Chris Gonzalez, Gavin Gonzalez, Sean Sticker, and Victor Perez of the Houston indie/alternative rock band ORION 224 sat with RadioUTD’s Summer Kulcsar for an exclusive interview.
(Interview has been edited for clarity.)
Summer Kulcsar: Hello, I’m Summer Kulcsar with Radio UTD, and I’m here with ORION 224. Could you please introduce yourselves and your music?
Chris Gonzalez: We are the band ORION 224. We’re from Houston, Texas. We make indie alternative rock music. My name is Chris, and I sing in the band.
Gavin Gonzalez: His last name is Gonzalez. My name is Gavin Gonzalez, his brother, and I play the drums.
Sean Sticker: I’m Sean. I play guitar.
Victor Perez: I’m Victor. I play the bass.
How did the band form?
Chris: We formed in 2016 when we were kids. I’m 23 now, but the band started when I was 14. I started it with Gavin and Victor when they were 12.
Gavin: We weren’t always super active when we were 12 years old. We weren’t playing at the same level. We did form back then, but it wasn’t like we were-
Chris: We just wanted to play some rock and roll music, and we’ve been playing together since Sean joined the band around five years ago.
Sean: Probably 2020. It was like right at the tail end of it.
Chris: Yeah, around five years ago. Or 2021.
Gavin: Which is also when we started getting serious.
So you’ve been around for a while.
Chris: Yeah, we used to play religiously in the Houston DIY scene. Nothing but like house parties and house shows was our niche. And more recently, we’ve been kind of trying to play nicer venues because, you know, we enjoy not playing in houses anymore. We were getting older, and it was getting kind of corny seeing a bunch of 20-year-olds pull up to a house party.
You’re unc.
Chris: Yeah, we are uncs! But it’s cool. We like playing at venues. When they have green rooms, it’s nice. They give us water and stuff. If we’re lucky, they’ll give us beer.
Sean: That’s happened like four times.
Chris: Ever. It’s been awesome every time.
Gavin: One time, we got little mini sandwiches, and it was super awesome.
Chris: Yeah, they got us sandwiches and little carrots like those vegetable plates with carrots and tomatoes.
Yummy! Moving on from carrots, what inspires your sound?
Gavin: I can get started. I’m sure everyone has a little different answer. I feel like we all listen to similar music, besides Victor. We don’t all listen to the same ends, but it’s all rooted in the same stuff. When we come together with our own influences and personal opinions, it creates a sound that connects all of us.
Sean: Yeah.
Chris: Yeah.
Yeah. So if everyone could choose a favorite artist, who would it be?
Sean: Right now or all time?
Both.
Sean: Um. Well, I guess currently, I’ve been on a huge Joyce Manor kick, and, uh, of all time, I’d probably have to say Paramore. So, anyone else?
Chris: I think Victor wants to go next.
Victor: Um, my all-time favorite would be Metallica. And my current favorite would probably be, uh, Playboy Cardi right now.
Gavin: Blink-182, even though I don’t listen to that as much as I used to, they still have good music for the time being. And um, right now I’ve heard a lot of the Marias and Current Joys.
Chris: My all-time favorite band is Blue October. And then right now, a band that influences me a lot is Chet Baker, the jazz musician.
So, since 2016 and first starting the band, how have you all evolved in the decade you’ve been together?
Chris: Well, I would say that a part of our performances and a big reason why I think that we kind of got some traction in Houston, like in our first years, whenever we started, was that we always gave a really entertaining, energetic performance. With that said, we’re still a fun and energetic live band, but over the past 10 years, especially the past five, we’ve focused on evolving our sound and making the four of us sound more like a musical unit. So, in the past five years specifically, I would say that we’ve been really focused on just the quality of the music that we’re writing and we’re putting out.
So you locked in.
Sean: The immediate answer that came to mind is that we sound better.
