Acclaimed Boston singer-songwriter unveils a collection of exuberant pop-rock anthems for new album out Friday, March 27
From Taylor Swift and The Beaches to Reba McEntire and Rascal Flatts, Robert Ellis Orrall has spent a career writing hit songs for other artists. But every now and again, he remembers that he’s also been pretty busy writing songs for himself.
Now a freshly-produced collection of songs from his seemingly endless creative vault, plus a reimagining of a fairly famous track he co-wrote with Swift two decades ago, compose the prolific Massachusetts songwriter’s new album Wonderland, set for release on CD and digital on Friday, March 27 via Fixation Records.
The first taste of Wonderland, an unearthed batch of unrequited love songs named after the MBTA’s Blue Line stop located not far from Orrall’s North Shore home base, arrives on Friday, February 27 through an exuberant and anthemic pop-rock yearner of a single titled “Brand New Me.” A series of lyric videos, five in total, will drop weekly leading up to, and just after, the album release.
“I spent many years writing songs for other artists, and along the way, I wrote songs for me to record but I never released them,” Orrall admits. “Some of my favorite songs ever, in fact. Now that I’m back performing and recording with my original band, it was time to release this collection into the world.”
That original band – Orrall on vocals and keyboards and joined by longtime confidants Kook Lawry on guitars; Don Walden on bass; and David Stefanelli on drums and percussion – was his trusted ‘80s-era foursome that was a staple in Boston’s music scene. While signed to RCA Records, the group toured and performed with the likes of U2, The Kinks, and NRBQ, and rocking venues like The Rat, Paradise Rock Club, and Orpheum Theater.
The band reformed in 2021, and Orrall has released five albums since, including last summer’s ‘80s-callback live recording The Bear Is The Mountain and autumn’s feisty Wrong Thing. And as the band preps a new album together set for release later this year, with some late-summer live shows on the calendar – August 7 at The Cut in Gloucester and September 3 at the Wildcat Outdoor Concert Series in Jackson, New Hampshire – Orrall has filled in the space in between by bringing these once-lost songs to vibrant life.
“Someone asked me ‘What is your favorite song you ever wrote?’, and I reflexively said I don’t think I could pick one – there are over 2000 in my catalog, including over 350 cuts,” Orrall says with a laugh. “But I thought it would be fun to revisit a few hundred songs to see if I really could pick a favorite. The clear winner was a song that has never been cut, really never been heard by anyone. It’s called ‘Wonderland’. Sad songs are my favorite songs, and this one is the saddest of them all.”
Perhaps surprisingly, then, the title track kicks off the record. With a grand and ambitious orchestral arrangement conducted by David Hofner, “Wonderland” sets a thematic tone for the album, but not a stylistic one. With its ‘80s love-song balladry right at the jump, what follows falls in line with Orrall’s more upbeat, infectious nature – both in his musical style and personal demeanor.
“My sound has always fallen in between pop and rock, and this album is no exception,” he says. “I’m obsessed with harmonies, background vocals, and counter vocals. Sometimes as many as 20 vocal tracks. It’s my favorite thing to do in the studio, and I had a ball singing these.”
That becomes apparent with a string of upbeat love songs, starting with the lead single “Brand New Me.” A shoulder-swaying anthem of sonic excess fit for arenas and post-Valentine’s Day playlists, “Brand New Me” is Robert Ellis Orrall on top of his songwriting game, luring us in with relatable and memorable lyricisms packed tightly into earworms that exude timeless confidence.
“I love the way this song kicks off with drums and sparkling electric guitars,” he reveals, “and the lyric dives right into a back-handed admission of guilt and the lament that although he has supposedly fixed all his flaws, she’s not around to see it. He’s sad, he’s angry, he’s sorry and he’s showing off at the same time.”
Across the magnetic Wonderland, Orrall is showing off as well – taking a batch of lyrically sad songs and coloring them in upbeat, joyous tones.
The deceptively cheerful “I’m Coming With You” packs razorsharp harmonies under a cruising piano n’ guitar groove (“I love this one because you’ve got a knucklehead whose partner says she’s had it and she’s leaving, and he’s saying ok, where are we going to go?” he quips); and the smoky and dramatic “I Disappear” is another of his faves: “Out of all the songs I’ve written with the extraordinary Juan Carlos Perez Soto, this is the saddest, and so it’s no surprise it’s my favorite. In the realm of unrequited love songs, it’s the one where the object of your affection is inches away, but it may as well be miles.”
Orrall wrote the crystalline and glam-tinged “Carol Ann” with Tom Higgenson, the Plain White T’s frontman best known for “Hey There Delilah,” and while the world knows that song was written about Delilah DiCrescenzo, a sociology student at Columbia University in the early aughts, Orrall admits to not knowing who this particular “Carol Ann” is. “But,” he adds, “we wish her well.
Elsewhere, “Underground” boasts Orrall’s uncanny knack for enchanting storytelling through harmonic imagery, and “End Title Song” is a playful riff on the songs we hear playing as the credits roll after a film – something Orrall is no stranger to, perhaps most famously penning “Ultimate” for Lindsay Lohan, which appeared at the end of the 2003 film Freaky Friday, only to be rebooted by The Beaches for last year’s well-received sequel.
The Beaches cover for the aptly-titled Freakier Friday added another notch to Orrall’s remarkable career, which took him to Nashville after his aforementioned band dissolved in the mid-’80s. In the country music capital, he became a prolific songwriter, producer, and in-demand collaborator who would earn five Number 1 songs to his credit across an eclectic and expansive catalog, and along the way would help launch Swift’s career, co-writing and co-producing her 10x-platinum 2006 debut album and its follow-up 2008 EP Beautiful Eyes.
