Orange Amplification is delighted to introduce two new pedals to their range; The Fur Coat is a vintage fuzz and the Getaway Driver is an overdrive, cab sim, class A type pedal. Both have been designed by Orange’s Technical Director, Adrian Emsley.
TheFur Coat, inspired by the great fuzz tones from the seventies is loosely based on the old Foxx Tone Machine originally released in 1971 which was often used by artists such as Peter Frampton and Adrian Belew. Designed with a foot switchable octave, it is superbly versatile, allowing players to adjust the level of the upper octave rather than just turn it on and off. In keeping with the era’s vibe, it is built with germanium diodes and is Orange’s only true bypass pedal. When used it puts a ‘dirty, smelly fur coat’ on every note produced giving them a warm, furry quality. The Fur Coat drapes itself over the music; stroke it lovingly to produce grungy, warm effects or turn it up for lots of filthy, shaggy texture. Its tone can be dressed down casual, super modern, funky or wonderfully dramatic.
‘It sounds absolutely phenomenal’ said Clutch’sTim Sult and Matt Pike from Sleep said “I’ve tried every fuzz pedal on the planet. This is my new favorite. The Fur Coat is everything I expected Orange would do with an octave fuzz. It’s seriously gnarly.“
The action-packedGetaway Driver is an amp-in-a-box type pedal. It has the same transparent, buffered output as the Orange Two Stroke and Kongpressor pedals plus a second Cab Sim / headphone output. This makes the Getaway Driver perfect for silent practice or recording. The three dials, Volume, Bite (tone) and Gain, allow players to ‘rev their engine’. The pedal really excels when played through an amp’s clean channel, even ones with a bright cap. Low gain and high volume makes for a clean boost, pushing amps over the edge into classic overdrive. Armed with one of these, players can be transported back to the fast and furious seventies feeling the heat as this hot rod pedal drives relentlessly forward to produce the closest thing to the buzz of being a real getaway driver.
‘This pedal is great……..it sounds like vintage Orange’ observed Damon Fox The Cult/ Big Elf.
The Fur Coat can be powered by 9 or 12V DC. Running at 12V increases the headroom and the output volume available. It draws very little current, less than 5mA allowing for a long battery life. The Getaway Driver can be powered by 9 or 12V DC. At 9Vs the pedal has the characteristics of EL84 valves, whereas 12Vs gives it a EL34 flavour.
First of all, you’ve got a pretty sweet deal here tonight playing with Bad Religion at the Kentish Town Forum, how did that all come about? Charlie: Well, we’ve told our agent about a few bands that we really like, and after that I think she must have worked some kind of magic! Previously we’ve played with bands such as NOFX and Alkaline Trio, and it must have gone well as we’ve been allowed to open up for Bad Religion!
You must be pretty stoked! You just got back from Italy, how was that?
Charlie: Yeah, today is the day of us kickstarting touring again, we just got back from Italy a few days ago as we were flown over there to play Curtarock Festival – we’re a three piece so it’s quite easy for us to travel light. We brought a backpack full of merch to sell so we could get some money for beer, and that was pretty much it. It was 31 degrees, we had a pool.
Damn, this is the first time ever touring’s sounded luxurious, normally I’m used to hearing about bands spending 18 hours in a van, that sorta stuff. Charlie: Oh, don’t get me wrong, we’ve had our fair share of 18 hour drives, vans breaking down – this Italy thing isn’t how we normally roll.
Your second album ‘Outsiders’ was released in May, how did you attack that whole process of recording the second time around compared to your debut album? Charlie: We’ve been very used to overdubbing, so this time we really wanted to focus on getting that live sound and did all the songs as a three piece in the studio. Thom literally only did two guitar tracks, one where we all played together, then another one after in the same live room, followed by vocals. We had plans to go to America and record with Steve Albini, but that would have cost us a lot of money, so we ended up getting our friend to do it and use the same process as Steve would have used, which is to have it as live and raw as possible – it’s more about the vibe than the talent, and I think it flows better than the first one. Punk just sounds better live.
