Orange Spotlight: Longheads

Who are Longheads?

Longheads are a five piece psych rock outfit. We all met in our home county, Norfolk but we are now based in South London. We are; Al Bishop (Guitar), Sam Mitchell (Bass, Vocals), Nick Oakes (Drums), Ben Reeve (Guitar), and Mitchell Corrigan (Synthesisers). 

The band started almost ten years ago when myself and Ben attended a King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard show in London. After witnessing a life changing live show we knew we had to start a band. Since then the project has gone through many names and a few line-up changes. In 2020 we settled on the name Longheads and began developing our heavy-ish style of psych. Our music is a combination of modern psych and classic rock with a sprinkling of prog, doom, kraut rock and proto-metal. In our last EP, Mars Doesn’t Feel Like Home Anymore, we explored odd time signatures and long extended jams. With our upcoming album we have continued developing some of those themes but have explored heavier tones, adding some doom and a thrash metal track into the mix.

What inspires Longheads?

Al: When I sit down to write a song, usually inspirations seeps in from whatever I’ve been listening to at that point in time, sometime in less than obvious ways. When we were composing some of the early Longheads tunes I was getting really into the band Death. I was super into there use of tempo and time signature changes. Although we never wrote any death metal tracks I did take huge inspiration from those elements. 

Deathcap Farmer, the lead single from our upcoming album features a riff that is heavily inspired by the intro to ‘Arrival’ by The Alchemist. I basically just took the rhythm, swapped the horns for some new heavy chords and added in an extra beat to give it some trademark Longheads weirdness. Lately I have been getting really into Rush and have been doing a deep dive into all their albums. I would one day love to experiment with going full prog but I don’t think my guitar playing is quite up to scratch yet!

What Orange gear is important to Longheads?

Al: For our upcoming album, Layers of Wax, we recorded two doom inspired songs. For these we used some classic OR120 tones. We were able to use a great selection of amps in the studio to really dial in our perfect heavy fuzz tone. 

Unfortunately we are not yet able to take a selection of 4×12’s with us to gigs. We are often at the mercy of house cabs. I am always happy to see an Orange cab when I arrive at a venue. Orange are my preferred cab of choice especially for live. The bass response and overall tone really gets me going when we are playing our heavier stuff.

Future Orange amps?

Al: I need to try a few out and go from there. I’ve had my eye on a Dual Terror head for a while as well as an OR30, defiantly something I need to check out in the future. I like to keep both small and larger heads on hand and often decide which one to use depending on the venue.

What does Orange mean to you?

Al: I’ve been aware of Orange since my early days of learning the guitar. However my favourite Orange moment has to be Matt Pike of Sleep’s rig rundown. Seeing him blast through some of the heaviest tones I’ve ever heard while standing in front of a huge wall of Orange amps is just the coolest thing. One day I’d love to try playing through a similar rig!

What’s the most memorable Longheads moment?

Al: My favourite Longheads moment is when we supported SLIFT two years back. That was our first big gig. There were around 400-500 people there whereas before we’ve only really played to 100 people at the most. We all went out to Bens place in the sticks to practise for a week to make sure the show was tight. All just for one show! We converted an old caravan into our practise space. It turned out to be a really special night though getting to support one of our favourite bands and the crowd (hopefully) digging our set.

What’s on the horizon for Longheads?

Al: We recently released our new album, Layers of Wax, which came out on the 4th of November. It’s been in the works and under wraps for almost two years at this point and I’m relieved it’s finally out.  After that we are hitting the road for some UK dates in December. Got some exciting things in the works for 2025 as well!

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Stoomfest pictures by Artur Tarczymil