From the vibrant music scene of Queens, NY, emerges Orphan Prodigy, the solo project of multi-instrumentalist and songwriter Ian Keller. After nearly two decades fronting an alternative rock band, Keller embarked on a new musical journey in 2019, diving into music production and engineering. This exploration led to the creation of Orphan Prodigy and a debut album, Medication For A Modern World, a sonic tapestry that boldly blends rock with electronic dance, house, and trance elements. Join us as we delve into Orphan Prodigy‘s unique creative process, the album’s themes, and the evolution from band member to solo artist.
Orphan Prodigy represents a significant shift from your alternative rock band roots to something more electronic and genre-blurring. What was the turning point for you that made you want to explore this new sound?
It’s funny because as a songwriter, my process hasn’t really changed since I started writing at the age of 11. I still compose everything on an old laptop using basic composition software from the early 2000’s. Even in my first band, I always wanted it to sound more like Orphan Prodigy. The parts were there, and the songs were fundamentally written in the exact same way, but when you’re working with other musicians and producers things get lost in translation. Everyone has their own interpretations of your parts and your songs and I always found the songs got simplified or strayed away from the initial vision. That all changed during the pandemic when I was forced to be isolated and not present my songs to other musicians. In the early days of Orphan Prodigy, I began live-streaming, and because there was no band, I had to use my own tracks to play to. I found the sound to be more layered and complex.
I realized the sound I’d always been hearing in my head, this hybrid fusion of rock and dance was no longer being held back by a specific genre or by the confinements of a traditional “rock” lineup. It was liberating.
Your debut album, Medication For A Modern World, combines rock, electronic dance, house, and trance elements. Can you walk us through the process of mixing such seemingly different styles? What were the biggest challenges in creating this hybrid sound?
One of my favorite things about writing is seeing a blank staff, waiting to be filled with music. It’s like building Lego. It’s just the most exciting thing for me. So I don’t go in with a specific genre or idea in mind. It gets built piece by piece, always beginning with the drums. From there, I know what the song is going to feel like. The chords gradually come to me, then the melody, and finally, the lyrics. So, I guess it’s not so much of a challenge as it is just playing with ideas and creating. Obviously, I have my influences, but I never go in saying “I’m going to write a song that sounds like this or that.” I just write and it is what it is. I don’t write lyrics until I record them for the first time, and I usually don’t edit them either. Because the sound of Orphan Prodigy is so distinctly electronic, I think it creates the space and freedom for the vocals and lyrics to be a little more rough and energetic. I like the dichotomy there.
Having spent nearly two decades in a band, how did it feel transitioning from a collective creative process to working solo and exploring digital audio workstations? Did you find it liberating or isolating?
My comfort zone has always been myself, a laptop, and a pair of speakers. I had already been so used to composing “in the box” so I felt like working within a DAW was familiar but even more exciting. Picking, choosing and creating new sounds for my existing compositions was an epiphany for me. “Get Away” was the first song I wrote and experimented with in a DAW, and when I hear the song, I can hear the excitement in myself as a songwriter. The drums are just always on the cusp of exploding!
The title “Medication For A Modern World” suggests themes related to mental health, society, or modern struggles. Can you share a bit more about the overall message or concept of the album?
I think we’re living in extremely strange times, both on a personal level and in a global sense. The new meta for life seems to be living on screens, promoting yourself as if you’re some sort of vapid product in solitude. But as humans, we’re social creatures, so there’s still a need to be part of a conversation and have interaction with others. I think the youth of today are burdened with that, and it’s a result of progress and technology. So, while we’re moving forward, we’re simultaneously moving backward in some ways. Medication For A Modern World is a soundtrack for those in need. I want people to think and move, but I also want them to relax and know that we’re all in this together.
Were there any particular artists, genres, or movements that influenced the sound of Medication For A Modern World? Or maybe something outside of music, like art or literature?