Well, let’s get down to business, the reason we’re both here is because of Orange Amps, what’s your history with the brand? Charlie: On our first ever tour as Gnarwolves, my friend was in a band called ‘As We Sink’ and he had the terror going through an 8×10 or 8×10 cab, and I just knew I needed that tone. The fact that you can just pack the terror away as well and put it over your shoulder is so sick. I ended up getting one, and I’ve had it for three or four years now and it’s just great! I love it, and wouldn’t go anywhere without it. People still ask me what my tone and sound is, and all I’ve got is one pedal and the terror. Tonight, I don’t even have my pedal with me, so I’ll be plugging straight into the terror using the gain and treble. I’d say any bassist who’s just started and wants to learn to play, the terror is perfect as it’s only got five channels and is so easy to use. I was originally a drummer and only started playing bass for Gnarwolves with Thom (guitarist) basically showing me how to do it, so for me, the terror worked out really well as it wasn’t scary and just quite easy and fun to play around with.
Yesterday morning I woke up with a bang after not one, not two, but three cans and bottles fell and landed on a sleeping Riley Hawk’s face, being probably the worst wake up call of the tour – for Riley, obviously. I was perfectly fine as I watched it happen from afar.
Waking up, I was pretty bummed out as this was the end of the tour for me and I knew I’d be shortly on my way back to London and reality, while the guys set off to France for an early night before Motorculto festival later today. Luckily, they had a last minute change of heart and decided to head back to London with me for record shopping and a night of fun in the big smoke. After all, this was also the day of releasing ‘New Beginning’, the first single of their upcoming album, ‘New Beginnings’, and if that isn’t reason enough to celebrate, then what is?
We arrived at mine in London where they had a play at my shitty guitars that finally got their chance to shine, before heading towards the tube – or ‘the underground’ as those Americans call it. There were a few technical complications as I tried to maneuver them through the process of buying their first ever Oyster cards followed by certain band members who shall not be named (Paul) getting caught in the barriers while trying to exit the station, which resulted him calling out my name in panic like a damsel in distress (Sorry Paul.) Despite all odds, we made it to Rough Trade.
Petyr’s Riley Hawk and Paul browsing – Parker and photographer J.T Rhoades surfing. By Ella Stormark
After 25 minutes of intense browsing and record shopping, we headed towards Camden and one of my favourite bars and venues, The Black Heart where beers were drank, fun was had, and Holy Diver was played. We left The Black Heart for a to check out a funk playing brass band at The Blues Kitchen, only to get rejected at the door as the youthful looking papa Paul didn’t have ID, and the journey continued to The Dev where more beer was consumed, enough for the majority of us to decide that dancing would be a great idea. There are a few videos on my phone I’m keeping for a rainy day when Radio Moscow’s taken over the world, and I can make millions on footage of Parker doing the worm. He didn’t actually, but damn do I wish he did.
Closing time was a reality, and it was time to head back to mine where tour manager Karl was waiting to take them to France, leaving me to wallow in post tour blues on my own.
Anthony, Parker and Paul, thanks a million for letting me tag along and giving me an insight of life on the road – I had a blast! See ya’ll at Desertfest Antwerp in October!
To just dive right in there and continue where I left it off at my last post; we left Bristol slightly later than expected, and after a quick pit stop at Electric Ladyland we set sail towards the land of Black Sabbath – Birmingham. A few hours of blasting Birmingham’s finest kings of darkness in the tour van, and we rolled up to the The Castle & Falcon, which apparently up to very recently, used to host mainly bands playing Irish music.
Support bands for the evening were local bands Luna & The Moonhounds and You Dirty Blue, and I’ll be honest with you – I missed out on pretty much both of their sets for the sole reason that we had a TV that could play youtube videos in the backstage area, and I choose to spend that time horizontal on the sofa while requesting live videos of Grand Funk Railroad – that Paul would refuse to play as he was already knee deep in old Captain Beyond. Fair enough.
