Interview with The Outlaw Orchestra: ‘I love stories, I love meeting rockstars for their stories’

Southampton bluesey rockers The Outlaw Orchestra have released an EP of covers, cheekily titled ‘Back Under The Covers’, including their versions of songs by The Beatles, Small Faces and Motörhead.

The band, which formed five years ago, comprises Dave Roux (lead vocals and guitar), Ryan Smith (vocals, drums and percussion) and Pete Briley (banjo and bass). Roux and Smith have played in several bands together over the years. Their name is a reference to the ‘hell-raising, foot stomping’ energy they embody and that between them, they practically play an orchestra’s worth of instruments, including the banjo, mandolin, lap steel, pedal steel, guitars, baritone guitars and ‘every percussive instrument you can fit in a van’: ‘It started off as a joke,’ Roux laughed. ‘We were playing bluesgrass midweek, we did a gig in a cafe and people loved it. Ryan called Planet Rock and I don’t know how but they gave us a gig playing to 2,000 people but we only had eight songs (laughs). I told some jokes and stories in between and sold 300 CDs that night, it was a mad thing! Russell Hill, the DJ, found Pete, banjo players are freaks (laughs)! I interviewed eight of them before Pete. I turned up to his, he gave me a hug, I met his great dog and missus. He already knew all of our songs, so he was hired!’

‘What started out as a way to beat the lockdown blues was picked up and gained momentum’

‘Under The Covers’ started out as lockdown project when they were unable to meet, according to Roux: ‘During the worldwide lockdown a year or so back, The Outlaw Orchestra continued writing and recording,’ he said. ‘We never intended those covers to be reviewed in the music press, what started out as a way to beat the lockdown blues was picked up and gained momentum, folk loved it and we had a blast working together at virtual distance. So we recorded another titled ‘Back Under The Covers’.

The new EP demonstrates their breadth of tastes from The Beatles’ ‘Come Together’, ‘Itchycoo Park’ by Small Faces, The Band’s ‘Cripple Creek’ and a stripped-back version of Motörhead’s ‘Iron Fist’.  

‘Come Together’ is an inspired cover, mashing up the heavy bass with the rolling banjo to lighten the mood; it’s part modern rock song and part southern charm, with guitars that crunch and grind all the way through in a way that Paul McCartney himself would surely approve of. The soaring guitar solo in unison with the banjo completely transforms it, making it the stand out track on the EP for me, complete with Roux’s raspy, edgy vocals.

It opens with a screeching riff that builds into a frenzy of guitars for 40 seconds before the song as we know it kicks in, played on a baritone guitar to give it that extra deep bass growl. I tell him that it’s a genius intro, incredibly hooky and in your face and he grins: ‘We run the bottom two guitar strings through a double octave drop into a bass amplifier, so I’m finger picking a bass line whilst picking the guitar melody at the same time,’ Roux said. ‘I wrote the intro at around 3 in the morning (laughs) on my baritone guitar – and recorded it on GarageBand. The band Giant have a song called ‘I’m A Believer’, the intro is an insane guitar solo! I nicked it to some degree. On the live stage, Pete has bass floor pedals, he plays a bass line with his foot if I take a solo and he is still picking banjo. It’s a case of patting your head, rubbing your tum, picking banjo, a bass line with your foot and singing harmonies……its easy really!’

‘It’s our salute to our heroes and record collections that keep us inspired’

Having released their second full album Makin’ Tracks in October 2021, the ensuing festivals and gigs have kept them hard on the road with little chance to book studio time for new material. However as Roux explains: ‘When backstage hanging with other bands and musicians, we like to warm up the fingers and voices jamming out covers. Everyone joins in, the bottle tops start to collect pretty fast and within an hour we’re stage ready. This is how we started out, busking around the kitchen table swapping instruments. Someone backstage said “You guys should record these, they’re great fun”. So with the help of portable technology, we captured the more polished versions of our backroom jams into another collection of our favourite covers. It’s our salute to our heroes and record collections that keep us inspired.’

‘Cripple Creek’ has been a huge inspiration to both Roux and Smith, making it a natural choice for the EP, giving us a dose of proper southern fried rock ‘n’ roll with a funky lead line: ‘I just love it,’ Roux said enthusiastically. ‘The Last Walz‘ (a concert that The Band gave on Thanksgiving in 1976), my parents played it in the 70’s, I grew up with it. Ryan really loves their drummer (Levon Helm). ‘Itchycoo Park’ was a total challenge, we were scared to touch such a sacred song (laughs). We had to drop it a key down, I’m not Steve Marriot!’

Their version stays closer to Small Faces’ original, albeit it quite stripped back but still sunny, with more playful vocals from Roux. It sits extremely well against tracks like ‘Iron Fist’, even though they’re not an obvious pairing: ‘I loved Motörhead as a kid, we wanted to include them,’ he said. I say that I am in serious awe of Briley’s astonishingly fast banjo playing in ‘Iron Fist’, which gives their version a rocky country feel: ‘He’s playing 180 beats a minute,’ Roux said incredulously. ‘I don’t know how he does it, I tried to finger pick it and my hand cramped (laughs). We played it really heavy at first then stripped it back, with just a small drum kit, baritone guitar and the banjo. The question you ask yourself is “Do you sing it like Lemmy or yourself?” I went with me and we did a country bluegrass harmony.’

‘It gives you a good retro sound’

Roux is a big fan of the ‘Abbey Road’ or ‘artificial delayed tracking effect’, which was used by John Lennon on songs such as ‘Woman’ and ‘Jealous Guy’, employing it on their upcoming Christmas single: ‘It gives you a 12 millisecond delay, a phrasing effect going back and forward. It gives you a good retro sound,’ he said.

