New York, NY (Top40 Charts) Varese Sarabande will release the ORANGE SUNSHINE -Original
Soundtrack digitally and on CD November 11, 2016. The album features the original score by recording artist and composer Matt Costa.
"The songs on the ORANGE SUNSHINE soundtrack mostly try and capture a West Coast feel during the late 60's," Costa stated. "Working with a vast palette; nylon strings, fuzz guitars, jazz tunes, with eastern influences, and odd time signatures, I was able to lay the foundation for the sounds of the film." During the scoring process,
Director William Kirkley kept reiterating the outlaw factor for the drug pioneers the film centers around. Costa remembers, "At certain times, I would stray from the West Coast landscape, infusing elements reminiscent of early Townes Van Zandt, a sound that I used to capture the drug induced outlaws," but his best course of action when scoring was to start from the beginning. "When I officially started to score the film, I went from the top, where the main character levitates after taking a high dose of LSD." This, in many ways, sets the tonal palette of the film bringing this story to life for the audience.
ORANGE SUNSHINE is set in the early 1960's when a group of family, friends and surfers out of sleepy, coastal
Orange County, California formed a church centered around psychedelics. The group was known as the Brotherhood of Eternal Love, and their mission was to change the world. Featuring interviews with founding members, including heads of the group Michael Randall and Carol Griggs who have never shared their story before, the film offers a rare insider look into the provocative group, following them through their radicalization from idealist students to outlaws. Using photos and Super 8 recreations,
Orange Sunshine whisks viewers away on a drug smuggling tale like no other.
Angered by America's war in Vietnam and determined to bring about positive social change, former members share their personal experiences of "turning on." But in just a few short years, as demand grew, they would move very quickly from experimenting, to manufacturing LSD, trafficking, sale and distribution. Part cat-and-mouse, part exploration of the groundwork that would eventually become The War on Drugs, the film speaks to former members, defense attorney Michael Kennedy, and key law enforcement pursuing the Brotherhood, as their operations grow to include other illicit drugs and they travel through Europe, Afghanistan and South America, growing up, falling in love, and constantly evading capture. We are taken through first-hand accounts of LSD advocate Timothy Leary's infamous prison break, and the Federal takedown of the group as they risk their family, lives and freedom, in the name of enlightenment.
Born in Huntington Beach, California, in 1982, Matt Costa received his first guitar at age 12. While he was always interested in music, even playing in a band in high school, Costa's first love was skateboarding. His dreams of going pro came crashing to an end, however, when he seriously injured his leg in a skateboarding accident at 18. During his year-and-a-half-long rehabilitation period, Costa decided to refocus his energy on songwriting and guitar playing, and began using a four-track to make demos. One of these demos found its way to
No Doubt guitarist Tom Dumont, who liked what he heard so much that he offered to produce Costa's music, and soon they had recorded two independently released EPs, Matt Costa and The Elasmosaurus, as well as a full-length early version of Songs We Sing. These caught the ear of Brushfire Records owner Jack Johnson, who was impressed by the young musician's work and signed Costa to his label and invited him to open his 2005 summer tour. In 2006, Costa's official major-label debut, Songs We Sing (slightly different from the 2005 indie version), was released. Unfamiliar Faces arrived in 2008, followed by
Mobile Chateau in 2010. In 2013, Costa returned with an orchestral and '70s AM pop-influenced self-titled album.
ORANGE SUNSHINE is Matt Costa's first full-length film score. His songs have appeared in films including THE WAVE I RIDE, Sing-A-Longs and Lullabies from the film CURIOUS GEORGE, ARCTIC TALE, and I LOVE YOU, MAN.
Varèse Sarabande will release the ORANGE SUNSHINE - Original
Soundtrack digitally and on CD November 11, 2016.