All the way from Stoke-On-Trent band Psyence’s Jamie and Jamie had embarked on an hour long car journey to attend the gig, leaving one Jamie to indulge in all the booze while the other one had to soberly watch him do so. As Radio Moscow started playing, I had the pleasure of watching both of their reactions to their first ever Radio Moscow experience, and it was pure joy and excitement in their eyes;
«Radio Moscow. Hands down the best gig I have ever been to. The man is like Hendrix reincarnated!»
Jamie Bellingham, Psyence bassist.
When the night ended we packed up our stuff and headed to the swanky hotel we were meant to stay at, only to find out a mix up had been made and that there was no more rooms left. That was ok though, who wants soft, comfy beds at 1am anyway when you can be stranded in the rain instead? We headed back to The Castle & Falcon where they took us in with open arms and sorted us out in the cozy backstage area by re-stocking the fridge we’d previously emptied for beer, making sure we’d stay hydrated through out the night. At this point, we were all pretty much partied out, and Netflix seemed like a great idea. I broke out my brightly coloured green sleeping bag yet again as we all tuned in to watch Ozark, and it took me about 15 minutes before I crashed, burned and fell asleep on the floor.
Last night was the third and final night with the Groundhogs, and I dare say it’s been the best night so far. There’s been a lot of speculations around Groundhogs touring without founding member and original frontman Tony McPhee, and to be fair, I wasn’t around to experience ‘em back in the day, but personally, I cant imagine them ever being any better than they are now with current frontman and lead guitarist Chris D’Avoine, who’s boosting as much charisma as he is talent.
As mentioned in my last post, there were rumours going that Radio Moscow guitarist Parker Griggs would join the Groundhogs on stage, and after having a sneak peak during soundcheck, I got even more excited for the show. Groundhogs played an impeccable set before being joined by Parker on stage for the final hurrah, ‘Cherry Red’, of their 1971 album ‘Split’, and just when you thought Groundhogs couldn’t be louder and more powerful – they did. Three guitars, extended solos and jamming galore. Damn, I almost needed a cigarette after that and I don’t even smoke.
Once everyone’d had some time to gather the pieces from their blown minds, it was yet again time for Radio Moscow to take the stage, and it pretty quickly dawned upon me that they’re either getting better and better every night, or that my brain just haven’t been evolved enough to wrap my head around their humongous musical talent, and is only becoming so now as I’ve been exposed to it over an extended period of time. I could go on about how good they are and draw insane comparisons, but let’s be honest, I’m with them for another day and I cant make ‘em too big for their boots just yet.
While sat in the backstage area after the show, I ended up chatting to Groundhogs drummer Ken Pustelnik who asked me if I’d heard the story about how himself and Parker originally met;
«It was a late night in Bristol when I saw these three long haired guys who looked totally out of place in an area they shouldn’t be wandering around in, so I walked up them and asked if they were alright, as they looked a bit lost; ‘Are you looking for the train station?’ ‘No, we’ve just played our first ever gigs over here in the UK, and we didn’t get paid. We’re struggling a bit as we can’t get back home to Iowa.’ So we ended up taking them back to ours, and I got them a few gigs, their first ever paid ones in Britain, and eventually they managed to make the money to get back to the states. Parker was about 17 at the time, and we’ve stayed in touch ever since.»
What are the odds – three seventeen year old broke musicians in a foreign country with no place to stay or way to get home gets approached by a guy who just happens to be Ken from the Groundhogs, someone kind enough to house them, and has the connections to get them paid gigs and back on their feet. What a guy!
