Orba Squara's Junk-Shop Sound: New Tunes from Salvaged Instruments

Mitch Davis is the man behind the quirky music of Orba Squara. Though Orba Squara has, for most of its life, been a one-man-band, Davis performs and collaborates with a collection of salvaged instruments. These reclaimed tools, saved from thrift stores and junk shops, gives Orba Squara its unique sound, one that is both derived from and a personification of reuse aesthetics.

It's an approach that pervades Orba Squara's approach to music. From second-hand instruments in the studio to a 10-day bus tour across the country, the focus is on the old and local, the slow and positive.

We had a chance to talk to Mitch Davis, who is releasing Orba Squara's second album, The Trouble with Flying, on October 26th.

Watch: Orba Squara, The Trouble With Flying (Video)

Planet Green: What's the story behind your name, Orba Square - ah?
Mitch Davis: The story behind the name, actually pronounced Orba Skwa - ra...

PG: Oh, sorry about that.
MD: It's ok. There's no way anyone would know that because it's completely made up anyway. It serves me right for thinking of a name that is completely nonsensical.

First of all, I wanted to think of a name...that wasn't a person's name. I wanted it to be a band name and I wanted it to be an abstract name. I didn't want it to be something that would clue the listener into the kind of music it might be or what to expect, so they wouldn't have any preconceived ideas of what the music is or is supposed to be.

PG: You must get that question a lot.
MD: Yeah.

PG: OK, we can move on. Thanks for indulging me though.
MD: No problem.

PG: Listening to the album, the thing that sticks out to me is the unique sound of the instruments you use. Could you tell me a little about this?
MD: I kind of see myself as someone who rescues old instruments. I think these old instruments have a lot to offer. They have a lot more character to them than some new, shiny, pristine instrument. I like to look around different thrift stores and junk shops and look for guitars, accordions, cow bells, or whatever.

You find things like that, not only do you give an instrument some value it might not have had otherwise by actually putting it to use in a valuable sort of way, but it just has a lot more character. You know, a guitar might be cracked, or warped, and doesn't tune up exactly right, that's what gives it a sound. That's what gives it a personality.

Anyone can go out and buy a guitar but to find one that has had a long life and needs a home and some appreciation, that's harder to come by. They have a whole lot more interest to me.

And we kind of help each other, the instruments and I. They force me to do something I wouldn't have otherwise done.

PG: So the music comes from these instruments both literally and figuratively.
MD: Yeah, I think the instruments really tell me what they want to write, basically. You wouldn't play in a smoky honky-tonk bar with a big grand piano. The sound of the instrument tells you want it wants to play. If I have 10 guitars in front of me, each one will have its own sound and will want to play different things—and they'll inspire different things.

That's my starting point for writing new songs. I pick up a new instrument and see where it takes me.

Orba Squara's new album The Trouble with Flying. Image credit: Mitch Davis/Orba Squara

PG: The Trouble with Flying, comes out October 26th. What's the story behind this new album?
MD: I basically went about it the same way as the previous album, but one thing that was really different was that I used a lot of the same types of instruments but larger scale than the previous one. Where the other one was a lot more ukuleles and small glockenspiels, this one has more things like a nylon string flamenco guitar, a xylophone, or an accordion.

The first album came about as a spontaneous reaction to the things I was doing and other music I was making. By the time [The Trouble with Flying] came around, I had lived with the style, it became more a part of me.

PG: Does the album's title The Trouble with Flying speak to anything specific?
MD: Well, it came from the song, "The Trouble with Flying," but I chose it for the album title because it really feels appropriate for a second album. You think: you just got through the first one, you tied it up nicely and it's done. But when you start the second one, you're sort of starting over.

The hardest parts are starting something and finishing it. It's a scary thing to sit down with the blank paper and have to start from scratch all over again.

Sometimes, you have to take it slow. Orba Squara's bus-powered tour across the US. Image credit: Mitch Davis/Orba Squara

PG: When you're touring or writing an album, do you think about music as a tool for social change or a means of raising awareness of important issues?
MD: You can't really set out to make social change with music. But what you can do with music is try not to influence negative change. Even if I can't make someone go out and do something good, I won't influence them to do something bad.

PG: The fact that you make something creative from what would be other people's trash, or at least from things that have been forgotten, makes it seem that there is something inherently positive about your music.
MD: I think so. I would hope that it could make some small dent in the world and make people take a look at what they have—what people need to own and acquire—and what they can repurpose and continue using for a long time.

In this subtle way, the music of Orba Squara is a call for all of us to take a look at the old and forgotten. It demonstrates the value of the warped and broken over the new and shiny. As a sort of shepherd of abandoned instruments, Mitch Davis shows us the power of reuse culture.

The result: Unique music that has a powerful message but is still fun to listen to.

Watch: Orba Squara, The Trouble With Flying (Video)

Download Orba Squara's "The Trouble with Flying".

Get more conscious music at Planet Green's Instrumental.

More about reusing instruments:
Grow Your Own Music Speakers?
Score Used Instruments on Craigslist, Don't Buy New
Play it Forward and Recycle Instruments
Top 5 Green Musicians