Chris: There are two parts to seeing an artist live. There’s the showmanship and the entertaining aspect, and then there’s the actual sound. And a lot of artists either have outstanding showmanship, but sound kind of like crap. And I’m not saying we sound like crap, but we definitely didn’t sound super great when we were in middle school and high school, but we were always super energetic and everything. And now I feel like we kind of blend both at once. A lot of energy while also writing good quality music.
It took ten years to reach this point.
Chris: Yeah, it took ten years to sound good. For the first, like genuinely the first five or six years, we didn’t care too much. And I think ‘care’ is a good word to put on it. For the first five or six years, we didn’t care too much about the band or the sound. And then recently, we’ve been trying to care a little bit about getting better in any way we can. Beforehand, we just wanted to play music, and it was fun.
Gavin: There’s a pretty fine split, like, pre- “Everything Will Be Okay” dropping and after it fell. It’s our most popular song. It was a whole era change—a complete 180.
Sean: I would honestly say that was the start of a change, and then the post-album release show that March, I think, was when we really started to focus on not just being fun and having a mosh pit; we also wanted the music to sound good.
Chris: Actually, if you look behind me, there’s our original logo from when we first started. We never use this anymore. We thought this was so cool when we were twelve.
When did you retire that logo?
Chris: Like 2019, 2020?
That leads to another question I had. I noticed that in your current logo, there’s a broken star dude. What’s the story behind that? Where did he come from?
Chris: Honestly, we just wanted to have a little mascot guy. And our manager, Shelby [Cothren], designed the little star dude. She does like graphic design and stuff as well. And we like him. He’s cool. We put him on t-shirts. Does he have a name? Do we ever come up with a name for him? The star guy is incredible. He’s badass. But-
Gavin: Daniel sometimes.
Chris: Daniel?
Sean: You’ve never called him Daniel.
Chris: That’s crazy.
So y’all have never thought of a name for him?
Chris: No. If you can think of a name, let us know.
You should make an Instagram story and let the fans pick the mascot’s name.
Chris: Yeah. We should do that. We’ll do that.
How do you approach starting a new song or album?
Sean: I feel like we each just listen to a lot of different music, then write things individually. Weirdly enough, it feels like we don’t do much of the initial writing at all together, really. And we really didn’t do that whenever I joined up, either. It would be that someone would have a riff, or Chris would have lyrics, or Gavin could have a drum part. We would, uh, we’d all come together, and then we would write stuff, and, uh, yeah, I mean, I feel like it’s a very unceremonious process. I feel like it just kind of happens.
Gavin: Yeah, the songs just kind of happen, which is, honestly it’s a great way to put it. I don’t know. I mean, they kind of just like just start forming. I mean, if someone starts it and it just exists, and they change a lot.
Chris: Yeah.
Sean: In between what Chris and I probably think it’ll sound like and what it’ll actually sound like when we show it to everyone, it’ll just sound like a completely different thing because everyone listens to their own music.
So, it’s kind of like an assembly line?
Chris: I would say most of the time, someone comes to the table, comes to brand practice, like “Hey, I have like these very, very, very like bones of a song,” whether it’s a melody or a chord progression or something. We could be like, I kind of want to expound on this, what can we do, and then all together we write and put things together and say this will work, this won’t work, and we try to try out everyone’s ideas. Usually, we’ll go down the line, let’s say, like just this one part, we’re like, “Oh, this will sound good, or that’ll sound good. We’ll do everything. We’ll figure out what sounds good and what doesn’t.” And we’ll just keep on going like that.
Also, you were talking about how a part of getting fans or getting a reputation is your live presence and how you guys present yourselves. So, how did your last tour, “Life’s a Mess,” go?
