Common Orchids

About

Common Orchids is the solo project of one Matthew L Lowers. The Essex born, self-taught multi-instrumentalist has played every guitar riff, bass note, drum beat and egg shaker you will hear on this album. Rooted in blues rock, garage rock with acoustic strumming and funk vibes thrown in this is an album brimming with melody and grit. If Guitar music is dead, then nobody told this album. Full of catchy riffs that both nod to the past and embrace the future. So how did this Common Orchid grow? Matt spent many a sweaty night as a teenager and beyond learning his craft in that bastion of local music, the pub covers band. This led to contacts being made and original bands being formed. Many years gigging and recording followed but alas like so many before, dreams of recording contracts and sell out tours never materialised, they got close, but it never quite happened. Age and reality came calling so Matt pursued a career as a firefighter. He did not leave music behind but took a break from the live circuit and playing in bands, those bills need paying and as any struggling musician will tell you, it's hard out there. The love of playing and writing continued and he explored ideas in his free time. But life has a way of catching you out and after a long term relationship break up which led to him spending over a year of his life sofa surfing with just his acoustic guitar as his only constant possession, it was time for some serious soul searching. Time spent travelling in Europe resulted in Matt ending up in Romania where he learnt amongst many things how to make moonshine. This time away made him revaluate what he wanted from life. Heading back to London, he met his girlfriend (now wife from Romania) they lived in Stoke Newington before heading north out of London to Hertfordshire. Matt began trying out new songs he had written. By chance he came across a poem written by Essex writer Andy Prangnell. Old friends from their hometown. Matt felt inspired to use it in a song he was working on, (Outside the Circle) the bones of a beautiful composition was created and so the start of a new project. You can over analyse any situation so we won't bother with that, let's just say something clicked and Matts spark was truly back and running and soon the songs were coming in a rich vein of creativity, with Andy providing some lyrics and Matt the rest. Whilst not a duo, Andy has the roll of a silent partner in the Common Orchids and although not contributing a note to the album (not even an egg shaker) he has co written four songs and acted as an extra pair of ears for Matt and contributing ideas where needed. Into the studio and with the professional help of the producer Martin Lumsden things started to happen for real! A record of our times 'Truth and Lies' explores themes as diverse as mental Health, Addiction, spirituality, government corruption (both home and abroad) and the reality of modern life. As is said nothing happens overnight things need time to grow, and when given time they grow beautifully. Ladies and Gentlemen I give you the Common Orchids.

On Spotify