Ryan : Hi i’m Ryan, and I’m from the Cribs and here we are in London, at the University.
The first time I remember seeing an Orange amp, I think it was in Weezer’s first record, I opened up the sleeve and there was a picture of all their gear. Their bass player Matt, had this Orange amp and I thought it looked really cool. I became interested at that point because as a kid you end up looking at pictures of gear more than you do using gear because you don’t really have many opportunities. I think I really fantasised about owning one as a school kid. I remember cutting out a photo of an Orange stack from a catalogue and sticking it on my bedroom wall and being like, one day I’m going to get one of these amps.
The first time I got an Orange, was probably in like 2001. It was when the Orange crush came out and I got one for my birthday. I was really excited because there was an Orange amp out there that I could actually afford, it was a way of getting an Orange, on a modest budget. I still really love that amp! I think it was the Crush 30, it became our main recording amp. All our early demos we recorded with the Crush and even now when we go to the studio, I always take the Orange crush with us. We split the signal between my Orange rig and the crush because I think it sounds good on record. I really love that amp!
My main criteria of an amp is that it sounds raunchy, I don’t like it to sound super scooped like you get with most amps. I think a lot of amps are missing something in the mid range and that’s what I liked with Orange. To me they always sounded like the guitar sound of the 70’s records which I always really loved.
A lot of other amps that I’ve used, don’t feedback well and that for me is a really important thing, we use a lot of feedback. I see feedback as one of the more exciting parts of playing guitar as you can’t really control what it is going to do. I always loved the way Orange’s sound when they are being cranked up and the feedback you can get from them and the way you can play the amp in that way. It’s always been an important part of our sound.
My current set up is AD30 that I bought in 2002-2003 maybe, it was the first thing I bought when we got a record deal. Because I thought it would sound like a big Orange Crush and I loved the sound of it. I’ve been using it every since, that’s been my only live amp since 2003-4. In the last couple of years i’ve added that bottom cab and then the Matamp, the Green amp. I used it, all set to bass frequencies, it was mainly when we did the big outdoor stages or the arena shows, I wanted to feel the amp behind me. I’m so happy with my current set up, i’m kind of so used to it, I don’t think I could deal with using anything else at this point.
I tried the Getaway Driver out recently on a new song we have been working on, I thought I would use it as the main pedal for the session. I was really impressed by it, the thing that I find interesting about it, it is definitively a drive pedal, it really has that character but you can get really crazy with it. I was surprised at how dirty that pedal actually gets, usually drives can be a bit tasteful. Which obviously the Getaway Driver can do but it can also do something at the other end of the spectrum which I appreciate.
Ye, it feels cool to be part of the Orange family, when I was a kid I dreamed of owning an Orange. When you become a touring musician it’s easy for you to see the amps you use as the tools of your trade but I still try to contextualise how I felt when I was a kid about the gear and dreamed about owning it. To be a recognised part of the Orange family feels really good, strokes my ego!
https://orangeamps.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/Ryan-ULU-1.jpg16903000Orange Ampshttps://orangeamps.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/Orange-Pics-logo-307px-279x103.pngOrange Amps2018-02-16 16:59:242019-11-30 16:51:55Interview – Ryan Jarman of The Cribs and Orange Amps
Peter, thanks a million for taking the time to do this interview, myself and the rest of the Orange crew are big fans of you and your music – could you please introduce yourself to the reader, and tell us a bit about yourself and the music you make?
Good morning Orange Amp freaks! Or is it afternoon, evening? Whenever it is, wherever you are on this rotating rock orbiting the Almighty Sun while we hurtle through space, allow me to introduce myself. I am Peter Hughes, the human and guitar player you may know from such hard rock bands as Sons of Huns and Danava. Other than playing my Orange amplifier at excessive decibels, I enjoy plucking out the Baroque stylings of the one and only J.S. Bach on Classical Guitar, I am an amateur mycologist – or I like fungi, or mushrooms. If you’re really in the dark about the entire Kingdom of organisms, without whom plants couldn’t grow in the first place let alone be decomposed and with whom we share a large amount of DNA, making many species great medicine. I am also a sufferer of Lyme & related tick borne illnesses thanks to a deer tick from my home state of Virginia, this has led me down a trying but ultimately rewarding path toward healing, with composing and performing music being a huge part of my medicine and therapy.
