Get to know: The Orphan, The Poet

Hailing from rural southern-Ohio, The Orphan, The Poet is getting their name across in a big way. They are all about the music and their fans. Jon had the chance to meet up with the guys in the band for their tour kickoff with Ocean is Theory. If you’re into music that is full of passion and heart, we highly recommend you give these guys a listen. Catch them on tour in a city near you!

Sound Scene Press: How are you guys today?
The Orphan, The Poet: We’ve been amazing. It’s a little warm and it’s only going to get hotter.

SSP: You guys just released an acoustic EP An Exercise In Form; how have the reviews been since you released it?
Jake: It’s been awesome. We released the acoustic EP on May 15th and right away we had a lot of our friends tell us how much they love it. Then we had people we didn’t know say how much they loved it too. What we thought was cool was the promotion on the social media sites. We saw people blow up Facebook and music sites such as Alternative Press and Absolute Punk. We got an amazing review that we are really thankful for on Absolute Punk by Ryan Gardner. I just read it and reading it made me feel like all the work we put into it was worth it.

SSP: Why did you guys decide to release an acoustic EP?
David: As far as something acoustic, we have two EPs out already. They are the full band thing and that’s what we sound like. We were doing us, so we wanted to do something a little bit different that was still us but just in a little bit of a different way. We said “Let’s do this acoustic EP, but let’s do it ourselves.” The band went to a producer twice before [and] they were great experiences, but we wanted to apply ourselves and just own 100% of this. In the house that Jared and I live in, we recorded everything as far as stomps, claps, drum kit and everything like that. The main thing was to re-invent some of these songs that people already heard and hopefully already liked and give them a new twist. That’s why we wanted to do the acoustic EP.

SSP: What keeps you guys on the road when you guys have the opportunity to tour?
Jared: You’re given that one little moment everyday. Especially with us being super local, traveling down to Atlanta and who really knows us in Atlanta? Every stop on the way down, you see all these new faces. You get this 15-25 minute time slot to just really show who you are and I think that’s super appealing. Every single day is just proving yourself and especially coming from the ground up, that’s the thing that keeps me going everyday. Stepping up on stage, we’re given that time slot to really show who we are.

SSP: What separates The Orphan, The Poet from other bands from Ohio?
Drew: We know what we want to do. We have what we have. I joined after the band was somewhat established. To me it was already in my head what it was supposed to be. There are bands that just go for whatever and we know where we wanna go and what we want to do.

SSP: If there is one word to describe your fans, what would that word be?
Jared: Diverse. Reason being is that we don’t tailor to one specific audience. I think there is an element of our music that everyone can grasp on to. We have fans that are young and old that come from so many different backgrounds. There are bits and pieces of our music that appeal to all the people that listen to The Orphan, The Poet and we appreciate the time they take to listen to our music.
Jake: Wholesome, because our fans are really nice. Our fans are just really awesome. We have had people bring us stuff before and it’s just a nice feeling because obviously they don’t have too. I have the nicest conversations with some of the people that come to our shows. We have never played Atlanta before until the last tour. There were people showing up to see us and it was cool to just talk to them. They have added us on Facebook since then, we still talk to them and they are just the coolest people.
David: Maybe I’m a little biased, but I would describe our fans being intelligent. I like to think that we put a lot of thought and decisive decisions into making these songs, how we play and what we do. When people 100% understand what we’re doing and we go up to talk to them, they just get it. They understand that we’re not trying to be some cookie cutter band or something that we’re not. The fans understand what we’re going for and they love it. It’s cool to know that there is a group of people out there who understand exactly what you’re trying to do and they love you for it. So I would say intelligent.
Drew: My word would be kind. It just means a lot that people like our music. We’re doing something right.