Local band paints the city of Keene by showcasing their talent

Allison Lamell

Equinox Staff

In past years, college bands in Keene have been known to have a “folksy” sound associated with their music. But the band TheColorOrange brings a different style of music to the Keene community. Described as “new indie, but more on the pop side,”  by friend Nick Votruba, the band’s energetic and catchy music are something everybody can listen to.

“I’ll find myself sitting in class from time-to-time just running through the choruses in my head,” Votruba said. The three-piece band includes Johnny Remmetter with lead vocals and lead guitar, Equinox staffer Eric Walker as bassist and Zac Johnson as drums. Although they haven’t been together long, the band is very determined to make a name for themselves. “They don’t have much recorded music,” Tim Gagnon, the general manager of WKNH radio, said. “But we have a show that allows bands to come in and play their music on air. They’ve come in a couple times.”
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Gagnon said the band is different than what’s been considered a “Keene band” in the past and he likes the new sound they’re bringing to Keene. “I think the first time I saw them outside of the station was at someone’s basement and I was joking around with them and I said ‘you guys should never leave basements, don’t become a big band because you guys belong in basements,’” Gagnon said.

TheColorOrange has played in many different spots around the Keene area. Places such as Penuche’s, Ramunto’s, Brewbakers and Harvest Fest. However, house parties are the band’s all-time favorite. “One of the most recent shows we played at a house where, for a while, our close friends sang along, but then everybody was screaming, screaming words that I wrote so that was cool,” Remmetter said. Agreeably Johnson said, “Seeing people start to know the words to the songs” was the coolest memory he had performing. The band, who met one night at a party through mutual friends, clicked immediately. “We met and we exchanged numbers and the next day we tried it out and it was like cool, it worked,” Remmetter said. Originally named “Orange” until it had already been taken by a band online, the band’s name was inspired by lead vocalist, Remmetter said. “It was my idea to do orange just because I can relate colors to atmosphere,” Remmetter.

Then for a hint of uniqueness the band decided to make the name all one word so people wouldn’t forget. Inspired by bands like Say Anything and Alkaline Trio, TheColorOrange also finds inspiration from each other. “You don’t realize how much you actually pull from each other rather than just the outside world,” Remmetter said.

Remmetter, who writes all the bands songs and guitar parts, said he finds inspiration from “the everyday happenings.” “It’s a number of things. Kind of just what’s going on, stuff that happens around me like the emotions I get from relationships and people,” Remmetter said. TheColorOrange plans to produce their first album this winter break and has already agreed upon the album title, “Sprinting.”

“It was such a quick progress. Us meeting each other and starting to write songs was just extremely fast. We’d recorded five songs when we had only had three practices,” Johnson said for the reasoning behind the album title.

The band has been saving up for 1,000 copies of their full-length album and intends to sell them in January when school starts again.“It’s just nice to be goal oriented, be shooting toward something, be trying to get better. It’s just a good way to spend time,” Johnson said.

When it comes to music and the future of the band, all three men are very dedicated. Although the future is uncertain, their love for music is not. “It’s everything,” Remmetter  said without hesitation. Even joking about what lengths he’s gone to play in a show. “When I was in high school my band had a show and my mom wasn’t going to let me go and we had this huge fight. I slammed my door and put a dresser in front of it. I tied a cable around my guitar and lowered it out the window and jumped out the window and left. [My mom] threatened to call the cops on me,” Remmetter said.

With over 200 likes on their Facebook page, the group’s passion for music has given them many supporters. “As long as they keep playing at our station and having a good time whatever they do we’ll always be happy to have them,” Gagnon said. TheColorOrange will be playing at Saturday Night Jive on Dec. 8 in the Mabel Brown Room.

Alison Lamell can be contacted at

alamell@keene-equinox.com