Upon walking into the pub to interview Daniel Orcese and Rob Jesse, two members of The Moon Music Orchestra, the most appropriate soundtrack possible rang out from the venue’s PA. It was Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young’s Greatest Hits, the particular track being Neil Young’s ‘Ohio’.

A significant measure of the band’s sound owes a debt to the Californian scene of the late sixties, and even The Gladstone in Borough seems infused with the mood of those halcyon summers when the music of the West Coast was a seemingly unstoppable artistic and cultural phenomenon.
Given Orcese and Jesse’s insistence they take just as much influence from sources as diverse as traditional English music and Primal Scream, perhaps what most connects The Moon Music Orchestra with those times is not the music itself, but the rationale behind the ensemble’s existence.

You see, The Moon Music Orchestra are not really a band as such, and perhaps only tenuously qualify as that other popular format, a ‘collective’. While Orcese and Jesse are core members, they are, in their own words, “a loose union of songwriters and players.” Members come and go - all are welcome. What it is, in essence, is a musical community formed by a bunch of friends and musicians who get together, pool songs, and perform.

“We resisted the idea of being a band up until a few months ago,” said Orcese, guitarist, mandolin player and vocalist. “For myself and Rob it was always kind of a side thing, until we were like ‘let’s get this thing together and get on the road.’There is a kernel of members, but then around that there are loads of others. Ronnie Lane is a big inspiration for me, that Gypsyish thing of just getting out there.”

“And when we go on the road,” said Jesse, on guitar, banjo, vocals and learning the sitar, “about 20 of us go at a time, all friends. A lot of them don’t play anything but they’re part of the gang.”

The pub we are sitting in is central to The Moon Music Orchestra story – they part own the place and have a rehearsal room upstairs. When The Gladstone came on the market, it was snapped up as the hub for this troupe of musicians, and they play there for free on the second Saturday of every month. These regular performances have earned them a fine reputation for providing a good-natured, inclusive live experience, one that has led to gigs all over the country, some abroad, and even an appearance at this year’s Green Man Festival.

“We played one gig in Dorset in a pub on a hillside,” said Orcese, “and we slept in a field next door with the chickens. We like a bit of camping”.

The Moon Music Orchestra are a lot more than just music it seems, but in case you hadn’t noticed they play in a style predominantly informed by Americana (“the A word” as Orcese calls it), as well as English folk. The two of them also cite The Clash, The Pogues and even Michael Jackson as acts that inspired them in their youth, but a Moon Music Orchestra gig is one steeped in the sound of alt-country, country rock, Appalachian or whatever you want to call it.

Any suggestion of incongruity (a group of men from the south of England playing what purists would say is the preserve of the Tennessee mountains… to sing the blues you got to live the dues, etc) is met passionately head on by these two South London troubadours. Orcese went first:
“The idea of there being British and American music is ridiculous. The Rolling Stones took black American music and lived in Dartford, and they were never really criticised.

“The guitar is a Spanish instrument co-opted by black Americans… So if you ask people like (Bert) Jansch and (John) Renbourn what sort of musician they are, they would not say they’re traditional English folk musicians, because traditional English folk is vocal-based.

“Generally it’s people being lazy. They see a banjo and think ‘oh you must be doing bluegrass’, which is like saying ‘you have a piano, you must be into Chopin’. It’s lazy journalism.

“It’s also a bit dark – do you want evidence of where all four of my grandparents come from before you respect my music? It’s Nazis, man.”

Rob Jesse, slightly less animated, agrees: “It’s like Ewan McColl in the sixties who only allowed people to play folk songs from where they are from. He went mad about Bert Jansch and others doing all these different things. How narrow-minded that is.”

It is, of course, impossible to argue with this. The swapping of styles between the UK and US has been on-going over the years and is a fairly natural exchange, and indeed what counts as ‘authentic’ for both is often the result of hybrid styles from various other cultures. Plus, it’s not as if The Moon Music Orchestra sing about Route 66 or any other Kerouac-infused American imagery. It’s mostly about girls, simply… “most songs are about love in one way or another,” says Orcese.

A some-time member of this gaggle is Findlay Brown, a songwriter who has recently enjoyed substantial success on the back of his album Separated By The Sea. Part of the Moon Music community, he is the one individual from this scene who has (so far) emerged on to a more mainstream plain with a genuine chance at a sustained body of work and something approaching popstardom.

“It’s one over the wall, man,” said Orcese. “The really weird thing is how everyone calls him by both his names. To us he’s Fin – we’re not as school, man! It’s really good, and he’s been really generous in letting people know about us – like how he put you on to us.”

Entry to see The Moon Music Orchestra remains mostly free (their forthcoming show at the Spitz Festival of Folk is not, however), and their habit of taking themselves off in a minivan round the country performing wherever they find friends has ensured the group’s popularity has been ‘organic’ – through word of mouth and consistent gigging has their fame spread.

“We haven’t been promoting anything because we haven’t made a record,” said Orcese. “Now we are in the process of making one because people have asked us to. It’s a bit like how things were in the olden days – there’s a demand for a record after having seen the band live, instead of making a record and then trying and sell it to people.”

The lack of ego on display during this interview was charming. The collective effort that has given rise to The Moon Music Orchestra, coupled with the fact Orcese and Jesse are fundamentally a pair of friendly and engaging, normal blokes (Orcese mans the bar in the pub), is emphasised throughout. And on that topic, there was one last thing Orcese and Jesse wanted to make clear.

“There isn’t one singer-songwriter bearing their soul, where it’s all a bit earnest,” said Orcese. “Bands like The Band or Crosby, Stills and Nash were less about one guy, and were inclusive things. We like having different leads, everyone bringing their own songs in.”

Co-writing is floated to take place in the future, with an album next year (there is record label interest, according to a cagey Rob Jesse), and continuing gigs at The Gladstone, with an ever-changeable line-up. Just don’t mention the A word.

www.tourdates.co.uk/moonmusicorchestra

Moon Music Orchestra play The Spitz on 22 September 2007.