If one thinks the idea of organizing and rehearsing a 10-person rock and roll orchestra sounds daunting, they clearly don’t know nearly enough about hard-working local musicians Jason Eckl and Rebecca Roudman.
Not only do they, respectively, conduct, perform and organize shows for the Renegade Orchestra, but the married couple also works together in several local bands that are in constant rotation throughout the West Coast. They will get a respite of sorts as Renegade Orchestra plays close to home on Sept. 20 at Sonoma’s venerable Sebastiani Theater.
“My job is the ‘herding of cats’ aspect of Renegade Orchestra, as well as Dirty Cello, the San Francisco Yiddish Combo, the Death and Taxes Swing Band and anything else that comes up,” says Roudman when asked how she and Eckl manage to keep things moving with so much happening musically.
And not only does Roudman serve as the show organizer and cellist in the aforementioned bands; she’s also vocalist and titular cellist in Dirty Cello. Eckl performs in all of these bands as well as conducting the Renegade Orchestra, all while overseeing the somewhat newly formed rock band program at Cal State East Bay. Whew.
Said program might be one of the school’s best-kept secrets. “Professor” Eckl explains its unique mission: “This is a new program that seeks to prepare students to be employed as rock musicians when they graduate. It’s a pretty unique program; imagine learning the ins and outs of how to be a rock star.”
When asked how they find time and energy to keep the music playing, Eckl says, “I would like to say that I plan months in advance and budget my time wisely, but in reality, the creation of the music tends to happen in a frantic, caffeine-fueled spurt.”
Roudman elaborates while also highlighting Eckl’s point, saying, “I don’t necessarily balance these groups, but instead try to say yes to everything, and then rely on the professionalism of all of the other musicians to remember when the show is and show up prepared.”
If one has not heard Renegade Orchestra before, Eckl enlightens thusly: “It’s always fun to describe what a Renegade Orchestra concert is like to people who haven’t been to one before. Basically, if you think about everything that makes a standard orchestra concert a little stuffy, we do the opposite. It’s loud, it’s lively, and cheering is encouraged. We want people moving and grooving. And in addition to the strings, there’s a great rhythm section.” He also makes sure to note, “We’re not big fans of singalongs however.”
Typically the orchestra’s setlist often includes songs such as Jimi Hendrix’s “Purple Haze,” Iron Butterfly’s “In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida” and the Creedence Clearwater Revival’s classic “Proud Mary,” just to name a few. A real highlight is their rendition of Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody,” as well as local and worldwide faves Metallica with a cool cover of “Enter Sandman.” Yet for the Sebastiani show, they’re mixing things up once again. This time, they’re featuring a playlist of all San Francisco artists.
According to Eckl and Roudman, the “songs are all wild, symphonic rock takes on classic works by musicians that are connected to San Francisco or the Bay Area. There’s standard classics you would expect like Jefferson Airplane, but also some more out there tunes like ‘Holiday in Cambodia’ by the Dead Kennedys.” They’ll even do “Spirit in the Sky” by Sonoma County resident Norman Greenbaum, who, in case one is wondering, is still locally based and invited to the show.
Many of these songs were chosen by the Renegade Orchestra’s fans.
Says Eckl, “When I choose songs to arrange for Renegade Orchestra, it’s quite a laborious process. First, I go through the never-ending list of songs that have been requested by people who came to our shows. These requests range from amazing ideas to thoughtful ideas to downright bizarre ideas. I use the fan requests as a starting point.
“After that, I have to look at what will sound good with an orchestra—a catchy melody, powerful rhythm parts and something that will come out as an artistic statement, not as elevator music. With this particular album, I searched far and wide for songs that fit all those criteria, plus were connected to the greater Bay Area. We even sent out an email to everyone on the mailing list asking for help on this one,” he continues.
If the name Jason Eckl sounds familiar, one may have heard some of his music via the soundtrack of Bohemian editor Daedalus Howell’s film, Werewolf Serenade. Of the experience, Eckl says, “The movie has a cellist in it, so I wrote some new music for the cello scenes. I’ve written music for a lot of independent films that never saw the light of day, so it was exciting to see Werewolf Serenade on the big screen.” When it came to choose a cellist for the soundtrack, Roudman was the obvious choice.
Another natural question regarding the group is whether or not it’s the same musicians each time or a rotating cast based on who’s available.
Roudman says the orchestra lineup “starts off with a faint hope that we’ll have all the same people all the time. But the reality is good musicians are busy, and the group is full of good musicians. This means we end up having a mostly steady group with lots of fun guests coming in and out. Each player is chosen for being not only great at their instruments, but also fun people.”
For those scoring at home, Eckl clarifies, saying the Sebastiani lineup will be Michael Lu, Magali Sanscartier, Christine Meals, Wakeford Gong, Alice Chen Carver, Jill Hirsh, Peter Walsh, Evan Ceremony, Diego Soto and of course Roudman.
The Sebastiani show will be the first time the new album will be made available. Eckl nervously says, “They’ll probably arrive in the mail 24 hours before the show, we hope.” He adds, “After that, they’ll be available at our live shows for about a year, before we bow to the inevitable pressure of putting them up on Spotify. Also at our shows, in addition to physical CDs, we’ll be selling flash drives with the new album on them.”
Closing out our interview, Eckl says, “We’re going to be very brave at our Sebastiani concert and at our other Bay Area concerts, and invite all of the famous bands that inspired the songs.” Will these foggy headed stars of yesteryear make it to the show? One will have to show up to find out.
More information about Renegade Orchestra can be found at renegadeorchestra.com. Tickets for the Sebastiani Theater show are available now at sebastianitheatre.org.