As we left I pretty much crashed in the van while everyone else was ready to party it up at the house. When we arrived, it didn’t take long before Anthony fell asleep under the kitchen table – that guy can sleep pretty much anywhere and through anything, which is a skill I highly admire. I hung out for a bit, before retracting myself upstairs and into my borrowed brightly colored green sleeping bag around 3am, while listening in on something that sounded like Rage Against the Machine blasting out from the speakers downstairs. Five hours later, I wake up to find photographer JT stretched out on the floor, as Parker climbs into the other bed having been carried away in conversations about ‘life and music’ with drummer Paul until the light of day – which means heading to bed about two hours before we were meant to pack up and go at 10.30.
Another day, another city. We left beautiful seaside city Hastings behind, and have just rolled into Bristol and The Exchange.
Last night saw a local band called ‘Gorilla’ supporting Moscow as well as The Groundhogs, a band fronted by Admiral Sir Cloudesley Shovell frontman Jonny Gorilla, former RIDDLES drummer Ryan Matthews and some crazy talented bassist extraordinaire called Sarah Jane.
Following Gorilla was Groundhogs yet again, and I could keep singing their praises as they’re just incredible – and probably some of the nicest guys around. As I type, Petyr’s Riley Hawk who’s tagging along for the ride just got his Groundhogs Split vinyl signed by Ken, who let us in on the secret of how they made that infamous record cover – with scissors. Cut, copy, and paste. ‘It’s amazing the lenghts you go to when there’s no technology.’
Anyway – Groundhogs came, saw and conquered, and as Radio Moscow took the stage at around 10.30, people were getting super stoked – fan base fronted by two die hard fans air-guitaring front row. As for the Moscow dudes, I’m not sure what they put in the water over there in San Diego, but these guys takes musical craftsmanship to a whole new level as they’re all some sorts of psych connoisseurs. Sadly, due to an early live music curfew, music was cut at 11, leaving them with only a 25 or so minute slot which was a massive disappointment to everyone who made their way there to see them.
To drown our sorrows, we packed up and headed down the road to ‘Tin Tins’, the kinda place people head to mostly because it’s the only place open at that time a night, with weird ass mix of people and shitty pop music. Still, beggars cant be choosers – they had beer and who I assume might be the biggest Radio Moscow fan there is, who kept us fueled by Jägerbombs and Belgium beer until the end of the night, before somehow ending up back at the hotel with us with a bottle of whiskey, 24 beers and an acoustic guitar playing us the blues.
It’s currently pushing six o’ clock, and I’m sat on the floor listening to Radio Moscow sound checking and jammin ‘Walk in my shadow’ of Free’s debut album ‘Tons of Sobs.’ Rumour also has it that Parker will be playing with the Groundhogs later;
First day on the road with Radio Moscow and I’m currently on the verge of dying from alcohol poisoning and bad decisions.
Kicking it all off, they played a sold out show at London’s Borderline last night supported by the legendary Groundhogs, and I must say, having the Groundhogs supporting you is pretty damn cool – and pretty damn brave as those guys can tear shit up and have been doing so for decades, even before any of the Moscow dudes were born. It was my third time ever seeing Groundhogs, and needless to say, they left big boots to fill. Luckily, Radio Moscow are pretty damn great too and had every mind in there blown within the first song. It was my first time ever seeing them, and I’m stoked I get to see them again tonight. And tomorrow. And Thursday. Then twice again in October. That’s right, no getting rid of me now for these dudes.
Following last night’s gig I spilled an entire bottle of ranch over myself backstage before venturing next door to the dingiest dive bar of them all, Crobar. A place you go to lose your dignity, memory and personal belongings, and it might not come as a surprise that it’s all a bit of a blur after that. Cans of red stripe, hotel hallway vending machine bags of crisps, listening to Dirty Tricks and falling asleep on the floor. So far I think I’ve made a great impression on everyone, and it’s going really great.
Most of today has been spent in the van feeling horrendously hungover, with the highlight of the day being a pit stop at some pub in Kent which hosts Freddie Mercury, Michael Bublé, Elvis, and of course – white Tina Turner tribute nights. Next level entertainment right there, so I shall be returning once I’m sick and tired of this San Diego psych rock and in the mood for an upgrade.
