme: From our perspective it’s felt less crazy than other people have been seeing it. When you’re in the band it’s hard to take yourself out of it and view it from a different perspective. For us it’s been really fun to be honest, we’ve been constantly playing and recording so we couldn’t ask for much more.

Q: You’ve ticked off some great things though?

Sid: Yeah definitely, we’ve kind of been non-stop this year. Just doing so many gigs in different and unconventional venues has been really fun. Obviously just to travel the UK and Europe is really fun because you see different crowds and make new friends.

Q: Does the album feel like a long time ago to you now?

Esme: February feels like ages ago to be honest. This year has absolutely flown by. To think it’s nearly been a year since the album dropped, it’s actually quite scary.

Q: It’s a huge undertaking to put a record out, has it given you more confidence?

Sid: I think so, particularly with releasing this new single, we felt a bit more leniency in terms of what we could do with it.

Maybe that was because we have the album under our belt, we have the validation of fans and audiences that liked the album. That gives the confidence to create something new.

Esme: We’re also seeing that one of the tracks off the album called ‘Old Stuff New Glass’ was one of the one’s we channeled most of our own music tastes into. We enjoy playing it live and it’s one of our favourites on Spotify which shows it’s got a good reaction. So it’s helpful to write something more in that style and take onboard what we enjoyed but also what other people enjoyed listening to. It’s given us a bit more direction really.

Q: Tell us a bit about the new single, it’s got a different groove to it?

Sid: We wrote that during summer in and out of festivals. We’d have practices during the week and then do festivals on the weekend. So I guess that conveys the fun we had. It was the first song we’ve written with Alex on the keys as well.

Esme: I definitely felt it was within our conscience to write a tune that was fitting all of these festival vibes. Obviously over the summer we’ve seen so many bands and DJ’s so I think that was all channeled into the track. It’s got that festival season energy in it.

Q: So you’re not going to write a dark tune anytime soon then?

Sid: We have actually written a darker track funnily enough, we saw Mogwai play at Latitude festival and were completely blown away. That inspired us to write an emotional prog tune.

Words by Rhys Buchanan | Illustration by Cerys Scorey