Orgy: Dedicated Followers Of Fashion By: Robyn Doreian
Metal Hammer/August 1999
If There is one thing L.A. band Orgy intends to do, it's to put the "f" back into fashion. Vocalist Jay Gordon and guitarist Ryan Shuck are scheduled to appear in a press campaign for Calvin Klein, modeling his latest range of designing threads, while possibilities in the world of haute counture are not out of the question for the remaining three clothes-horses.
Unlike the majority of bands to spring from the L.A. scene who favor the ludicrously large trouser and chain look, Orgy, from it's conception, made image priority.
"When we formed in late '97, we wanted it to be an all-round thing---the sound, the look, the style---so we worked on it from the beginning," explains softly spoken g-synthist Amir Derakh. "We do like fashion and I do wear make-up. It's fu n, but it's not just the latest trends from the runways of Italy that we follow. You can find other cool stuff around. It kind of got boring that some bands look like they are a bunch of roadies onstage, and we reacted to that. I think that people want to see bands who do something more up there."
One with an eye for the essential accessory, Amir's most extravagant purchase to date is a Gucci watch, which he refuses to divulge the price of. But there's much more to Orgy than the way they look.
Orgy is signed to Elementree, a subsidiary of Reprise Records. Jonathan Davis, in his role at A&R to the label at the time of signing, reasoned, "I think they will appeal to a lot of kids, a lot of different people. They're fashionable, pretty dudes, so all the chicks will dig 'em. And they're real heavy, so hopefully a lot of our friends will like them."
Davis went on to make them an offer they couldn't refuse and subsequently made a guest appearance on the moody, deranged track, Revival.
"We had some demo's and were f riends with the guys from KoRn, and labels had become interested in our band," say's Amir of their signing. "They loved the demo and decided that they wanted us to be the first band on their label. They have a hand with what goes on with the band, but for the most part they leave the creative side to us."
Orgy's debut album, Candyass, was released in August 1998. First listen gives you the impression that their sound is very much in the mold of Marilyn Manson/Nine Inch Nails, but with subsequent hearings i t's soundscape broadens considerably. Echoing hints of Depeche Mode, David Bowie, and dare I say it, Duran Duran, Candyass is moer 80's influenced than 90's, tied together by the synthetic pulse of electronica.
"Image-wise, we are more influenced by Duran Duran, as they were so stylish," elaborates Amir. "Musically, we are influenced by a lot of British bands as everything we seem to like comes from there. We also listen to drum 'n' bass, jungle, and the dance music that comes from England. It is something Jay and I listen to all the time. It's the futuristic element that we like about it. We want to project that kind of image. I think that the 80's were really looking to the future with the 90's stepping back. I think everybody is ready to realize that it' s time we all went forward again. We listen to a lot of styles and mix them together.
"The whole thing with the band name is that we like the shock value of it being sexual, but the idea is more of a musical orgy---the sounds and the styles that we could find. Kinda like the way we dress, a mish-mash of stuff. We don't mind i f it's a sexual thing, too, because there is definitely that in the songs. I guess we are all sexual human beings.
Indeed.
The band's hit single lifted from the album is the cover version of Blue Monday, originally by British post-punk outfit New Order. \par "It's one of our favorite songs, I guess, " Amir explains. We knew we were going to put it on our record and we had a couple of other ideas. We will probably do covers whenever we feel like it, but when that was released we had no idea it would be a hit. The reason we did it was because we liked it."
Amir's musical credentials were also forged in the 80's when he was the guitarist with L.A. glam band Rough Cutt. They released two albums ---Rough Cutt in 1985 and Wants You! in 1986---but failed to set the world alight. When harking back to his past, Amir fails to show the slightest hint of embarrassment.
"I never thought of Rough Cutt as glam," he recalls," but I did have big hair. People still talk to me about it all the time. I don't have a problem with it."
Do you think glam rock is making a revival?
"Yes I do, but I think the idea is that every time something gets revived it needs to be revamped. It's cool that it's coming back, bit peo ple need to do something with it, not just dress up like David Bowie or something. The 80's were all about decadence and a lot of fun has been missing since then. We're just starting to have some. We definite ly like to party and it gets pretty crazy sometimes, but not all the time."
