Orange and Atlas has really been a band longer than they have really been a band.

Having grown up together in Oklahoma, the two principal songwriters – Erick Orange and Atlas Levan - have played together in different bands and in different forms since junior high school. They are complimented and joined by longtime friends and fellow musicians Shane Harris on bass, and Bo McCarty on drums - both players also veterans of the same local music scenes, and each of them also having been in other bands with either Orange, or Atlas or both. And from those earliest beginnings they have been writing songs. Original music has always been their focus.

Their first self-titled and released album is really just a continuation of the partnership – a natural progression of their musical lives - a coming together of the past but, more importantly, the first step in a new direction.

Having gained loyal followings and critical acclaim for their songwriting and the bands in which they have played in Oklahoma, Oregon and Washington, the band now calls Dallas, Texas home, and the base of their FruitWorld Tunes operation (with a satellite base of operations known as North Grove in wonderful Chickasha, Oklahoma).

There are three bands in which Orange and Atlas have played in together: BBEF and the Fence Walkers in Oklahoma, and Red Footed Genius in Oregon. Other bands in which they have played and been songwriters include Defenestration, The Wickers, On a Llama, Dorkweed, Tumble, and Mandala. Each of these groups obtained at an absolute minimum highly successful “local band” status, performing to large groups of dedicated fans and attracting the praise of many music writers and critics - two of which were even signed artists on independent record labels and had several extensive continental tours. And the music from these groups represents the vast compliment of styles and sounds both Orange and Atlas create and are influenced by.

But now they have come back again, so to say. This latest incarnation and its creative pojects is the inevitable realization of a process born out of the unspoken language that emerges from two people so closely tied together in art, life and musical sensibilities. But even though its roots are in their past, this “new” music is representative of the path that they have taken to get to here and now, and a sign of where they will be going in the future.

Just read the accolades and reviews these two have garnered in the past, (see Press) to get a good idea of why it would do you well to listen and pay attention to their music today, and tomorrow.