As for now, we’ve just arrived in Hastings to find the venue being on the second floor, and had to load in a bunch of amps up through three flights of stairs, and as you all know, Orange amps are good as gold, but god damn heavy as led. Still, spirits are high, and as I type the guys are setting up and getting ready to soundcheck. Tomorrow we’re at The Exchange in Bristol, followed by The Castle and Falcon in Birmingham on Thursday, and I’m hoping for lifts and no condiment spillage.
Describe Orange Amps in 10 Words or Less! You don’t even have to own an Orange. We just want to know what you think about our brand – good or bad!
The First Place Winner will be awarded the Ultimate Orange Pedal Board based on the creativity of their description. Runners Up will have their name and description featured in our upcoming pedal marketing video (scheduled for release in September).
First place winner will record a scripted audio message for inclusion in the video.
Ade – I’m Ade Emsley of Orange amps and this is Desertfest, I’m here with Matt Pike, from Sleep!
Matt – I’m Matt Pike from Sleep at Desertfest, playing his amps. So I take it you are a bass player?
Ade – I play both.
Matt – I do now too, I just got this Gibson fretless Ripper, its fuckin’ badass! I actually use a Dual Dark Orange and an Ampeg.
Ade – Nice! Do the top end on the Dual Dark!
Matt – I use some of those Earthquaker effects, they have some gnarly stuff.
Ade – I tend to like to bi-amp with the bass, I like to put a guitar amp on the top end.
Matt – That’s the way to do it, well everybody I play with does that, everybody at least has a half stack.
Ade – Helps if you have new strings, you get the harmonics off.
Matt – Ye, and it dirtys it up without a distortion box.
Ade – Sounds like punching a box of springs.
Matt – I like having multiples because the difference between, there is kind of a chunk thing, chunk riffs! There is smooth where you have to hold it real long and you don’t want it to feed back unnecessarily, you want it to feed back smoothly into stuff. So it takes some dialling in.
Ade – You like the Dual Darks?
Matt – I like the Dual Darks a lot yeh, I like the two hundred Watt Thunderverbs and I like those little OR50’s or 80’s?
Ade – It’s the OR50.
Matt – Dude! Those things fucking shred if you have a bunch of them and you mic the shit out of them and use them for the PA tone. Then like a Pignose out the back as well.
Ade – Ye, a lot of artists like those because it was meant to be, the original were like our 40th anniversary and we had a plexi glass front on them.
Matt – I would like to get my hands on one of those.
Ade – We ran them for a year and then people started contacting us saying “can you do the OR50 again?” We were getting emails about it every day, so we brought them back.
Matt – I like it because tone wise they are really, really good, they saturate because there aren’t so many tubes to spread out to. It’s just those two to saturation.
Ade – They have a sound, three stage they are, they are three stages of gain. Whereas the Rockerverb is four, Thunderverb is a three.
Matt – The Thunderverbs, the two hundred ones are really good for massive amounts of sound being projected.
Ade – Ye they push! They push the bottom out of the cabinets in a certain way. But they play really firm. Ye I just try and make a good honest amp, with proper transformers. The other thing is there are so many people that say their amp is a hundred percent fully tube and it’s not. Like the effects loop is solid state, some of the distortion is solid state and they are saying its a hundred percent and they are just lying to people. I don’t like that, I keep the solid state stuff, solid state and the tube stuff, tube.
Matt – All tube yeh! Well in my Laney I have Patridge transformers, that shits, fucking, why don’t they make stuff like that any more thats the weird thing, I can tell the difference.
Ade – I think Transtronic have got the drawings for those.
Matt – It’s like that and Mercury does them, I have SLO Soldano’s, Mercurys are pretty good but there is nothing quite like the Partridges.
Ade – Ye we used the Mercurys for a bit in the U.S.A. amps and I liked them, I thought they were really good.