Its been pretty quiet from the Sons of Huns camp lately, whats the lays of the land there? Sons of Huns was my first serious musical endeavour and first experience recording, releasing records and touring. We had a great run and I will always smile back on the memories made with my brothers Shoki Tanabe, Ryan Northrop and Aaron Powell, playing music we loved loud and from the heart. We are now on an indefinite hiatus and though I was admittedly upset when I realised we’d all be moving on, I respect my peers and am proud of the accomplishments they’ve made and families they are building in the time since through nothing other than their own sheer determination and unwavering power of will.
How about Danava, are you guys working on new material? Danava is indeed working on new music! The joy I feel when recording new music in the studio is 2nd only to playing loud at live shows. Tee Pee Records put out a 7″ single of our newest, non-stop righteous ripper, “At Midnight You Die” just over a year ago in October 2016. My rig for this session was my trusted Ebony Gibson SG Standard running into an Ibanez TS808Tube Screamer used when needed to push the tubes into extra overdrive of my much beloved OR-100 amplifier head paired with a single OR-PPC 4X12. We cut the song live in the studio, only adding Greg’s vocals and blazing lead as overdubs. I think that was crucial in capturing the magic performance of this high speed, hard rock track: the four of us in the same room, hitting hard holding nothing back. The melodic Maiden style duel guitar riffs that fly together in harmony through verse, into the chorus and unrelenting bridge until the song ends explosively, is an approach fans can expect to hear more on our next release.
How do you guys work together creatively as a band? Gregory Meleney is the driving force behind Danava and our fearless leader. He has composed the majority of the material from the band’s early days up to present. Greg is a natural musician with a great ear for melody, harmony, and rhythm and his throw away riffs would make most guitarist weep and either give up or go home and practice. The rhythm section consisting of Matt Oliver on drums and bass player Dominic Casciato, who as well as myself have a Classical background, and myself are all of the later constitution and as such have grown as musicians and can now pick up Greg’s ideas quickly, facilitating a faster song writing process. Most great musicians are perfectionists and plagued with self doubts, and I think one way I’ve helped our process is by reinforcing which iteration of a riff is the strongest and in which order makes the most impact. At the end of the day, Greg is also the singer and so he makes decisions on key and register. I should note Danava, Sons of Huns in the past and my solo compositions, utilize a slightly lower reference pitch than the present day standard. A=432 Hz as opposed to A=440Hz, the book The Cosmic Octave offers enlightenment on this seemingly small, but purposeful and incredibly significant alteration.
You mention solo compositions, is that something you’ve ben working on recently and anything we can expect to hear anytime soon? Yes, with a little luck it will be sooner rather than later! I’ve been tracking demo recordings at home going through and adding to my riff library and playing a lot of bass and drums lately to realise the song’s well enough so that as the things are falling into place here with increasing speed, I can have musicians with actual talent on those instruments take my compositions to the level or raw power I hear in my head. As long as we continue to hit it off as we have since meeting rather recently, and she doesn’t hate the demos… I have the low-end rumble and crushing power all lined up and drummers, well the good ones are usually playing in at least three bands but I have feelers out there and my hard drummin band mate in Danava, Matt Oliver, is required to play on at least one song whether or not he has realized it yet. Working title of this project is ” “, keep your eyes peeled and snag a copy and crank it when you see it available! The core makeup is the classic guitar, bass, drums Power Trio instrumentation but as I foresee it as a recording project, I won’t be putting as many limits on myself as far composition in terms of being able to play it live. I am enjoying implementing different timbres and more psychedelic sounds at times and adding multiple layers and harmonies swelling and building to an orchestral sound of numerous guitars.
