FUHS history teacher rocks after hours
Yeah, Brother plays at FLDWRK offices in Downtown Fullerton. Photo courtesy of Robert Orr.
When it comes to teaching, FUHS history teacher Robert Orr is notoriously eclectic. From singing quiz questions to his upkeep of popular culture, Orr is definitely well-liked amongst students for his ability to relate to the plights of being a teenager.
However, most students don’t know about the interesting life Orr has outside of classroom walls.
At as early as three years old, Orr knew he had a musical calling. “I got my first guitar after I went to Mexico, and I got an acoustic guitar when I was 10,” said Orr. “I’ve been playing music since I was a kid, seriously. I started playing violin at age three.”
From then on, Orr spawned a love for music that he would continue to explore for the rest of his life, joining bands and playing live show throughout his teenage years to now.
With influences ranging from David Bowie to Johnny Cash, Orr started to seriously exercise his musical talent in high school.
“High school was when I had my first band experience,” said Orr. “We mostly played covers of Metallica songs, but we wrote a few originals.”
Living the classic high school garage band dream, it wasn’t until later in high school that Orr was given a taste of fame.
“It wasn’t until my senior year that I started a band that really ‘took off.’ We were called ‘Thee Spivies’ and lasted for seven years after high school,” said Orr. “We recorded two albums, toured all over the US, and it was really, really fun.”
After his experience as a member of Thee Spivies, Orr began to join other bands of various genres for fun.
“In college I was in a punk band called ‘Furious George’ and then I was in a blues/coffee house band called ‘Creepy Forehead Jokes,’” said Orr. “After that I started to take my role of being involved in church music a lot more seriously and since I had a full-time teaching job, I needed to be home and couldn’t just take off for months to tour.”
Presently, Orr is a member of a surf band called the Blackball Bandits.
“About two years ago I started with my current band, Blackball Bandits,” said Orr. “Blackball Bandits started for me when I was in between things.”
Blackball Bandits member Yannick, a French climate scientist, first caught Orr’s eye through a Craigslist ad.
“[Yannick] and his wife moved here for his job as a research scientist at UC Irvine,” said Orr. “He went to the beach one Sunday afternoon and he heard a retro surf band playing on stage near the Huntington Beach Pier.”
After discovering the “sunny, reverb-drenched” sounds of Californian surf music, Yannick began to fall in love with the genre, writing his own music, and enlisting Orr’s help in starting a band dedicated to the style.
Since then, Blackball Bandits have released a 6-song EP and are currently working on a full length album release.
As for the future, Orr hopes to keep playing with the Blackball Bandits and looks forward to what musical opportunities are in store.
“Hopefully in the summer we’re going to play out more and maybe even do some shows up in Northern California,” said Orr. “Besides that, I’m always trying to keep myself open for more chances to play, it’s such a great passion to have.”
Blackball Bandit’s music can be streamed at blackballbandits.bandcamp.com, and on online streaming sites such as Spotify and SoundCloud. You can catch them live at Max Bloom’s in Fullerton on Feb. 15.