Matt – They are, definitely.
Ade – It actually prompted me because they actually sounded better than what we were using at the time. It prompted me to, I obviously looked at getting coils sent over from Mercury to Europe and then laminating them here. But they wouldn’t do it so I went to the drawing board and redesigned all the transformers, until I was happy with them. So all the fifty Watt transformers and upwards are all eight sections, you know like proper.
Matt – They are good, I mean they perform, they put out.
Ade – No they were great the Partridges, you can get similar made now though. I mean ours are not a million miles away, I mean they are different design because I went from scratch. I didn’t want to tear anything down and rip it off, its not the way I roll. I went I’m going to make something that sounds similar to this or maybe try and better it. Do my own recipe, make a few different ones up and feel them and play them.
Matt – Well then it is all a matter of parts, you know little parts, like capacitors and diodes. That’s why I don’t build amps, that’s where I get confused. Dudes like you! Well thank you for making them!
Ade – We still build some hand wired stuff, you know like the Custom Shop stuff, I always have a lot of fun doing those! They are different, they do sound different.
Matt – What is your preference on speakers? Do you mess with stuff?
Ade – Ye! I do, I really like Alnicos, I did a bit of work on the gold 10’s, I like 10’s, I use them a lot. 2X10 Alnico cabs.
Matt – Really? Its weird but the low end thing, the smaller you get and the more of them, produces low end.
Ade – Well I like open back because its not so directional and you can still get a lot of bottom out of them.
Matt – I like open backs, my friend who records my other band High on Fire, Kurt Ballou, he is in that band Converge. Emperor made him a bunch of open backs and I think there just Celestion greenback copys.
Ade – I don’t like speakers that are less than a hundred dB, I don’t see the point. If you are going to lug a 4X12 you want it to be loud. If it’s 96 dB speakers then it is half as loud as hundred dB speakers. Its the way the human ear hears Decibels, its half as loud. I’ve tried the Fane Alnicos, they are good.
Matt – Alnicos I’ve got to write that down.
Ade – They do a 60 Watt cream coloured Alnico 12″ which is really nice. Its kind of like the Celestion but a little bit softer. But not too soft, do you know what I mean, its a nice balance. The bottom is really good on them.
Matt – If they are a little bit puffy to begin with, thats where your effects come in and how you are driving the amp. I use a lot of mids, its smoother than if I turn all the mids off and its the bottom and top its what everybody like in Metal. I like the Randy Rhodes mid thing, Iron Maiden even used a lot mids.
Ade – Oh you have got to use a lot of mids on guitar.
Matt – If you want your lead to pop out add mid.
Ade – Ye, you don’t want to take it out if you want lead! Its going to sound like a wasp in a jar if you do that!
Matt – I think a lot of people try to add a little bit of treble to it or volume and treble. It doesn’t make it smooth, more mid smooth.
Ade – Its like the Tiny Terror, doesn’t have any tone controls.
Matt – Oh I love that thing! I have two of those!
Ade – It’s actually a filter on the power amp, so the preamp hasn’t got any tone stack in there at all. That’s why its got the perceived gain of like a three stage, when you crank the gain up. Its actually a two stage because it hasn’t got the tone stack loading it down, you get more through.
Matt – You know on my rig out there, usually I have one of those with me in the States. Usually I have two of them, I didn’t get a chance to bring anything like that over here, you know weight wise and luggage and shit. We usually have one of those Tiny Terrors and a little two speaker deal and then we put in a Marshall head case or one of the big cases and then we just put a 57 in there. I started with a Pignose doing that and then I got endorsed by Orange and I started using that thing and it really rips. That’s what the guy at the board can really do shit with my guitar with that thing, he has a bunch of FX pedals up here, that distort that thing or give it delay or swirl it around the room. That means I don’t have to touch shit, I just have to play!