As Jonathan so tightly puts it, "The chicks will dig 'em." So are you getting any action then?
"We do all right. I can't complain."
During the later part of '98, Orgy was chosen to appear as part of the Family Values tour that blitzed audiences, alongside KoRn, Limp Bizkit, Ice Cube, Incubus, and Ramm stein. According to Amir, it was pretty much a nonstop party.
"Yes, it was wild and crazy," he confirms. "The last night of the tour was great fun because everyone dressed up in Hall oween costumes. KoRn came out as these old rock guys and played Twisted Sister and Judas Priest and all this crazy shit. Limp Bizkit all dressed as Elvis, and Rammstein came out with nothing on but stuff covering their genitals."
In a completely unexpected turn of events, Orgy became great friends with German nutcases Rammstein.
"We got on with them really well," he enthuses. "They were the only band on the tour that we didn't know, but within three shows they became our best friends. It was really weird."
"Rammstein has this thing they do with a dildo, and Ryan was going to take his place. So we got him all dressed up, but the cops shut Rammsein down for indecent exposure so it never materialized. We're probably going to be doing some touring with them."
As for the rest of '99, Orgy will undertake a tour with 80's band Love and Rockets, which features ex-Bauhuas members bassist Davis J, guitarist/vocalist Daniel Ash, and drummer Kevin Haskins.
"They are really cool and have good songs and a great style," says Amir. "They've definitely had an influence on us as we have all listened to everything they've done---including Bauhaus."
Following that jaunt, it looks like Orgy will support Sugar Ray on the road. Aside from extensive time touring in the States, the band hopes to eventually tour in Europe.
By Sandy Masuo
Orgy Porgy Synth and Grind: Amir Derakh and Ryan Shuck
Amir Derakh isn't a by-the-book kind of guy. "I love reading the manuals for these guitar synthesizers," says Orgy's resident guitar synthesist in a wry tone. "Some of the things they say are just so retarded. Like 'This is your standard setup. Don't be afraid to experiment.' Ha-ha Ha-ha!"
Experimentation is the norm for Derakh, who confesses that his experience as an enginer and producer (Eels, Coal Chamber, and upcoming Spineshank) has certainly helped him push the envelope when it comes to the much-maligned guitar synth.
"Basically I'm just a guitar player, but the thing is, using my guitar I have a pretty much unlimited sound," he explains. "By the next record, my setup's going to be amazing. I can only go so far at this point because, first-off, it costs a lot of money to have a rig like I do. Plus I've been feeling it out as I go along. It's a learning process, too. Not that it hasn't been done, but it hasn't been done in the way we're doing it."
Sure enough, Orgy's sinewy blend of electronics and twisting grooves evokes everything from David Bowie to Ministry and Sisters of Mercy while still maintaining a certain guitar-barbed feel that alludes to its kinship with Korn
Guitarist Ryan Shuck, who played in a pre-Korn outfit called Sex Art with jonathon Davis, isn't threatened in the slightest by Derakh's outer-limits approach to rock. The way he sees it, it only makes him a more well-rounded guitarist.
"I think it's repetitious to have two guitars, especially when you have something like a synth," Shuck observes. "With a synth guitar [Derakh] can do a miz of synths and guitar live and it sounds amazing! I love double-guitar bands, but in this band we're not necessarily going for a guitar sound. We're usually trying to manipulate the sound more, so it makes me have to do more tihngs with pedals and get really far out to keep up with his synth arsenal."
To that end, Shuck has not only developed an agile approach to playing his seven-string, but amassed his own array of effects. "We use everything from jet phasers to simple tremolo pedal and I use that for some cool sounds and for distortion. I don't have any distortion on my amp, a Marshall JCM 800, so I'll use an Electro Harmonic Hyperfuzz, Big Muss and Big Muff 2 for distortion!! I play with like 10 or 12 [pedal effects] or something like that. All I know is it's this long array of foot switches on the ground and they get added to and [subtracted from] regularly. I have to use a MIDI controller for it; otherwise it's like driving a car and playing guitar at the same time."
Guitar World #1
As the first signees to KoRn's new
Elementree Records Label California's Orgy are the hottest buzzword on the lips
of label executives and heavy metal enthusiasts alike. But Orgy guitarist Amir
Derakh is no new kid on the block. "I've been in Guitar World before,"
he says coolly. "My band Rough Cutt was profiled a decade ago."