You’ve been using Orange for quite some time now, what’s your current setup and history with the brand? I have! I long lusted for an Orange amp and finally picked up a Rockerverb 50 combo of my own in the summer of 2007. I had just graduated a proud alumnus of Willamette University with a Bachelor of Music degree in Classical Guitar Performance and moved up to Portland, Oregon to pursue music. I used the RV50 combo for several years and acquired an Orange PPC4X12 to add to my rig. This Orange 50 watt amplifier running 6X12 speakers paired with an SG was the backbone of my sound during the earlier days of Sons of Huns. I was elated and honored when I became an Orange Ambassador in the winter of 2013! I celebrated this achievement with the acquisition of an OR100 amplifier and another PPC4X12 cab, so I could run my thundering new amplifier head through a proper 8X12 stack of sonic & striking Orange beauty. Orange amplifiers are the foundation of my sound on stage and in the studio. I do use some low wattage secret weapon tube combo amps in the studio for overdubs and at home for lower volume but full tube saturation recording. That being said, I think those amps will be decommissioned if/when I snag one of your OR15 amplifier heads that I have had a keen eye on. I’ve never been a shoe-gazing pedal pusher, preferring to plug my guitar into a superior tube amplifier with beautiful and plentiful gain on tap, such as you fine folks at Orange craft. I use a few other pedals recording at home, the few that clock in the most hours being an MXR MicroAmp, boosting those little low wattage tube combos, an MXR Phase 90 for the swirls, and a JHS Pulp n’ Peel compressor. In Sons of Huns I used a CryBaby Wah-Wah into my OR-100 amplifier head and a stack of PPC4X12s and currently in Danava I play a few guitars, my trusty Ebony Gibson SG Standard, a 70s Guild S-100, and most recently a 1963 Gretsch Corvette that is absolutely sexiest guitar I’ve played to date, into an Ibanez TS808 Tube Screamer to push the front end of my OR-100 when I get to play the fancy bits!
I gotta ask, what’s the story behind the sweet photo of yourself and your stacks of Orange in the desert? This photo was taken by Tyler Cox of Light Science Productions in the desert of Show Low, Arizona while Sons of Huns was on a two week break in between touring around the States with our German brothers Kadavar, and then all over again with Doom legends Saint Vitus. It is not a staged shot, we brought out a generator and fired up our amps, and although we only had Tyler taking photos and video, our road-hand Nat, and the vast expanse of the Arizona desert as an audience, we played high volume versions of several songs, most notably the freshly composed “Powerless to the Succubus”. This track can be found on the A-side of the 7″ Kiss the Goat collaboration with local Portland Gigantic Brewery, which coincided with the bottling and distribution of their Kiss the Goat black dopplebock beer. I also have to say thanks to the Orange Amps Instagram feed for psychically knowing when to post this pic on a day when I needed a little reassurance the most.
So all you geetar-fiddlers out there that haven’t experienced the bliss of plugging into an Orange, grab one quick let ‘er rip!
Thank-you Ella for the interest and interview, and thank you Orange for allowing me to do my damnedest to make a contribution to keep Rock & Roll alive!
A few shout outs to the people helping out Sons of Huns along the way; I have to give a shout out to Devin Gallagher Founder of High Scores and Records who released the first Sons of Huns self-titled EP and Toby Tanabe for the stunning artwork, Kelly “Gator” Gately of Powerblaster Records for releasing the “Leaving Your Body” 7″ record and Adam Burke of Nightjar Illustration for his otherworldly album art and Matthew Thomas Ross for directing our one and only music video for the title track, Daniel Hall RidingEasy Records who released our first L/P on vinyl “Banishment Ritual” (again Adam Burke coming through with the fantastic gatefold album artwork) as well as the following album “While Sleeping Stay Awake”, Gigantic Brewing for the collaboration and release of the “Kiss the Goat” 7″ record and corresponding brewing & bottling of their knock-you-on-yer-ass dark beer, Pat Kearns for recording and mixing the majority of your discography at his Portland studio PermaPress (R.I.P.) as well as being a true friend and mentor -Love You Pat, Toshi Kasai for his skillful hand at the console in his studio Sound of Sirens in LA and for bringing the seed within me to fruit to ‘Double That Shit!’, the loving and caring STUMP sisters and DC himself for their hospitality and support, and I got say thank you and send my love to my man Wino for coming through and singing with me on the SOH track ‘An Evil Unseen’ from the “While Sleeping Stay Awake” L/P. I’d also like to give a hug and kiss and huge thanks to our dear families, friends, and fans that supported us through the years and came out to shows, bought records or t-shirts and those who continue to support our music & mercy via Bandcamp. What more can I say? Me and the boys have the Sons of Huns triangle tattooed upon our sickly human flesh.
https://orangeamps.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/Peter-Hughes-OR100-PPC412-CR3.jpg13331333Ella Stormarkhttps://orangeamps.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/Orange-Pics-logo-307px-279x103.pngElla Stormark2018-01-09 19:00:192018-12-18 13:13:28Interview: Danava & Sons of Huns’ Peter Hughes
Jose: What’s up everybody, my name is Jose Rios of the Free Nationals, Anderson Paak we out here, 24 Carat Gold tour with Bruno Mars and I’m here with Orange Amps.
