On the Phone With Bright Orange Spectacle

Words by Em Marcovecchio | Photographs by Josh Fletcher

The first time I ever encountered Charlie Sinclair was at a gig in Sticky Mikes, Brighton; he knew me for a while as ‘the girl who recognised him from Instagram’ however we have since become closer than just two usernames on a screen. Charlie is a man like no other, he’s absolutely nuts but has a pure desire to succeed and push his music to more and more people. Now fronting the newly formed Brighton Glam band ‘Bright Orange Spectacle’, Charlie is pushing to create a new genre. This new genre described as ‘Millennial-glam’ is taking the world by storm, mixing together an almost theatrical and pop heavy sound together. It’s fun, it’s new; it’s a wash and wave of colour which the music industry needs in order to break away from every band sounding like ‘the new face of indie-pop’.

Em: I love the single, I think it’s great, it’s horrifically and annoyingly catchy …

Charlie: That’s great, I mean someone had to like it. It’s the bloody worst. It’s actually a really f***ing annoying melody.

Em: Was there a particular inspiration for this particular single?

Charlie: Yeah, absolutely, it’s a direct reaction to a pretty messy breakup. It’s pretty unedited in terms of its lyrical content, I tried not to overthink it. Often, I will write songs and go back to them to reedit, take bits out and put new bits in, but this one felt very raw at the time.

Em: I would agree with that to be honest, it’s very to the point.

Charlie: Yeah, it’s super blunt, it can almost be quite mean, to not only me but the person I was with as well. That’s definitely not the best thing in the world, and I’m not trying to paint it as the best thing, but it’s honest and it’s what, a couple of days after a very intense relationship, that’s how you feel, you don’t feel very nice. You don’t want to turn around and be like “yeah she’s great and I’m great!”, you’re trying to act so secure but I can see when you’re not. A few weeks later you then think “oh I was being irrational”; other people may judge me for how direct it is, but it’s the truth and it’s what happened in that moment.

Listen to ‘She Could Get Better’ here:

Em: I think a lot of people are definitely worried about being honest.

Charlie: No one is the good guy in a relationship, especially no one is the good guy in a breakup. It can be as amicable as possible, but there are feelings there and they always will be hard feelings. When you’re a songwriter they get addressed on paper.

Em: Can you define what ‘milennial-glam’ is?

Charlie: It’s the idea of desperately not wanting to be labelled as an indie band. Which is very tempting because you see a group of musicians who prominently play guitars and wear baggy clothing; people do jump to that conclusion. But that’s so broad, what does it really mean? Royal Blood are ‘Indie’ but as are The 1975? What does that mean? I wanted to create a genre which defines it more; who are our influences, what does my songwriting sound like. Growing up I listened to a lot of glam rock, which had the earliest nod to my musical creation. We made it organically as a band, but there are drum samples, fake instruments on there, we made the whole single on pro tools. We’re making music with computers but as a glam rock band.

Em: Where did you all meet as a band?

Charlie: We’re all from Guernsey really, which is weird because we all come from this small island where we were never friends. We didn’t grow up together, we’re various ages from 23-33; when I moved to Brighton, George and Jack were playing in a band called ‘Of Empires’ together which are sadly no longer, they were awesome. I was going about the project solo and gradually more and more people were added. We all met in Brighton, but because of all these links it feels incredibly organic. It was like friends with benefits, where one person eventually sat down and went “what are we, are we a band now?”.

Em: Who made the artwork and what was the concept of it?

Charlie: It’s designed by one of my closest friends Josh Fletcher (@jgrfletcher), who is also from Guernsey. He deals with everything creative for us, from shoots, to graphics to album artwork. He is incredible and as far as I see he is part of the band, we couldn’t do this without him, he’s an incredible artist. The concept of the single cover was, well, it’s a bit of a dig how people first perceive you when you’re starting out. We’re called ‘Bright Orange Spectacle’, we’re big, we’re bright, and we are a spectacle; yeah, it’s out of this world. Yet you still feel super ignored because you should, we’re new, you’ve got to earn your colours! We wanted to put out bright logo in a museum and show someone walking past it, no one pays attention. I’m not complaining, it’s just facts. We only have one single, but we’re coming. We’re working our arses off, let’s do this, like c’mon, see our Facebook posts. We’ve only played four gigs and have on single, but we’re coming.

Em: What is to come?

Charlie: More music! We’re a band and we make music; I don’t rate bands who do this whole “we’ve released a single” then wait half a year to release something else. You’re a band, play gigs, we’re going to do that. I want to make music and I want to give it to people; you can pay attention or you don’t have to, that’s fine, but we’re going to make art. Expect a lot of songs.

Em: How are you spending your bank holiday weekend?

Charlie: I am going straight back into the studio, to record the next song. There is no such thing as a break, we have a load of gigs coming up and we’re constantly in the rehearsal room. We’re a good band at the moment, but we’re not a great band yet; we’re not going to rest until we’re better than a great band. Two new songs are being recorded, two new ones are already ready.

Signing off the interview, Charlie describes the situation well; “I’d prefer people to hate my guts than to be on the fence or indecisive about my band”. As I said, Charlie is a character like no other, but has his heart set on one thing, success and drive to succeed and nourish this new genre of music which will sound nothing like ‘indie-pop’.