Chris: I’m very happy with how it went. We had people for us in all the cities we went to, which was a blessing. Our home state of Texas really showed out like crazy, though. That was like it was pretty different. Like, we had a good number of people in Las Cruces, LA, and San Diego. It wasn’t crazy-packed or anything, but we had people there for us, which was really fun. Colorado was cool. In Texas, it was really fun on tour getting to connect with everybody. The best part is getting to see and meet people. Whether they’ve been commenting on our TikTok or Instagram online, getting to meet them, putting faces and names and everything like that. It was really awesome. It was really great. We had a lot of fun. We got to spend three weeks together in a van. So that was super awesome. We loved it. All of us loved it
Gavin: It was our first time going out outside of Texas. It’s exciting and scary to be, like, “Hey, we’re going to go play a show in New Mexico and Arizona for the first time.” It’s like, what’s going to happen? Are we driving like 15 hours to play to one person? Which is scary, but luckily didn’t happen, and it was a lot of fun. I’m glad we get the opportunity to even do that and go on the road at all.
I don’t know how I would fare in a van for three weeks, just traveling around. I think I would go crazy.
Sean: Yeah. And you’d be right. I mean, I’m sure everyone can attest that we’re some of each other’s closest friends, but damn, three weeks in a van. I would not want to spend three weeks in a van with my family.
Did you like ever think that y’all would come this far and be able to perform out of state?
Chris: I mean, honestly, like you know, a lot of bands set goals and stuff like that, and they think, “Oh, yes, that’s the goal.” I don’t feel like we just do whatever we feel is right. You know, we felt it would be fun to go out of state, and we did.
Victor: There’s always a next step.
Chris: Yeah, there’s always a next step. There isn’t an end goal. There is just a goal. And then once we reach that goal, there’s always something to work on.
Sean: I have one. There is a specific venue I would love to play at. It’s a crazy bucket list venue, and I think it’s in Santa Fe. Um, there’s a Meow Wolf there that has a live venue stage, and it is the coolest backdrop. I saw a couple of bands play there. [The exhibit] has these super cool, small art exhibit-type things. And that’s a bucket list venue of mine that I’d love to play.
Chris: I think a long-term goal, which is kind of like a dream, would be to make music a full-time thing, but that’s a pretty difficult goal.
Gavin: I don’t think saying we don’t have goals is kind of silly. Like, we do have goals. I think the better thing is, like, that regardless of the goal, which is like big or small, we always have a standard for ourselves. We have an expectation to uphold ourselves in a good way, you know? I mean, I don’t know our long-term goals, but, of course, playing music is always one of them. Like, releasing music, writing stuff. I love doing that stuff.
Anybody else want to share with the class? I’m looking at you.
Victor: Um, I mean, kind of just to add on what Chris said, I mean, making it a full-time thing would be amazing. I would love not to have a second job, or if I did, it would be something fun, not sitting at a desk for eight hours.
Do you have anything coming up that fans could look forward to?
Chris: We’re playing in Houston on March 14th at Wonky Power. We’re headlining our hometown. We’re really excited for the show. Tickets are only $12, so if people are interested in going, they should. Other than that, we’re planning on releasing some new music as soon as possible. We’re turning our practice space into a studio as well, so we’re recording a lot faster and more efficiently. So, new music is the goal. And then we’ll see what happens this summer. I don’t want to say too much, but new music.
You’ve got to keep some mystery.
Chris: Yeah, yeah, yeah. I gotta keep some mystery. So, well, I’ll just say we’ve got the Houston show on the 14th, and new music coming soon.
Where can people find you online?
Chris: So, our handles on pretty much everything is ORION 224 on Instagram, on TikTok, on Spotify. You can just look up ORION 224. Really easy to find. There are no other 224s.
Do you have a final message for the readers of this interview?
Chris: All I’ll say is that it was a pleasure to be able to do this interview. You know, once again, if the person reading this interview is aware of us, we thank them so much for our support. We love our supporters so much. We try to give back as much as we can. And if not, if we’re brand new to you, hello. Nice to meet you. We would love to see you at a show coming up soon. Hopefully, if we’re in your area, we would love to see you there and meet you at the show. We’re very excited for things to come. New music, new shows, hopefully some new videos, like music videos and stuff.
Gavin: Thank you to everyone who’s ever supported us and listened to our songs. Thank you.
Victor: We will be in your city. Time pending.
Sean: At some point within the next 15 years.
Thank you for meeting with me!
Gavin: Of course. It was a lot of fun.