My first memory of Orange Amps, I was digging through Youtube and I was watching a Stevie Wonder clip and I noticed him using one of your guys cabinets. I was like wait this guy is a keyboard player, found out it was guitar amp, did my research and looked at the Rockerverb 50 and that was the one I wanted.
My current rig is a 410 celestion cab with a Rockerverb 50 MKIII head. I usually keep the bass around 7 o’clock, treble around 5 and there is no mid on that one. Volume is usually around 4, I do clean, I always drive the clean channel. All my effects is on the pedalboard I use.
The Rockerverb helps a lot because its got a lot of power, I’m playing really big arenas and festivals, so I need the push, I need to get on top of everything. It helps me because we have our rock moments in the set and a lot of metal guys and it has a nice creamy tone when I dial it in right. It helps a lot man, I love it.
Its cool to be a part of the roster, Stevie was the seller for me. I’m into Soul music, Hip Hop, Funk, so that was the seller for me. I know there is a lot of Metal guys who use it, which is pretty cool, I love the aggression of the Metal people, the energy. Its cool to be a part of the roster.
https://orangeamps.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/Youtube-Thumbnails-Jose-Rios-no-logo.jpg17242584Orange Ampshttps://orangeamps.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/Orange-Pics-logo-307px-279x103.pngOrange Amps2017-11-03 14:31:472019-11-30 16:51:55Interview – Jose Rios of Anderson Paak and the Free Nationals and Orange Amps.
Kirk: Hey i’m Kirk Windstein from the band Crowbar out of New Orleans.
I started using the Crush 120’s, I ran into Alex at a show in Atlanta and we kind of reconnected again. Because when I left “Down” I had always used Randall solid state with Crowbar from the 80’s, Dimebag turned me on to them when Phil Anselmo joined Pantera in 87′, I used them ever since with Crowbar.
He was like: “good to see you again”
When I sent him the email saying i was leaving “Down” and I wasn’t going to be using Orange but thank you for everything and I still love the product.
So he is like: “I’ve got something you might dig”
I’m like: “What’s that?”
He goes: “We make a solid state amp now, how about I send you one?”
I said: “Sure”
So I’m like I can’t wait to get this thing to the rehearsal room, so I got it there and within two or three minutes I was like this is definitely what I’m looking for.
The thing is, up and till, when Dime turned me on to the Randall was right around the time we started to drop tuning, about 1988 Crowbar were tuning to B standard or drop A, way before the seven string came into popularity. I couldn’t get a good tone out of any tube amp but the Randall solid state got the bottom end was so much tighter and wasn’t so broken up, so I was sold on the solid state thing. When I tried the Orange Crush 120 I was blown away by how much even with our tuning it sounds like a tube amp, its got warmth that a normal solid state amp doesn’t have, it’s a better version of what I have been looking for.
I’m very old school, I don’t use an effects loop or anything, I actually just use of course a tuner. I use, I know they suck, everybody always asks me why I use it, I use a metal zone but I use it as a clean boost. So my level is on ten, my overdrive is on zero, so I’m getting no saturation from it, the EQ is at 12 o’clock. So the pedal, I’m not really using any EQ or gain, it just kind of gives it a little clean boost, it tightens it up. As far as my settings, i’m still working them out, I have my bass on eight, my treble on about four and a half and my mids on about four. It’s still a work in progress!
For me using the Orange 4X12’s its the wood, the Baltic birch, the rear mounted vintage Celestion 30’s which is pretty much the only speaker I like to use. It’s the same idea as the Marshall and Boogie and everything else, I just think it is a better made cabinet. Even our sound guy in States was saying when we were talking about the Orange cabinets:
“Man, I should have never fucking got rid of mine, it’s like the best sounding cabinet!”
To me it just is, when you pick the cabinet up, you can just tell, it’s just fucking heavy, not just sounding no pun intended! But its just a lot heavier duty, the handles are metal, everything isn’t plastic and trying to cut corners. Its just a very well made product and that shows in the tone you get out of it.
Hank : Hey what’s up everybody I’m Hank, from Lionize, I play the bass.
Nate: I’m Nate from Lionize, I play the guitar, and we are here at our Black Heart in Camden Town, London.
Hank: We are in our van, outside of that place.