"On this record, we really went out of our way to try and take every
single sound out of the guitar realm and bring it to another level," adds
Derakh's fellow guitarist Ryan Shuck, who favors Ibanez seven-strings.
"Some people dont understand that theres more than one way to be heavy. It
doesn't just mean playing a distorted guitar."
On Candyass, Orgy whips up a musical concoction that has all the intensity but
none of the thud typical of heavy music. Derakh's guitar-synth noodlings and
Shuck's seven string riffing spar over pulsing, throbbing beats and singer Jay
Gordon's twisted tales of love and loathing. The combined effect is like Duran
Duran on a bad acid trip.
"A lot of people think the name Orgy is a sexual reference, but it's
not," notes Derakh. "It's has more to do with our music, which is a
mixture of a lot of different sounds and styles."
As the opening band on Korn's highly anticipated Family Values tour, Orgy, with
their designer clothes and electro-pop hooks, might not be exactly what the
fans are expecting. Shuck understands this: "I think we'll catch everyone
off guard. They'll probably stand there for the first few minutes thinking,
'What the hell is this?' But we're ready for that kind of reaction. It's gonna
be scary, but it's gonna be fun," he laughs.
Guitar World #2
Someone has to take the heat for all
those pre-fab guy groups, those 'N Syncs and 98 Degrees. Who would have thought
it would be an industrial-hard rock group from LA named Orgy?
When Orgy scored a record deal just six months after forming; mire than a few
critics began sharpening their knives. Not only were the group signed to
Elementree, the Warner Bros.-distributed label run by Orgy's pals in KoRn, but
they were presented with a coveted spot on KoRn's Family Values tour last
summer, despite having never toured. It didn't help that, until recently, Orgy
were better known for wearing makeup and girls designer tops than writing
enticingly dance-heavy grooves, or that then management company, in addition to
handling KoRn and Limp Bizkit, also represents a certain teeny-bop sensation
know as the Backstreet Boys.
Then Came "Blue Monday," the hit single from Orgy's debut album, Candyass.
The song was a hit on modern rock radio this past spring, peaking at No. 2 on
the club charts and turning Orgy's opening spot on the current Sugar Ray tour
into a nightly riot of screaming girls and mosh-pitting boys. But while the
kids danced, it was left to the critics to point out that "Blue
Monday" had been a hit once before, in 1983, for the British
electronic-dance group New Order.
What's a band got to do to get a little respect these days?
"People will say whatever they want to say," guitarist Amir Derakh
says without a hint of defensiveness. "Our version of 'Blue Monday' sounds
enough like us that a lot of people don't even recognize it as the New Order
song. We even created the chorus- the 'how does it feel?' section --because the
original song didn't have one,"
As for the band's glammy fashion sense, Derakh admits that, at the time of
Family Values, Orgy was more femme than its members had intended. On the Sugar
Ray tour, the group has opted for what guitarist Ryan Shuck calls a
"cleaner, futuristic look" that probably wouldn't look out of place
in a stage production of Blade Runner. "The clothes and makeup are
things we were doing before we were a group," Shuck explains. "I was
a hairdresser before I joined the band. Fashion is a way of life for us and it
always will be."
Whatever the naysayers think about Orgy's sudden emergence as a synth-rock
sensation, the fact is, each of its members earned his leather pants the hard
way, working LA's aggressive club scene. Both Shuck and KoRn vocalist Jonathan
Davis were members of the band Sex Art, and together co-wrote KoRn's hit
"Blind." Derakh, for his part, drew some attention in the mid
Eighties as guitarist for Rough Cutt, a hair metal group who scored a minor
radio hit with nothing less than a cover of Janis Joplin's "Piece of My
Heart."
Inevitably, the incestuous forces that shape LA's music community drew Orgy's
five members together, united by their shared ideas about music and fashion.
"I think we first noticed each other because of how we looked, "says
Shuck. "We saw each other as being a little cooler looking than everyone
else."