He’d work with the likes of McEntire, Shenandoah, Carlene Carter, and Clay Walker, earn placements in TV and movies in addition to Freaky Friday – like The Bourne Identity and Hannah Montana – and launch esteemed indie label Infinity Cat Recordings (releasing music from his beloved sons’ band JEFF The Brotherhood, as well as Diarrhea Planet, Be Your Own Pet, and others) and its Visitor’s Center and Gallery.
But working with Swift is where his second act would truly begin, so it’s only natural he included one of his collaborations with the biggest pop star in the world on Wonderland – just like how he included “Crazier” on last year’s Wrong Thing.
“I’m Only Me (When I’m With You)” was first made famous by Taylor Swift on the deluxe edition of her aforementioned 2006 debut album, and has since taken on a life of its own. Trading in the guitar-pop propulsion of the original for an orchestral, grandiose ballad, its inclusion on Wonderland somewhat belies the album’s overriding theme of unrequited love songs …depending on one’s perspective, of course.
“The exception might be ‘I’m Only Me (When I’m With You)’, which can be taken a couple of ways,” he admits. “When Angelo Petraglia and I wrote the song with Taylor for her debut album, it was a fun uptempo declaration of love. And although ‘I’m only me when I’m with you’ is the very definition of co-dependency, it’s also a very real feeling when you’re young. And American Greetings even licensed the song for a Valentine’s Day card!”
But now that Orrall is 45 years into a loving marriage, he now looks at the song in a different way, like in a I-can’t-imagine-life-without-you kind of way. “So I wanted a more introspective take on the song. There’s a little bit of sadness in the thought that someday one of us will lose the other. But then again it might also make a sweet first dance at a wedding!”
And if that happens, Orrall will be glad he took the time to include it on Wonderland, with its entirely new vibe offering a little bit of hope, and maybe some levity, to the record as a whole. In any type of love affair, there’s a feeling of excitement and intrigue, even if sometimes things can be a little one-sided, and that’s the picture Orrall paints across these 10 songs, now finally getting the release treatment they deserve.
“My favorite kind of song is an unrequited love song,” he concludes. “There are so many ways into the subject. As a matter of fact, I think of the collection as 10 singles for single people, because everyone is looking for love, turning their back on it, trying not to lose it, trying to get it back on track.”
Just like his own personal songwriting catalog.
Connect with Robert Ellis Orrall:
HOMEPAGE . ART PAGE . SPOTIFY . BANDCAMP . APPLE . INSTAGRAM . FACEBOOK . YOUTUBE
Robert Ellis Orrall’s band features:
Robert Ellis Orrall: Keyboards and vocals
Kook Lawry: Guitars
Don Walden: Bass
David Stefanelli: Drums and percussion
‘Wonderland’ credits:
Produced by Robert Ellis Orrall
Songs written by Robert Ellis Orrall, with Tom Higgenson (“Carol Ann”), Taylor Swift and Angelo Petraglia (“I’m Only Me (When I’m With You)”), Adam Mitchell and Reyes Jose Ignacio (“Where Do We Go From Here”), Bill Deasy (“Underground”), Gordon O’Brien “(When Will You Love Me Again”), Juan Carlos Perez Soto (“I Disappear”), Phoenix Stone and Gordon O’Brien (“Brand New Me”), and Cathy Majeski (“Wonderland”)
“Wonderland” orchestra conducted by David Hofner
Touring Band: Kook Lawry, Don Walden, David Stefanelli
Road Manager: Lara Gray
Legacy Tactician: Jerry Antonelli
Legal: Kent Marcus
Radio: Radio Candy Media
Publicity: Knyvet
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Robert Ellis Orrall short bio:
When RCA Records signed Robert Ellis Orrall in 1980 he had his dream band: Kook Lawry on guitar, Don Walden on bass and David Stefanelli on the drums. Forty-four years later they are back on the road and in the studio. Part of a New Wave of Boston artists that included The Stompers, Jon Butcher Axis, Til Tuesday and The Neighborhoods, REO rocked legendary venues like The Rat, The Paradise and The Orpheum Theater.
The band’s critically acclaimed albums, Fixation, Contain Yourself, and Special Pain were recorded at Rockfield Studios in Wales with producer Roger Bechirian (Elvis Costello, Squeeze), and supported with tours opening for U2, The Kinks, Psychedelic Furs and countless others. And their Top 40 smash hit with Carlene Carter “I Couldn’t Say No” still stands as an ‘80s classic.
When Robert moved to Nashville to write and produce (Taylor Swift, Reba McEntire, Lindsay Lohan), Kook, Don and David lent their talents to artists like Peter Wolf (J. Geils Band), Barry Goudreau & Brad Delp (Boston), Carlene Carter, Brian Maes, Nick Lowe, and many more.
Robert Ellis Orrall has had over 350 songs (and five #1 songs) cut around the world and soundtracked in TV and movies like The Bourne Identity, Hannah Montana, and Freaky Friday. He produced tracks for Love and Theft, Cake Bake Betty and Taylor Swift’s 10x-platinum debut album and follow-up EP.
The band regrouped to reminisce, tour, and record 467 Surf And Gun Club, an album John Hiatt called “absolutely joyful”; Michael McDonald called “relevant and timeless”; and wrote American Songwriter: “The melodies, counter melodies, and killer performances constitute a unique blend of ‘60s-pop-meets-modern-indie songwriting.”
The band is touring from now to forever, playing songs from all of their albums and albums to come. The old cliche “Let’s get the band back together” has come to life with these four best friends playing their best music.
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