Nate: We are in an alley in Camden.
Hank: We are in an alley in Camden, which is very homey!
Nate: It smells good.
Amp wise for me its two things and two things only. Its tone and reliability, if the amp sounds great but shits out every three gigs, its for the garbage pile.
Hank: And he is very good at that. Its very good at getting things, thinking they are going to be great and deciding they are awful.
Nate: One show even and soundcheck.
Hank: This my favourite amp ever and now i’m selling it!
Nate: But I have consistently had Orange as part of my rig since about 2011-2012.
My rig on this current tour, is the same rig as the home US tour, minus a speaker cabinet. Its an Orange OR50 going into a PPC112, thats AB’d with a 1976 Marshall JMP 212 Combo.
Hank: My rig on this run, I’m playing an Ampeg SVT Classic through the OB15 and OB410.
Nate: OBC!
Hank: OBC!
Nate: I always have an Orange cab in my rig, for specifically in guitar speaking for the low and mid. There is no low end resonance like an Orange 412, even the 112 is shockingly vibrant and resonant. They are quite heavy but I think once that wood connects with the floor, that’s how you get that sound. So gladly lug it up any set of stairs.
Hank: I go back to Orange simply because it adds an element of grit for me bass playing wise. Its add some dirt in a way that other cabs dont.
Nate: Different bands measure success on a spectrum, for some its money. Some its…
Hank: Lobster and hookers.
Nate: Lobster and hookers. But I think for a band like us because we are such fans of music and looking at the web site and seeing our name on same list as Stevie Wonder and Jimmy Page and Geddy Lee and Billy Gibbons. We are going to go along and say that’s a pretty nice notch on the old success…
Hank: Belt?
Nate: Belt!
Hank: Headboard?
Nate: Headboard! We measure success in headboard notches! Thats one of them! And Lobsters and Hookers!
https://orangeamps.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/Youtube-Thumbnails-Lionize-no-logo.jpg17242584Orange Ampshttps://orangeamps.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/Orange-Pics-logo-307px-279x103.pngOrange Amps2017-10-20 12:16:062019-11-30 16:51:55Interview – Hank and Nate from Lionize and Orange Amps.
Tim Sult: Tim Sult from Clutch here, i don’t remember the first time I saw an Orange amp but I definitely remember the first time I heard an Orange amp. That was when I saw Sleep play live, when we were recording our first album, that would have been in 1993.
When we were on tour, probably the year after that in 1994, I found an old Orange amp, in a music store in Colorado for $600, so I bought that. It was an old OR120, I was just using it for everything, I just used to turn it up as loud as it would go, that was all I did with it for a while, until I blew it up! Which happened many times!
We have different gear over here in Europe than we do in the U.S. but over here I have got a 40th anniversary OR50 up on stage, I love that thing. At home I found two, old Orange combos, two 70’s combos. I believe they are both OR120 overdrive combos and I have been playing those in the U.S. and those are phenomenal, it would be great if you could clone those old Oranges.
For me I like a clean tone, with just a little bit extra, I don’t really have much luck going with a really overdrivey tone. I usually think it sounds a bit better, more Clutch like if it is a little more clean. So thats what I like about the OR’s they have a big, clean sound, that you can add overdrive into.
For some reason the Orange cabs always seem like they have a little more life than any other cabs that I own, so that is definitely my favourite part about the Orange cabinets. They seem to have more top end and more bottom end, than any of the other cabinets I have.
I usually don’t use a huge amount of effects, I use a phaser, I have a Electro Harmonix Micro Pog, octave thing I always like to use, and I use a wah. I always run my effects through the front of the amp, I have never used any kind of effects loop. If you have a good sounding amp, thats 95% of the battle right there, I think my thing with Orange is to let the amp itself make the tone and not make the pedals themselves make the tone.
With the next album, we have been writing for a good long time, I am definitely going to be trying to work in as much Orange stuff as humanly possible!
https://orangeamps.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/Youtube-Thumbnails-Clutch-No-text.jpg17242584Orange Ampshttps://orangeamps.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/Orange-Pics-logo-307px-279x103.pngOrange Amps2017-10-13 12:40:342019-11-30 16:51:56Interview – Tim Sult of Clutch
First of all, can you tell us a bit about your band Jaws? I think we initially got together in 2012. I was writing demos and decided I wanted to form a band, as we were all at the same college it came together pretty easily, and here we are 5 years later!
