Orillia makes the sort of thoughtful, raw and authentic music that’s needed in today’s complicated world. On his solo, self-titled debut record, released in November, the Chicago musician (aka Andrew Marczak) aimed to capture a singular moment in time, with a certain selection of people. The result is a record, full of originals and covers, that transports the listener to a time and place that profoundly changed Marczak’s life. Now, listeners can catch him performing these tracks at Color Club before embarking on a mini tour across the U.S. and Canada.
Marczak’s musical origins were as humble as his music. His mother was a professional pianist, who offered him opportunities to play in youth orchestras, but he rebelled against learning the piano. Later, in high school, he took up the guitar. In college, a curiosity about the mandolin eventually led to a minor in bluegrass music. This change in direction eventually sparked his interest in writing his own music, which he began doing toward the end of college after meeting other like-minded musicians.
Like many emerging artists, he didn’t really know what he was doing during those early years. Marczak still played and performed, but largely for other bands. A brief period of focusing too much on the technical side of things negatively affected his writing process. However, the last few years were a turning point. Simplifying the creative process unleashed a flurry of new solo music. He now prioritizes pulling creative inspiration from real places and not forcing emotions, making the music as uncomplicated as possible. By embracing the imperfections, his music remained rooted in authenticity and truth.
One way he’s done this, surprisingly, is through the use of characters. And while these characters are not directly about himself, they aren’t entirely fictional. Marczak describes them as representing parts of himself and his own experiences, dreams and desires, even if the character is doing things he would never do. They allow him to test parts of himself and his nerves in a way that might not come naturally in everyday life.
The song “Things,” for example, embodies this. He wrote the song quickly, in about the time it takes to play it. “Things” is about “a guy that’s down on his luck in some small Montana town, kind of trying to escape some sort of situation that maybe he felt trapped in,” he said. At the same time that he wrote the track, Marczak was about to end an unhealthy relationship. Writing the track “was like an extremely cathartic release.” And including it on this new solo album was a way for him to work through some of his past experiences.
Other songs, while not explicitly written by him, invoke a certain mood that characterizes the record. Marczak was inspired by the outlaw country artists of the past such as Townes Van Zandt, Johnny Cash and Emmylou Harris, whose records typically featured a mix of covers and originals.
One of Orillia’s covers, “My Rifle, My Pony, and Me,” (originally by Dean Martin and Ricky Nelson), opens the record. By methodically slowing down the track, Marczak turned it into something much more haunting and emotionally resonant.
That was likely due, in part, to how it was recorded. All of the album’s songs were recorded at Jamdek studio in one day. “I had some rules that I set for the album,” he shared. “I wanted it to be fully acoustic and live in a room so there were no overdubs or anything like that. I wanted to see what we could do in 10 hours.” Whatever they recorded at that time would be the album. This tight, live approach helped him avoid giving room for doubt to creep in and would help capture the real, unpolished sound he aimed for.
It began to storm outside during the recording of “My Rifle, My Pony, and Me.” Rather than call it a day, his engineer miked up the skylight in the room to capture the rush of the water and the rumble of the sky. In the end, this helped Marczak stay present and his music remain of the moment. Like the outlaw country artists he admired from the past, everything recorded for the record, whether it was an original song or a cover, captured this singular moment in time, how he saw the world, and what mattered to him right then and there.
While Marczak is still celebrating the breakthroughs of this record, he’s already hard at work on the next. Recorded in a DIY style, he aims to make a “fuzzy and raw” record that sounds sonically different but still authentically pulls from his own life — flaws and all.
“This is real,” he said. “I like not having the room to get too finicky with anything. I really do love albums that are imperfect.”
Britt Julious is a freelance critic.
Orillia, with Local Memory and Lillian King, plays 8 p.m. Jan. 24 at Color Club, 4146 N. Elston Ave.; tickets $12 at colorclub.events/events