Alter The Press! Presents: Safety Word Orange

Richmond, Virginia's Safety Word Orange are starting to stand out in the ever-growing US pop-punk/pop-rock crowd, as their latest EP 'On Your Mark, Get Set...' shows. With a strong understanding for the genre and all-round feel good sound, that is spread with catchy hooks and strong melodies. It is a sound that has seen praise from numerous sites, and the band also played this year's Warped Tour after winning the Ernie Ball's Battle of the Bands.



For Fans Of: All Time Low, The Dangerous Summer, Mayday Parade

Alter The Press: Why should Alter The Press! readers check you out?
Safety Word Orange: We are worth checking out for a variety of reasons. This EP, 'On Your Mark, Get Set' is a short, but sweet taste of what we have to offer. While writing it, we wrote about our experiences in life and love. We tried to convey a certain amount of emotion that people could relate to, while also keeping the energy high and keeping listeners on their feet. We put so much time and effort into writing these songs that before we went into the studio we were spending 6 to 10 hours a day practicing and writing. Hopefully people will have as much fun listening to it as we did making it.

People should understand that we love hearing feedback. Whether its good or bad, we thrive on it. And we make it our responsibility to try and talk to everyone that comes to see our shows. Some bands I feel at a point take for granted all of their fans support, but we remain true to our roots. I enjoy talking to people, whether they are fans or not. We have been given an opportunity to meet and share our music with all types of people, and we are going to enjoy every second of it.

The final reason people should check us out is because we put everything we have into our live shows. That by far is the most fun part of our jobs. Recently we just amped up our stage props so we are locked and loaded with all sorts of goodies to make our show more fun for the audience. It is our job to entertain people for the 30-45 minutes we have on stage, and we take that job very seriously.

ATP: What's the story behind the band?
SWO: Safety Word Orange was originally formed in L.A. when Robbie (lead guitar/vocals) met James (lead vocals) through a mutual friend. After forming a lineup they decided to move back to their hometown of Fairfax, VA. That lineup ended up not working out and they decided to use the wonders of technology to find some new committed musicians. Jackson (guitar/vocals) was the first to come on board, followed by Reid (Bass) and Travis (Drums). I guess if we are ever successful we’ll have to give some credit to Craigslist.

Now while we are here, we might as well go over the meaning behind the name because we get this question often. Safety Word Orange is a reminder of a hard time in our lives. Everyone has been there and this phrase is used to steer clear of going back. All of us use this band as our safety net. In a way it keeps us all sane.

ATP: Single highlight as a band so far?
SWO: So far the biggest highlight has probably been winning the Ernie Ball Battle of the Bands and playing Warped Tour 2010. It was a dream come true for all of us, and it turned out so well. We weren’t expecting very many kids coming to watch us because so many other awesome bands are playing all day, but we had a sweet crowd of around 200 kids. Even though they wrote our name as Safety Word Change on the schedule, we lucked out with our spot, right before Emorosa and Mayday Parade. I don’t think any of us were too bitter about the mess up, we were just glad to be there.

ATP: What are your plans for the 12 months?
SWO: In the next 12 months we have a lot of things in the works. First of all we are planning on going back into the studio to record a few tracks that we will release sometime next summer. We will be working with our friend/producer from the last record, Bryan Russell. So right now we are writing some sweet new jams. We had an awesome summer so we are going to keep that momentum going.

We just signed a publishing deal, so in the coming months people should be hearing us in some stores. We also just got distribution through our friends at Hot Topic. Fans can look forward to a TON of FREE acoustic Hot Topic shows. We really enjoy playing in an intimate setting. Not to worry though, we are working on putting together a few East Coast tours for this fall and winter with some really cool bands. Our goal is to get our music heard and put into as many people’s hands as possible within the next year. You can look forward to hearing our name soon!

Safety Word Orange on Facebook, Twitter and Purevolume.

Words by Sean Reid