Orlando Weeks: "The thing that genuinely makes me feel the best is the finishing of a project. I don’t really need anyone to have heard it"

Orlando Weeks has packed a lot into his 38 years. As frontman of The Maccabees for over a decade, Weeks experienced a successful live and recording career from a young age. After their unexpected disbandment in 2016, Weeks wrote and illustrated his first book The Gritterman in 2017, followed by his critically acclaimed debut solo album A Quickening in 2020. Thankfully, there’s no sign of a sophomore slump with his latest record Hop Up. An utter joy from start to finish, Weeks takes us on a much-needed getaway to his alluring dreamland.

“Any time I had the option of ‘Which way does this song go?’ I just tried to make it more uplifting,” he tells me from his London home. “So you saying that’s what it’s given you, is exactly what I hoped for. I want that to be the fallout of it.”

His pursuit of happiness is in no way contrived. It’s clear to see throughout our Zoom call that Orlando Weeks is a man at peace. Released in the first few months of the ongoing pandemic, his debut solo album documents his experience of becoming a father.

“We had just enough time before the lockdowns when he met pretty much everyone.”

Like his approach to Hop Up, Weeks chooses to look on the bright side.

“I felt like we were quite lucky with the stage that he was at, and to be around him as much as we were felt like a blessing.”

Rather than being stifled by back-to-back lockdowns, Weeks has deftly created a silk purse out of the sow’s ear that’s been the past 18 months. Hop Up offers complete escapism to the listener. The hypnotic opening track ‘Deep Down Way Out’ invites us to hop along for the ride to his heavenly dreamland. The album is loaded with pop earworms and ‘80s tinged production. To me, the warm instrumentation nods to the likes of Peter Gabriel, Genesis and, at times, the playful spirit of Joni Mitchell’s Hejira.

“Yeah, that era of John Martyn, Paul McCartney, bits of Linda Thompson,” adds Weeks.

But by no means is this album looking in the rearview mirror. Hop Up features inspiring contributions from two bright-eyed, Bristol-based artists: singer-songwriter Katy J Pearson and rising star, Willie J Healey.

“The music that they make is how I want this record to make people feel,” explains Orlando. “I take joy from their music and if you’ve ever met those guys, they do that with their charisma. Their personalities are very generous and happy, but still sincere and extraordinarily good people.”

Tracks like ‘Look Who’s Talking Now’, ‘Bigger’ and ‘No End To Love’ showcase Weeks’ soaring vocals and the ever-present feelgood vibe found throughout the album.

With its heavenly harmonies, his collaboration with Willie J. Healey, ‘High Kicking’, is a standout on the album.

“With ‘High Kicking’ I wanted to have that sort of Laurel Canyon sound, Crosby Stills and Nash, Joni Mitchell, the warmth that a lot of those harmonies have from that era,” he notes. “Willie is a massive fan and student of Neil Young, so I knew he would get that.”

For Weeks, recruiting producer and musician Nathan Bullion was key to the album’s distinctive style. Recalling his conversation with the Londoner he says, “The only way for us to work together is if I lean into your aesthetic. We’ll push the songs we’ve got into the world you seem to understand so well, and I think that’s what happened.”

One thing that really encapsulates this album is its cinematic sound. There’s a familiar ’80s movie soundtrack sweetness to it. Having written the music for London’s National Theatre production After Life in 2021, Weeks clearly has an ear for this type of work.

“That was a bit more abstract I guess. It was less song-y than Hop Up.”

Just as ‘Deep Down Way Out’ shines as an opening track, the final track ‘Way To Go’ brings the album to a close perfectly. You can imagine it playing as the end credits roll. Is writing music for film something he’d like to do?

“Yeah,” he nods eagerly. “To write songs like Simon & Garfunkel did for The Graduate. That’s just a record of songs, but the way that they adapt it – I’d love to do that.”

At the heart of Orlando Weeks’ music is his beautiful voice. With such a distinctively tender and vulnerable vocal, I ask which singers do it for him.

“I always loved Paul Banks. I thought he was the coolest singer in the world,” he gushes.“Falling in love with Talk Talk and hearing the effort in Mark Hollis’s voice. It doesn’t sound easy for him, you know. It sounds like there’s strain and effort and it’s sort of precarious the way he goes for notes and reaches for things. It feels like tightrope walking a little bit.”

While Weeks is loved for his evocative vocals, he isn’t so sure of his abilities.

“I don’t feel like I’m a natural singer. I can feel the effort,” he continues. “So hearing Mark Hollis’s voice and seeing that it’s ok to strain and alright to reach, and enjoying that, I feel a bit of companionship.”

Musically, Weeks finds inspiration in his all-time favourites.

“Arthur Russell, Let England Shake by PJ Harvey, Paul Wyatt. And then of course The Beatles are just in everything. They’re the cornerstones of the choices I make in terms of songwriting.

“Van Morrison of course. My favourite Van Morrison moment is him in the velour catsuit on stage with The Band,” he smiles. “I don’t know if they’ve done a lot of something backstage, but there’s more high kicking than you would have believed possible! It’s like a man testing out the gusset of his pantsuit.”

A one-time roadie for Bell X1, Weeks appreciates the journey of a young artist.

“I was their unofficial roady for about four gigs,” he laughs. “Me and my friend Will would just carry their stuff because we couldn’t believe we knew a band. I tried to make them posters and drew caricatures of them all.”

His own headline tour was recently rescheduled to March 2022. I tease him about the absence of an Irish date.

“I’ve spoken to my agent and I know they’re looking into it,” he assures me. “My agency, 13 Artists, have been going through an unbelievable stretch, so as much as I want to make sure that we get to all these places, and we will, I also haven’t wanted to lay more stuff on the door of a strung-out bunch of good eggs.”

Live music has faced unprecedented turmoil over the past two years. While more established acts have managed to navigate through the uncertainty, emerging artists are the ones suffering most.

“With young artists, it’s about momentum,” says Weeks. “New artists in the first flushes of people paying them the attention that they deserve. Trying to pick yourself up again after that… I really feel for them. That’s not an easy thing to do.”

Neither is cultivating a solo career. Is his music attracting a different type of audience? Has he noticed a big change in who’s listening to his music?

“Before A Quickening came out, people basically bought tickets to come see me,” says Weeks. “They were going in blind. The rooms felt very, very still, so I thought that was an extremely generous attitude. Then this time, these last little shows playing Hop Up, it was way more raucous I guess, it wasn’t still (laughs). The job I have now is to figure out how to make those two records work together!”

Having found success as a musician, author and artist, how does Weeks ultimately quantify success?

“If it’s received well, then the little buzz of ‘Oh they liked it’ comes and goes quite quickly,” he admits. “The thing that genuinely makes me feel the best is the finishing of a project. I don’t really need anyone to have heard it. I know where it is, good or bad, where its shortcomings are. That small window of time is the best feeling, because it’s something out of nothing, here it is.

“As I get older, the other success is just to keep doing it. Having it be a living, that I can contribute to my household day-to-day. I’m not at the coalface, but it is a particular kind of hard work, especially if you want to be across all the aspects of it – so I see that as success.”

•Hop Up is out now via Play It Again Sam.