Manchester Orchestra are a band from a small town in Georgia near Atlanta called Alpharetta. Their debut album, the intriguingly titled ‘I’m Like A Virgin Losing A Child’ was released last year, and the band’s success has been on an upwards trajectory since – and a fast one at that. Just six months ago they were playing the Islington Academy. Today, guitarist Robert McDowell and keyboardist Chris Freeman are sitting in the glass room of the London Scala, a venue almost ten times bigger than the one half a year ago, waiting to perform their headline show there.
“My parents respect what I’m doing a little bit more,” laughs Robert, commenting on the upgrade in venue. “And so does my sister. That’s the only real big change. We’re still the same circumstances as far as travelling situations, how we travel. It’s nice, though, to have a reaction from a crowd.”
“We’ve played these sized crowds before,” chimes in Chris, “but it’s opening for other bands. So it’s always a new thing for those people. These people actually know the songs and can get into it.”

Getting into it is an understatement. Manchester Orchestra’s fans, although varied in size, shape and age, seem to take to the band with an almost religious fervour. And the band themselves have an equally fevered relationship to their songs – later tonight, as singer/guitarist/lyricist Andy Hull stares intently into nothing and screws up his face as he sings, Chris contorts and twists around himself at the keyboard as if possessed by some holy spirit. Of course, this isn’t accidental. Their songs are littered with religious imagery and references – from the title itself to the desperate vocal calls of ‘God, where have you been?’ of the appropriately titled Where Have You Been? Yet as explicit as these references are, their meaning is open to interpretation - they’re not intended to preach or proselytize.
“We’re all raised in the Church,” says Chris. ”I mean I was raised Presbyterian, but we all kind of grew up in the same area as far as religion goes. We don’t want to call ourselves a Christian band or anything, but we do have faith in God.”
“I’d say we all have faith,” agrees Robert, “but there’s a lot of negative things that go along with saying ‘Christian band’, a lot of negative connotations towards the church.”

Their beliefs haven’t harmed the band’s popularity in any way, though. Like mewithoutYou and Pedro The Lion, Andy Hull uses faith more as a metaphor and a method of questioning the world than to tell people how to live their lives. And having toured with the likes of Brand New, Saves The Day and , it’s clear that their songs have just as much emotional resonance as a band who, say, write explicitly about heartbreak. If anything, the metaphors and imagery make it all the powerful. The striking thing, though, about this mature, philosophical and metaphorical approach to songwriting is that the band are so young – some have only recently turned 18. Friends first before they were a band, they don’t in any way see their age (or lack of it) as a problem.
“I feel like if we were too much older,” says Robert, “there’d be too much pressure to be established and it would be fast-paced which could set us up for failure. We’re trying to let it grow organically, so I feel like our youth helps that and coincides with that.”
“If were younger,” agrees Chris, “we’d have more issues. And if we were older we’d have even more issues!”
“Like Jeremiah [Edmond, drums],” chimes in Robert. “He’s the older one, he’s married….”
“So he’s totally screwed up!” interrupts Chris, and they both laugh.

Jeremiah’s not the only one, however. This coming summer, Andy’s getting married. It’s nothing that the rest of the band are worried about - it won’t make any difference in terms of the band itself. But it makes for an interesting anecdote.
“I actually used to have a crush on her [Andy’s wife-to-be] in the seventh grade,” admits Chris with a cheeky smile. “It’s very embarrassing, because she still has the letters I wrote, and the two poems I wrote her. You know, girls like to keep those little boxes…”

Mischa Pearlman