Chicago singer-songwriter Andrew Marczak debuted his folky indie-Americana solo project Orillia last year with his self-titled debut last fall, and he’s getting ready to share his second album, Fire-Weed, this fall on Far West Records.
After spending the winter recording on a borrowed Tascam tape machine, he’s announcing Fire-Weed today with the country single “Oreo Ice Cream.”
Andrew recorded the lead single, “Oreo Ice Cream,” on a farm in Michigan with his partner, Peach Miller, on harmonies. Local Memory served as the backing band, and George Rezek of Future Crib engineered and mixed the record. The single reminisces about the best parts of a past relationship in order to move on, but also adds a lighthearted approach to country music.
He said of the upcoming single, “the song is about moving on the best you can from the end of a relationship, and getting to that point where forgiveness is finally a possibility. We did our best to channel Jerry Jeff Walker’s spirited and lighthearted approach to country music, taking a dark moment and injecting a little love and whimsy into it.”
The rest of the record features more collaborators too, including Johnny Cash relative Lydia Cash, and the LP features a country take on Andrew’s song “Weather” from his indie-rock band The Roof Dogs (Earth Libraries). Under The Radar wrote of a previous single that it “brims with easygoing charm and keening melodies” and The Chicago Tribune wrote, “Orillia makes the sort of thoughtful, raw and authentic music that’s needed in today’s complicated world.”
Orillia has shared bills with artists such as villagerrr, Lydia Cash, Samuel Aaron, and more since starting up the project, and he’ll be on tour throughout August and the fall across the US and Germany.
