AARON ORBIT Aaron Orbit was born and raised as Aaron Johnson in the Southern California beachside city of Ventura. As the son of an accomplished musician and recording engineer, Orbit, was infatuated with music at an early age and began learning guitar in elementary school. Not long after he formed his first band, Psycho Café, which found the young front man splitting homework time with gigs on the Sunset Strip. Though his first love was the guitar, Orbit, after being pushed by his band mates, found out that he was a natural as a singer as well. Though Psycho Café remained a popular band in the Ventura County area in the late 90s, after high school Orbit was asked to join, 8STOPS7, an alternative hard rock band who had just signed to a major label and who were in need of an additional guitar player and back up vocalist. With 8STOPS7, Orbit was able to tour the United States extensively playing at major festivals and opening up for a who’s who of popular bands. After 8STOPS7 parted ways with their label, the band took a much needed break from the road and Orbit took the time to form a new band, Le Meu Le Purr. Le Meu Le Purr’s original, and often experimental, hard rock found the band almost instantly fielding label offers and receiving rave reviews for their sets at the CMJ and SXSW festivals, ultimately leading the band to sign a deal with TVT Records. Shortly before the band’s first record for TVT was to be released though, the shifting music industry found TVT abruptly out of business, freezing the release of Le Meu Le Purr’s record. Wasting no time, Orbit and company, decided to self release the record and hit the road, touring nationally on the independent circuit. It was during a hiatus from performing live with Le Meu Le Purr that in 2011 the genesis for Orbit’s solo career began. Spurred by a series of sudden dramatic changes in his personal and professional life, Orbit began feverishly writing with no worry about having to be beholden to any band’s genre. Orbit soon found that this new batch of songs, which at first seemed to have no connection to each other genre wise, actually did belong together, emotionally and artistically. Orbit hit Satellite Studios in Ventura at the beginning of 2012 with a rotating backup band that featured a who’s who of members of the Ventura County music scene. Orbit selected different players to compliment specific songs eventually having over 20 different musicians on the record. The result is Orbit’s Sunday Morning Murder Songs, a tour de force of a debut that is alternative in the truest sense of the word. Throughout the 12 track record, songs range from the hook filled 80’s era Michael Jackson rock of “Must’ve Been” to the spaced out dramatics of the Bowie worthy “Fire on the Run” to the deeply moving “Waiting For Signs”, a ballad that would feel at home on an Elliot Smith record. The diverse songs all have one thing in common though, exceptional songwriting. Advance reviews in local press like the VC Reporter have boldly claimed, “a career defining release by one of the area’s most important artists” while the Central Coast Times referred to it as, “the best record Beck never made”. There’s definitely an excitement building for Orbit and the record with tours already booked and multiple showcases at the 2012 SXSW festival on deck but still young artist whose been down the road before remains beyond level headed. As Orbit explains, “This is by far the most personal record I’ve ever been a part of. I wasn’t held back by any preconceptions of what the songs should sound like. As a result there’s as much Michael Jackson as Mike Patton influence on the record. I do feel like it’s a new musical chapter for me but I’m letting it write it’s self. I have no expectations as to where this is going to go. I’m just making music I believe in and enjoying where it takes me.”