Kris Orlowski is a Seattle musician armed with a warm, crooning baritone. He’s made the rounds at summer festivals and gigs about the city, and, as he prepares for Bumbershoot, Kris managed to take the time to chat with The Monarch’s Andrew Harris about his writing style, his favorite northwest bands and much more! 

Andrew Harris: What is the importance of the dramatic in your songs?

Kris Orlowski: I like people to feel something with my music. The dramatic tone is probably due, in part, to the subjects I have been singing about – finding your way, heartbreak, finding a dollar on the side of the road. I tend to look at these things through a cinematic lends. For the last EP, there was a concerted effort to make the songs sound bolder and more beautiful with added instrumentation, so that lends to the drama, as well.

AH: You have so many working parts in your songs, can you explain the process of putting a tune together?

KO: Cripes, this question kills me. There are a few steps as you mentioned. I usually hear a melody, or lyric and melody, in my head, which I work out on a guitar. From there I wrestle with making it into a chorus or verse. Sometimes the song just pours out of me, other times it sits in a box in the clouds for months until my head is in the right space. At some point I finish the skeleton of a song, then I play it for the band and we arrange and rearrange until the instrumentation fits with the tone and vision of the song. I am being a bit vague on purpose, because it depends on the song, I may or may not finish the lyrics before I bring it to the band so I can have the whole piece in my head before finalizing the words.

AH: What do you think about – what are the things going through your mind – when you sit down to write the beginnings of a song?

KO: The songs are always affected by the struggles going on in my life at that time. I have found that when something is personal to me, when there is authenticity there, the lyrics and melody always sit better. When I sit down to write, I often use the personal fodder to get the words out. For example, I wrote a song for our upcoming record called “Stone by Stone” about someone very dear to me, when I wrote the instrumentation, it was centered around that person and my feelings. When I wrote the first draft of the lyrics, about 90% was about her, and the other 10% was where I added a few twists or tweaks to my personal rendition. It can be very therapeutic.

AH: Who are your favorite northwest bands?

KO: There are too many, I don’t really want to answer this, but five that come to mind: Noah Gundersen, Smokey Brights, Allen Stone, Daniel Blue, Lemolo, Mikey and Matty Gervais, Deep Sea Diver, Wayfarer, Campfire OK, Hey Marseilles… Okay I will stop, er… Hot Bodies in Motion.
I think that’s 10?

AH: What is the ideal arrangement for your music? Full orchestra, solo?

KO: I love playing as a five piece. In a perfect world, I would play two shows a night, one with the band and one with a backing orchestra!

Kris plays at 8PM Aug. 31 at Bumbershoot.