Matt Cannon, formerly from Northeast Philly and now of Trevose, PA, is Red and Orange. Once a guitarist for Philadelphia metal band, Catalyst to Collision, Cannon recently split from the group to work on solo material. Red and Orange grew from Matt’s championing of the acoustic guitar, as well as a belief in the power of music to tell stories. And now he’s challenging you to think about your world in new ways.

“My interest has always been in filmmaking,” Cannon reveals. “Then, I found I could actually write a movie through my songs.”

A simple look at the Red and Orange Myspace page confirms Cannon’s cinematic approach. Listed as influences, even above Neil Young, Pedro the Lion’s David Bazan, and Rilo Kiley (who can all be heard to varying degrees in R&O’s music), are legendary film directors such as the recently deceased Ingmar Bergman and French New Wave pioneer Jean Luc Goddard.

Storytelling in music, of course, is nothing new. It’s been around since the ballad, an ancient literary form, was set to music. Of course, in recent years, popular music has taken this art form to new levels. Every song is telling some kind of story, and some songs have more of a beginning-middle-and-end format than others. Folk music did wonderful things for the ballad, and artists like The Who, Rush, and Jethro Tull popularized the concept album in the 60's and 70's.

But we all know about the concept album already. And frankly, it’s been done to death. Come on...even My Chemical Romance has one out, now. Pretty soon, we’ll be seeing a Hillary Duff album, entitled A Tale of Two Lizzies...the life-affirming story of Hillz’s struggle to reconcile her two “personalities” - the loveable Disney star we all have seen on TV, and the less known, black-haired, black eye-shadowed version of her who has a stack of bootleg Cure tapes the size of Shia LaBeouf. In the end, America finally accepts a hybrid of the two, and Hillary is whole once again.

Matt Cannon, himself, is quick to describe Red and Orange as conceptual music. It would be unfair, though, to write off Red and Orange’s as-yet-untitled debut as a simple concept album. Instead, it’s more of a musical short story collection. (Interestingly, one of Canon’s favorite films is Robert Altman’s uber-long Shortcuts, based on the short fiction of Raymond Carver.) Each story arc Cannon’s composed so far follows the life of one or more musicians - exploring the ravages of jealousy, friendship, devotion and desperation.

At the moment, Cannon’s canon (pun very intended) consists of two such completed story arcs. The first is referred to by Matt as “No Stopping Anytime.” It’s the tale of a guy on his way to play his first ever gig, culminating in an unfortunate mess once he makes it to the show. Along the way, the intentionally unnamed dude dreams of glory, breaks down in his old Buick , and treats a roadside stop sign like a punching bag. You don’t know whether to laugh or cry, and neither does he.

On the flipside, you have the saga of two songwriters, Maryann and David. The latter helps the former write her first hit song, which results in superstardom for Maryann - and alerts David of his ‘til-then-unrealized romantic feelings for his friend. David turns into something of a jealous jerk and, in the end, hurts himself worse than he does anyone else.

You might assume these stories couldn’t possibly be unrelated, and you’d be right; a reality to which Cannon relents if you ask him enough times.

“The stories come from two different perspectives.” He admits, “My goal was to make two different stories that would eventually collide, but told from the points of view of two people who were very separate from each other.”

Without giving it all away right here (as this is a “film” you may want to see for yourself), the unnamed man is a perfect example of a “shades of gray” character. When you’re looking over the guy’s shoulder, as he journeys toward his first gig, he seems to carry a positive mind set and a good attitude - even though he’s human and gets frustrated now and then.

Once that same character crosses over into the “Maryanne and David” saga, though, he doesn’t seem to be quite the same. Did our protagonist just become the antagonist? But, wait...just whose eyes are we seeing him through, anyway? These are the kinds of questions raised by Red and Orange.

Cannon’s lyrics are deliberately understated, but full of meaning waiting to be unearthed. Eschewing poetry and that irritating indie rock obsession with impossible vagueness (which is so in vogue these days), each Red and Orange song is built to carefully convey a plot to the listener.

So, pay attention, and you’re sure to get it. And it won’t be hard, either. Red and Orange’s mastery of dialogue, in the context of a song, is almost unreal. The voices of different characters shift back and forth seamlessly, and yet it’s never difficult to know which character is speaking. Even some very experienced authors aren’t able to be this fluid.

Only half the battle, though, is clear storytelling. The focus of Red and Orange remains on getting you, the listener, to not only comprehend but relate to what’s going on in each song on a pure, human level.

“It’s about determination and desperation and endurance.” Cannon adds, suddenly, “It’s also about trying to overthrow what you think.”

Just how can someone “overthrow” what s/he thinks? Red and Orange is about characters going through personal, mental struggles, and emotional evolution. It’s easy to draw a connection between the Red and Orange name (which conjures up images of fire), and the figurative rollercoaster which Cannon’s characters are made to ride.

John Milton once wrote, “The mind can make a heaven of hell, or a hell of heaven.” The characters in Red and Orange’s songs are greatly affected by their own points of view, be they accurate or not. And things certainly take turns for the worse due to a lack of understanding between the characters. Each has some idea of what he or she wants to do but, at various points, his / her judgement becomes clouded. It could be said that Red and Orange sings of the age old struggle of man vs. himself.

Still, lyrical coups aside, what does it all sound like? It sounds, like, fantastic, actually! Really. Think Pedro the Lion meets mid-70's Bowie, with beautifully ornate, yet absolutely cutting guitar riffs that would make the average indie rock guitarist want to take up a new instrument. Red and Orange could never be all about the stories it tells...not with the wealth of emotion and plethora of pop hooks in its sound.

And you’d be hard-pressed to find anything else in R&O’s genre of indie-folk-acoustic-rock with such sharp song structure. Outro’s and perfect bridges abound, and the listener never even needs to think, “Wow, what a great bridge this song has ” No, that’s something for songwriters to think about. Instead, any old listener will remark, “Wow, this song is really getting at something in all of our lives.”

The musicians in Red and Orange’s songs all face the world at times when they aren’t yet ready to do so. In effect, they’re growing up too fast, and letting bad experiences get the worst of them. And, whether or not we’re literally tearing someone’s arm out of its socket (as it happens in the “No Stopping Anytime” story), we’re all making mistakes in our daily lives. The trick, according to Cannon, is to not let your sorrows and fears rule your life.

“After every bad show I have, when I think about it, I’m mimicking my characters in every way possible,” Cannon reveals. “All this drama’s going on, and the whole concept of going out and being a musician...playing by himself...it’s very alienating.

“And I find that people like these characters in the stories - people like me - really exist.”

Check out Red and Orange on Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/thevisiblewarrior.