By Nicholas Jason Lopez
Orange Lake – the Dallas-based indie R&B/bedroom pop duo composed of members Jack Davenport and Noah Henry – recently dropped their new double single “Fall In Place/Better For Both.”
The Music Bugle had the chance to speak with the Texas natives about their new music, what’s to come in 2021 and more.
Music Bugle – How did you guys decide the name “Orange Lake”?
Jack Davenport – We really struggled to come up with a name, but we when looked at a lot of the album covers of artists we were inspired by – ‘Ego Death’ by The Internet, ‘Channel Orange’ by Frank Ocean and Blood Orange, we found that “Orange” was a common theme. Also, we grew up close to a lake in Dallas called White Rock Lake and we used to hang out there a bunch, so we put them together and came up with Orange Lake.
Music Bugle – What is the biggest challenge in being an independent band?
Noah Henry – The biggest challenge in being an independent band while also being college students is definitely budget restrictions. We hope to one day, be able to send off our music to get professionally mixed and mastered and be able to put more money into promotion, but right now, we are kinda taking a DIY approach to both.
Music Bugle – How would you describe Dallas to someone who has never been there before?
Jack Davenport – It’s pretty diverse and covers, like, a huge area, if you include all the suburbs and stuff. The art scene isn’t the first thing you think about, but there are definitely a lot of great artists from Dallas. Some of our favorites are Liv.e and St. Vincent, who went to our high school, actually.
Music Bugle – What directly inspired your new single “Better For Both”?
Noah Henry – We are friends with a lot of artists in our area and we had been working on a few songs with our friend Paul, who makes music under the name Rococo Disco. He had a guitar part that he wrote, Noah wrote the bassline to go along with it and then, Jack started programming drums. Once the instrumental was done, we all took turns writing vocal lines and it kind of came together from there. It was definitely a product of collaboration and the different styles coming together. It’s always nice to get a different perspective when recording and having Paul there allowed us to go a different direction creatively.
Music Bugle – What excites you the most about your style of music?
Jack Davenport – What we try to do is maintain a balance between pushing creative boundaries while still crafting accessible songs that are catchy and fun. We have tried to stay away from sticking to a single genre or style for now, because our influences and personal musical interests are constantly shifting and we want Orange Lake’s music to reflect that. I would say we are most excited to find our creative rhythm and continue to progress as artists.
Music Bugle – Does social media help or hurt musicians?
Noah Henry – It definitely helps smaller independent musicians like us, because it helps us connect with our fanbase and promote our upcoming shows and releases. If it’s used correctly, it can also be a valuable branding tool. We are in the process of learning how to fully utilize it, but without it, I don’t think we would see near as much engagement.
Music Bugle – Away from music, what’s something people might be surprised to know about you?
Jack Davenport – We really like plants. We have them all over our house and we even have a garden in our backyard. They’re super good decoration and just interesting in general.
Music Bugle – How have you been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic?
Noah Henry – We were actually scheduled to play our first big show the week after everything got shut down last March. Since we can’t really play shows, we have mainly been focused on recording, which I think has led to our best material yet. We have a full-length project coming out in April and it’s basically all been written in recorded in the past year.
Music Bugle – Where do you go when you need an escape?
Jack Davenport – I don’t know if there’s like a physical place we go, but when school is stressful or we are just bored in general, we try and do something music-related, whether that’s recording a song or listening to a new album.
Music Bugle – If you had to pick your own theme song, what would it be?
Noah Henry – This is a tough question, because I feel like it changes so often. Recently, I’ve really been enjoying all of Justin Timberlake’s first album. There are a lot of classics on there and the production is probably some of the best ever for a major label pop album.