Briley’s incredible picking is also evident on tracks such as ‘Back to Georgia’ from their debut EP, ‘The Devil Made Me Do It’ (2018). The song itself turns out to be based on a true story: ‘I was driving out of Birmingham, Alabama, with my girlfriend and we got a flat tyre,’ he said. ‘She got out and had a look at it. We only had two hours to get back for our flight. She’s kicking this tyre iron (laughs) and said “We’re almost outta time, are we gonna get Back To Georgia?” I said: “Well, hurry up and change that tyre, I’ve got a song to write!” I helped her in the end, we made it to Atlanta airport, somewhat grubby from tyre changing and then I got searched by security. Cathy loved that bit, she encouraged them not to leave a stone unturned! The security at Atlanta airport was a larger than life southern speaking black lady who roughly frisked me, squeezed and then, with a loud laugh, said: “Whoooo, I fancy me a cowboy” and patted me on the butt to walk on! She was hilarious!’

Roux also turns out to be a big fan of Wolfgang Van Halen, Eddie Van Halen’s son, who performed at the Taylor Hawkins tribute concert organised by the Foo Fighters in London: ‘He’s amazing, he plays the guitar just like his dad,’ he said enthusiastically. ‘Did you see the LA tribute concert?’ I say that I only caught the London one: ‘It was brilliant, Justin Hawkins came out with Level 42, doing all the falsetto notes and wearing an open-chested pink onesie with tassles (laughs).’

‘Me and Pete listened to every Christmas song and did a Venn diagram showing what it needed’

Writing original songs is where they are most at home: ‘Myself and Ryan, we played eight years of hard gigging doing covers, Skynyrd, Allman Brothers and ZZ Top,’ he said. ‘We’ve got an original Christmas single coming out, we shot the video with rock guitarist/singer Kris Barras as videographer for it on 14 August, in a church, on the hottest day of the year (laughs). We had snow machines outside the church and a roast dinner for 20 people. People walked by wishing us Happy Christmas! The track is called  ‘Outlaw This Christmas’, as in “I wanna be an outlaw at Christmas”. Me and Pete listened to every Christmas song and did a Venn diagram showing what it needed, including guitar harmonies that are irritatingly catchy (laughs). It’s got a ‘Tie Your Mother Down’ by Queen kind of riff. I contacted Mike Batt of The Wombles and asked him what makes their songs sound like the 70’s and your childhood, he said: “Artificial delayed tracking on the vocals”, that’s what Noddy Holder used, and it worked out well for Slade!”‘

He finds inspiration in unlikely places: ‘I probably sit and watch every American car show about rusty cars,’ he said. ‘And me and Pete endlessly take one liners from movies (laughs), like “I’ll play this guitar like it owes me some money” was a YouTube comment I read, we used it on ‘Rattlesnake Sour’. Or the Sam Elliott line “Nobody gave me this black eye, I had to earn it” (laughs). I have hundreds of one liners on my phone, I’ll take something and do a good chord progression. And steal bits from other people! If you listen to Elton John’s ‘Tiny Dancer’, when you listen to his piano chords and play them on the guitar, he’s a genius, because they’re beautiful. Or listen to a Beatles’ chord progression, George Harrison’s melodies that stir you.’

Comic moments have inspired other songs, such as their upcoming track ‘Take This Bag of Bones’: ‘I went to get some off cuts from the butcher for my dog. The butcher handed me a bag of bones and said “No charge”, a couple standing nearby offered me a tenner and said “It must be so hard for you this time of year”. I said: “I’m not homeless, this is for my dog!” I was cracking up laughing but thanked them for their kindness. Then a guy walked in and wanted to get some bones to make a broth for his wife who’d had COVID very badly but had just got her appetite back. The butcher was all out, so I gave the guy my dog’s bag of bones. I thought I’d pay good charity forward, my dog can always eat something else. I posted this escapade on Facebook and our following said “Write a song about it”. Well, it’s in the pipeline but I’ve just got to steal a few more chords from Elton John, The Rolling Stones and The Beatles first! We keep harmonising it, I think it’ll be a good one, it might just be the best song yet.’

‘I’ve had the worst hangover of my life with Lemmy in LA’

He is also fascinated by musicians and their stories, even if he pays the price the next day: ‘I’ve had the worst hangover of my life with Lemmy in LA with my girlfriend, Cathy,’ he said. ‘We strolled into the famous Rainbow Bar & Grill on a Wednesday, the place was empty other than us and Lemmy, he bought a bottle of Jaegermeister for us to share and an hour later all three of us were smashed! I love stories, I love meeting rockstars for their stories. Pete Way from UFO, he had some good stories and I was over the moon when he said “Its a pleasure to meet The Outlaw Orchestra”, that floored me. If I could chat to anyone, in a nutshell, it’s got to be a Rolling Stone, any one of them will do. Pete would say the same, just to hear their stories! I’d say to them: “Look, Mick, Keef and you as well Ronnie, come here, will you just do what all of us want and get Mick Taylor back in the band and then write some more songs like you did in ’72 then do a blues album before you all reach 110”!’

They’ve had many hilarious moments on the road: ‘There are so many but I think Ryan said it best: “It’s not always glamorous on the road” and we played a gig up north and checked into a less than one star hotel. There were two beds, two of us had to get back under the covers with the others (laughs). Ryan said: “Look at the bird shit on the windows, you can’t even see out”. But, here’s the best thing, we all gathered closer and he said: “The shit is on the inside!!!!!” We were sharing the room with local pigeons! That’s rock ‘n’ roll on the road brought to you by The Outlaw Orchestra!’