I’m adopted and have two gay parents who later separated. They both came from Christian and Catholic backgrounds but I attended Ethical Culture every Sunday. It basically welcomes all faiths and teaches you to just kind of be a good person. So I think my unique upbringing was very instrumental in how I approach songwriting. I don’t reject any idea outright, and I just see how big I can make the song. My parents were very into dance and house music when I was growing up, and I got into rock on my own when my parents took me to Germany to visit my cousin. She was playing The Offspring’s single at the time, “Why Don’t You Get A Job,” and when I heard the first line it blew my mind. I knew at that moment that I wanted to be a musician that blew people’s minds, too. I wanted to be shocking. So I guess The Offspring will always be a foundation. Weezer, Metallica, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Rage Against The Machine, Primus and Nirvana. On Medication For A Modern World, I take a lot of inspiration from Dave Grohl and Primus’ drummer Jay Lane. It’s sort of a hybrid of the two. When you listen to the songs, it’s almost as if there are two drummers playing at once, like a conversation between rock and dance. From a narrative perspective, I think life as a whole serves as the primary influence. The title track is a prime example of that, both lyrically and musically.
Which track would you say is the emotional or thematic centerpiece of the album?
They’re all important to me. Each song serves as a chapter in the experience of listening to the album. It starts with an awakening, which gradually builds into a self-reflection state, then to anger, forgiveness of oneself and the world, and ultimately acceptance. I’m a firm believer that a collection of songs should tell a story. “Get Away” is important to me, it’s just a solid release of energy. I think it’s about a time in my life when I became agoraphobic after touring so much. “Forget” is a deeper cut about my younger brother and myself and our experience with adoption and how it can be really confusing and dismantle you at times. “Vodka Build” is also a really high point in the record, and it’s about the colors of the sunset and how they have this profound effect on me. I can see their colors in shapes and hear them in sound, and it’s a backdrop for the eternal love that soulmates experience. “Traitor” is definitely an important song to me, too. I think it’s probably also the most accessible track on the album. At face value, it sounds simple, but you can apply that simple concept of a traitor to an ideal, a person, a feeling, or whatever you want. There’s an homage to my favorite Offspring song “Gone Away” in the opening drum intro.
You’re playing a show at FirstLive in Brooklyn to coincide with the album release. How do you approach live performances now compared to your band days? What can fans expect from an Orphan Prodigy show?
That’s a great question. Compared to my band days, there’s more of a production now, and that’s a good thing. Everything just sounds more dialed-in. There’s a crispness and accuracy to it all that wasn’t there before. We also use in-ear monitors now, and because the show is self-contained, meaning we control most of it from the stage, we can pretty much go anywhere and the sound and quality of the show will always be the same. I love performing Iive, there’s something incredibly cathartic about it. I have to keep reminding myself that I can’t just jump on the drumkit anymore or be as rough with the equipment as I used to be. We’re working with computers and the drums are actually electronic also, so the stakes are higher if something goes wrong. But we’ve been developing the show for months, so hopefully, it will all go as planned. But I can’t promise I’ll behave. At some point, you just can’t help yourself but get into it. It’s still a rock show.
What’s one thing you’re most excited about for this tour and the opportunity to connect with your audience in person?
What’s been really incredible during the making of this record is how much the Orphan Prodigy brand has grown and diversified. Up and to this point, we’ve only live-streamed our concerts as a virtual experience and afterwards, in place of an “after-party” we started this thing where we’d invite fans to play Call of Duty with us and that’s become its own thing. So now people who may have found us through getting into the gaming side of the brand become fans of the music and vice-versa. I also speak virtually with adopted people in various adoption forums and we share our experiences together and sometimes I’ll play a few songs from the album in an acoustic format. All of these people are fans of the music and now that we’re doing this tour, it’s so cool that we can meet everyone in person. I feel like this album as a whole has been my life’s work. It’s the most honest and pure, unfiltered music I’ve ever made. Finally being able to share it with all these different people that have been following us on one platform or another is an incredible thing and reminds me that music is the universal healer. Perhaps it’s the “medication” we all need.
