Ian Keller, is Queens-based singer/songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, producer and creative mastermind behind the emerging solo recording project Orphan Prodigy. After spending nearly two decades as the frontman of an alternative rock band, Keller decided to branch off and start studying music production and engineering.
As it turns out, it wasn’t very long after he was introduced to digital workstations that the Queens-based artist found his way back to writing songs — and subsequently began working on material that would eventually become his Orphan Prodigy debut album.
With roots in early 90s and 2000s alternative rock and metal, Keller’s Orphan Prodigy sees him writing music digitally and alone, which has allowed him to explore musical horizons organically and outside the confines of a conventional band. Orphan Prodigy sees Keller dabbling with influences in electronic dance music, house and trance.
Keller’s recently Orphan Prodigy debut, Medication For A Modern World sees the Queens-based artist pushing the boundaries of contemporary rock and filling every sonic space possible. Thematically, the album’s material harnesses the anxiety and concerns of our moment — and turns them into a soundtrack for the contemporary era. The album encourages listeners to tackle their mental health head-on, urging listeners to confront their struggles, rather than numb them as modern, late-stage capitalism would want you to do.
Medication For A Modern World‘s lead single “Get Away” manages to recall Electronic and the Madchester sound with the song featuring glistening and arpeggiated bursts of Larry Levan-like keys, skittering, club rocking boom-bap, a supple bass line paired with Keller’s emphatic delivery. “Get Away” showcases an artist who can craft a slickly produced, rousingly anthemic song with some remarkably catchy hooks.
At its core, the song expresses a familiar desire to escape a crazy, overstimulated world, one that’s sliding into fascism in a feverish pace. If you’re not at that point yet, then you’re ignoring reality.
The accompanying video features Keller playing all the song’s instruments in a clean, white studio. And fittingly, it reminds me of several videos from the 80s.
this one kind of reminds me of new order and early brit pop. and it’s really catchy, crafted song. i don’t really hear radiohead, gorillaz or nirvana though. i dig this and would love to write about this for JOVM
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