Ade – That’s cool! That is what you really want to do. Those saturate in the output stage nice because of the way the transformer is, its like a baby fifty Watt five stage but miniaturised.
Matt – That is great!
Ade – That saturates like an old late 60’s fifty Watter would but in fifteen Watt.
Matt – I don’t need it much either because it is in a box, next to a mic, going through the speakers out there. I got that from, it’s an old Frank Zappa trick, he would take a little Pignose and fool everyone, he would just be shredding it!
Ade – I’m a big Zappa fan.
Matt – I love Zappa.
Ade – I just try to make good honest amps, don’t lie to anyone, don’t tell them its hundred percent tubes if its not. We make solid state amps but its a different animal and I try to keep them a hundred percent solid state where possible.
Matt – I’m not a big solid state dude, that’s not what I do. It’s cool for like practice room.
Ade – We make them for people who can’t afford the tube amps. We try to get them to sound as good as possible without being tube and so that the control panel, if they find themselves on a Rockerverb they’ll know where they are. The controls come in at roughly the same place, so they won’t be lost if they find themselves on a Rockerverb, a Dual Dark or Thunderverb. The gain structure works in the same kind of way.
Matt – Well I’ve been using these for so long, I kind of know all of them! I know what they all do. Thank you for making a solid amp!
This Blog piece was written by Sam Hafferty. Orange is a supporter of Miami Girl’s Rock Camp.
Hi! I’m Sam Hafferty. 2016 Camper, 2017 Assistant Director at Miami Girl’s Rock Camp (MGRC). This would sound like a HUGE transition anywhere else, but those who know the MGRC environment and philosophies, know that this camp is not like anywhere else. Even though I was put in a more mentally (and physically) challenging position in carrying out my duties as a volunteer, I found the overall experience to be far more enjoyable and educational than difficult in any sense of the word. My overall time at camp over the past 2 years has created a combination of education, service, and emotional support fueled equally by every single person involved during camp week.
I remember when I first heard about a girl’s rock camp starting in Miami. I was 16 and very interested in my local DIY cultural communities. I knew that I was eligible to join camp in its first year, but was too thrown off by the fact that I might be the oldest camper. I now understand that at MGRC, It doesn’t matter if you are 7 or 70, you are still treated with as much support and love as the next person. After seeing how great the first year looked on social media, I decided I didn’t care if I was going to be the oldest camper anymore, and signed up in 2016. By the end of my first day of camp, all of my misconceptions and worries were forgotten, I was surrounded by people who cared about my comfort and upheld the ideals of positive relationships with one another.
At Miami Girl’s Rock Camp, I had made real connections and friendships with my peers and mentors. Many of whom I kept in touch with year-round. My experience as a camper opened up new possibilities for me to encourage positivity and creativity in all aspects of my life. After performing in the MGRC showcase as a newfound bass player, I was motivated to start a band outside of camp with some friends. My first post-MGRC performance was actually thanks to one of the directors of camp, Emile Milgrim, who invited us to play in her section of my favorite local gathering, the International Noise Conference! After that first performance, I felt confident enough to go out and proactively seek shows to play with my band all around the city!
Leading up to this summer’s camp week, I was excited to play a very different role. I performed a wide variety of tasks, from roadie work to administrative work to small counseling roles. I had a chance to see the behind the scenes of all aspects of running camp. Even though I was equally as active and stimulated going through camp week as a volunteer as when a camper, I had the added benefit of observation. I was able to truly recognize the transformation campers go through from all of the amazing experiences at camp. Whisperers become screaming singers and individualists flourished in a collaborative setting. In short, reflecting over my experiences as both a camper and volunteer at MGRC has taught me that this camp is equally magical, educational, and refreshing to all parties involved.
https://orangeamps.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/02.png10801920Charliehttps://orangeamps.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/Orange-Pics-logo-307px-279x103.pngCharlie2017-08-09 09:26:512017-08-09 09:26:51Miami Girl’s Rock Camp: Sam Hafferty
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