Dec. 09--The Orwells guitarist Matt O'Keefe said the text messages came pouring in Sunday after the new iPad Air 2 commercial featuring his band's song "Who Needs You" aired.
The Elmhurst rock band had made headlines in January due to its odd-yet-captivating performance on CBS's "Late Show with David Letterman," but this was different. There was no confusion over what had transpired, as was the case with the "Letterman" performance. That might explain why there were more text messages this time around.
"My phone didn't stop vibrating (Sunday)," O'Keefe said over the phone Monday. "I had old friends I probably haven't talked to since elementary school contacting me. With Letterman, some people were probably like 'What the (heck) was that?'"
The 60-second commercial, dubbed "Change is in the Air," features a montage of people using the tablet, some for work and some for fun. The band members also make a brief (and I mean brief) cameo. They filmed their concert scene in London while in the middle of their European tour. To accommodate the shoot, the band had to cancel a performance in France.
The Orwells will perform at Lincoln Hall Dec. 30 and 31. The quintet released its major label debut album, "Disgraceland," in June. O'Keefe said the album was by no means a smash success sales-wise, but the band members were happy with how it turned out and feel it earned them more fans. They're now hoping the iPad commercial will earn them even more fans, while also giving the song a boost.
According to O'Keefe, that's one of the main reasons the band jumped at the opportunity -- not because they got free tablets (they didn't).
"The song was starting to fade out and we figured the commercial could give it a whole new life," O'Keefe said, adding that the commercial has the potential to make it bigger than it ever was.
Were the guys worried about the inevitable backlash bands face after teaming up with a corporation?
"We weren't worried," O'Keefe said. "We knew it would happen. When you do something like that, you get those people. The way we looked at it, the goal when we started this band was to try and reach as many people as we could with our music. We could reach more people this way than we could a lot of other ways. We weren't going to say no just because somebody is going to say 'You're selling out.'"
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