If you get people to turn their heads in LA, you know you're doing something right.
Two lanky figures in spiky hair, platform shows, and Gucci belts approach, upsetting the pristine environment of New York City's posh Parker Meridian hotel, Orgy's singer Jay Gordon and guitarist Ryan Shuck saunter into the lobby. Both are pleasant and nonchalant, which seems to be an Orgy trademark. Sitting comfortably in their surprisingly neat hotel room, all five members are in good spirits, ribbing each other with mother jokes and anecdotes of the previous night's clubhopping. Ryan is quick to explain: "To us, music and image are not seperate-it's a lifestyle. We play around a lot and we have fun."
The band has much to smile about lately as the first act signed to supergroup Korn's own label, Elementree, and the openers on their longimte friends' "Family Values" tour. Both West Coast bands have traveled in similar circles adn gotten to know each other rather well, though their style and music are quite different. Guitar-synth wizard Amir Derakh elaborates, "If you get people to turn their heads in LA, you know you're doing something right."
"Now we're working on the rest of the universe," chimes in Gordon.
"But we didn't get signed solely because [Korn] are friends," mumbles drummer Bobby Hewitt. Maybe not, but it's helped Orgy reach its first large audience.
It's also put some pressure on the band, but rehearsing relentlessly has strengthened their confidense. "We make it sound complicated but it's not," explains Derakh. "We want to make sure they everything is going to work each nithg." That's old hat for Orgy: both Derakh and bassist Paige Haley have degrees in audio engineering. For Derakh, "Playing isn't the hard part, putting it all together and making it happen is."
Maybe that's because Orgy plans to bring an arsenal of equipment on the road with them. "We have every piece of technological gear you can own," confirms Derakh.
"Old and new," Shuck adds. "Everything from samplers to tape recorders-but we do everything live, except for samples and loops. Most people think it's a drum machine when we play live, but it's Bobby doing all the percussion."
Overlooking Orgy's musical capabilities due to their highly stylized look happens quite often, but the music stands on its own. The band's debut album, Candyass (Elementree/Reprise), is an angry fairy tale of decadent lifestyles accompanied by slivers of samples and larger-than-life industrial guitars remniscent of Ninch Inch Nails and Skinny Puppy. While Orgy's roots aren't as hard to pinpoint as their natural hair color, Gordon doesn't want to "necessarily bring that genre of music back but let it evolve. Bands like Skinny Puppy went virtually unnoticed by the world at large, and if we do this right, maybe it will make people look back."
Bridging the past and the future is one aspect of Orgy's "anything goes" philosophy. That's how the band came up with its name. "It's not solely about sex," insists Gordon. "It's about taking different elements and merging them together."
While Skinny Puppy influenced the band's sound, oddly enough early-'80s MTV darlings Duran Duran influenced their image. And for Shuck, "that was the coolest thing about them-they were so together, they had a look."
Orgy makes no bones about wanting to love the rock and roll lifestyle. They want the clothes, the private jets, and parties with models. The desire to be glamorous and famous is sure to spawn criticism in indie-rock land, but Orgy isn't too concerned. In fact, the band loves to keep tabs on what's going on in the fashion world and wouldn't mind being sponsored by a designer on tour. (Gordon is partial to Prada and Helmut Lang).
Shuch(k) says, "A lot of the couture designers have some pretty edgy clothing. Many people like this sort of stuff, and we just throw it all together. We're not afraid to do everything we've always wanted to do. Grunge made it hard to dress cool and have fun, but we were all about changing that."
