Biography
O R L A N D O S E A L E A N D T H E S W E L L
British-born singer songwriter Orlando Seale was living and working as an actor in LA when his girlfriend lent him Elliot Smith’s old guitar. Then she left him.
He made his way home to London and was struck by the rapidly changing capital, staggering along in the wake of the financial crash. A new menace, and a keen sense of mortality shot through his songs. A collaboration with an orchestra for The Old Vic Tunnels gave birth to ‘The Swell’, and a more ambitious sound that sought to capture the epic sweep of the ‘unreal city’, its caffeinated highs and gin-street lows.
The band have played everything from stripped-back intimate living room tours, to festival stages including Greenman, Wilderness & No Direction Home, with as many as 20 members on stage.
This December they will release a full length album they recorded as-live at Assault & Battery studios in London.
A launch show takes place at The Lexington on Dec 14th with support from Seftel (Lo Recordings), Kingsley Chapman (lead singer of the late Chapman Family), and a DJ sets from Nadine Shah and Ruth Barnes (Amazing Radio).
The band look to release their debut single early in the new year.
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“Such freshness, and vigor, and power and newness about the writing and the delivery…it really swept us away. You must try and see Orlando Seale and The Swell if you possibly can.”
Tom Robinson BBC6 Music
“Brilliant British band Orlando Seale and The Swell – like Arcade Fire with better lyrics.”
Serena Davies, Daily Telegraph
“Like a male Florence and The Machine”
Noel Fielding
”A ballsy, bohemian behemoth coming on like Jarvis Cocker fronting Arcade Fire with a petite orchestra of drum-beating and string-serenading beauties.”
Will Rees, Wilderness festival
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