While their have yet to be entirely won over. Orgy does agree with them on at
least one point: the group's success is somewhat premature. "None of us
expected this kind of response so soon. Because we're just starting out,"
says Derakh. "It's a little overwhelming sometimes. When we played in
Oregon in April, the fans totally swarmed out bus. They had bug signs that
said. 'We love Orgy'. And they were screaming and yelling. They ripped Ryan's
$800 dollar shirt, and he was whining about it for a week."
"There are times when they just won't let go of us," says Shuck.
"We call it 'Orgymania'."
GUITAR WORLD- How have your lives changed since "Blue Monday" became
a hit?
AMIR DERAKH- Its gotten pretty crazy, especially since we started the Sugar Ray
tour, because we have so many more fans now. Its good though-things are a
little easier, and we get a little better by the media. But we've got more work
to do: more interviews, more shows.
RYAN SHUCK- It's also weird, though. We can't go to McDonald's sometimes. We
walk into the hotel lobby and there's maniacs waiting for us.
GW- Most groups spend their first year or so trying to figure out who they and
what kind of music they want to make. How did you attain such a focused vision
in so little time?
DERAKH- We came into Orgy knowing what we didn't want to sound like or look
like and we just took it from there. That's how we figured out what we wanted
to do in this group, by narrowing our focus.
SHUCK- The number one this is, we don't wart to sound like anyone. When Orgy
first got together, everyone had spent 10 years playing in other groups,
figuring out the kind of music they wanted to play and what they wanted to do
with the music. Orgy just happens to be a group of people who all agree on
those ideas. For example, Amir and I didn't want out guitars to sound like
guitars, which is why he uses Roland guitar synths. And I felt that when that
when the guitar was playing rhythm, it should sound like a machine. So there's
an example of finding a vision by the process of elimination.
GW- Your first touring experience was opening for a lot of tough,
testosterone-charted acts on the Family Values tour. Did their fans ever make
you fear for your safety?
DERAKH- KoRn has very open-minded fans, and the fans on that tour were pretty
cool. Obviously, you'd think we would have gotten killed for wearing makeup on
such a heavy tour. And there were definitely night when hecklers in the crowd.
They might throw a water bottle at us, but they've heard the music and want to
see us.
GW- How did you come to remake "Blue Monday," and how did it become
your first single?
DERAKH We had a couple of cover songs that we were considering, and "Blue
Monday" happened to be one of them. It came together really easily. After
we finished the album, Warner Bros. brought us to New York to introduce us to
the company staff. They had a video presentation to show their new bands for
the coming year, and our version of "Blue Monday" was part of it. The
song just sounded so good. That's when I first realized that we were going to
make it a single.
GW- It is disappointing that, out of all the original songs on the record, the
cover became that hit?
SHUCK- It's fine. Not only do we respect that song but we made it our own. It's
like we adopted it; it's someone else's kid, but we're raising it. I mean, if
we played our shows and no one cared about the songs until we did "Blue
Monday." I would be worried. But the kids are singing along to all our
songs- not just "Blue Monday." And there's definitely about six songs
in the set that where it's just a panic. It looks like the people are going to
kill each other. [Laughs] So that's good!
GW- Why did you call your album Candyass?
DERAKH- It's actually the name of a drag queen our singer [Jay Gordon] met at a
party in LA WE just thought that would be funny title for out record. And we
thought it was cool, because it was like we were making fun of ourselves.
SHUCK-It's kind of a play on us and the way people look at us like, "Ah,
ya bunch of faggots." I think the word does suit our image. It's not that
far off.
GW- In June, Orgy is going to be featured in Calvin Klein ad campaign.
Considering all the backlash you've received for wearing makeup and girls
clothing, isn't posing for Calvin Klein just asking for trouble?
DERAKH- No, because from the very beginning we told everybody that we were
fashion whores. We like clothes, and we like to wear expensive makeup.
SHUCK- And it's working for us. A lot of bands do get fucked with trying a lot
of different stuff, but obviously we're getting a lot of support from out fans
for what we're doing.
GW- So you think the time is right for it?
SHUCK- I think the time is right so for it. I see less of a definable trend in
music. The only thing popping up right now are bands in the style of New Kids
on the Block.
GW- You mean like the Backstreet Boys?
SHUCK- [laughs] Yeah! [coughs] And, you know...
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