You’ve got your dad managing the band, does music run in the family? Kind of, yeah. My Grandad was a drummer and that’s how I properly got into music. My parents would always play me good music when I was growing up, but it wasn’t until my granddad gave me a drum one day my interest properly peaked. What a great day that was!
You’re born and raised in the 90s, and your music has somewhat of a nostalgic feel to it, is that a decade that influenced you musically? I think so, yeah, subconsciously. That’s the music we all grew up listening to, and it’s always in the back of your head. That said, we never make an effort to sound like a nostalgic band, or anything or anyone else, not on purpose.
What’s your relationship and history with Orange Amps?
Something always pushed me towards Orange Amps – I guess it was the colour. Pretty much all amp companies only make black amps or ones with a tweed finish, it wasn’t until i went to Orange HQ that i realised how good the amps actually sounded as well, and that’s when I knew I needed one. I use a TH30 Head with a 2×12 Cab and play it stereo with a Roland JC40, and they compliment each other incredibly well, quite a nice rounded, warm sound with the perfect punch of high end that you need when you’re playing more picky riffs.
What do you look for in an amp and what’s your current set up?
A nice clean is all I’m after to be honest, nice and simple. All my effects come from my pedal board so along as the clean is great its all good!
How does your dream rig look like?
Basically what i have now but with about 60 cabs or so.
Any last words of wisdom? Stay in School, buy a guitar .
David Sullivan – Hi I’m David from the band Red Fang and I play guitar. The first time I saw an Orange amp that I can remember, was a band called “Das Damen” sometime in the 90’s and it was in a small club, and they were really loud, sounded amazing. I remember the guitar player reaching back to his amp, I think it was an OR series amp, an older one, and he turned a switch and then it became even more amazing sounding and I didn’t really know much about amps at the time. I mean I was playing amps at the time but it just sounded amazing and the Orange always stuck in my head, and I always remembered the symbols that you guys use for the controls. That was probably the first time in the 90’s, when I saw “Das Damen” and it blew my mind!
What do I look for in terms of an amp? Well I like a nice, you know I want everything to be articulate, so I want to hear everything, the low notes and the high notes all at the same time. I like some beef to it, some “oomph” to it, basically that, articulate but have that growl!
When I first played an Orange it was probably playing a friends Orange, just messing around. But the first Orange I got was the Tiny Terror, the 15 Watt, I love it. Actually on our album “Murder the Mountains” the recordings were done with some different amps but all the overdubs were done with the Tiny Terror. Now I have a Dual Terror, which I love, that’s my main amp I practice on at home. Now I have the CR120, which is the newest amp that I’m playing, I’m used to solid state amps, we have been using the Sunn Beta Leads for years and not that this is the same but it sounds awesome. I know a lot of people are like tubes over solid state, you’ve got to have tubes but I think solid state amps can sound amazing and this definitely sounds amazing.
It just so happened, that our bass player had three or four beta leads and we were all at practice one day and we all said lets see what it sounds like if we all play the same amp. So for Red Fang it’s always been solid state, the solid states are great for traveling as they are rugged, there are no tubes to break but I really like the sound of nice tubes but thats what I love about this, it sounds like a fuckin’ tube amp, it sounds great! I like all kinds of amps, I don’t have to have solid state, I’m not like no tubes at all but I know that a lot of people don’t realise that solid state can sound really good. I feel that there are people who think it can’t be as good as tube amp but it definitely can be.
I like the Orange because it has a nice, little mid bump, it’s just perfect and as I was saying I like it to be articulate, so I like a little extra mids. Well to be honest I don’t have much experience with different cabs, so when I got the Oranges, it was like “there it is”. They sound great, really nice and they are rugged. Oranges has been great to us, Orange is like legendary, especially in like our, I don’t want to put a label on us but in the stoner rock, doom. I consider us hard rock but its great to be representing Orange!
https://orangeamps.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/Red-Fang-No-Logo.jpg17242584Orange Ampshttps://orangeamps.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/Orange-Pics-logo-307px-279x103.pngOrange Amps2017-09-29 13:00:572019-11-30 16:51:56Interview – David Sullivan of Red Fang.
You released your latest album ‘Near to the Wild Heart of Life’ in January, a record I find – not necessarily more tidy, but more polished than a lot of your previous stuff.
I feel like when we started the band we wanted to be one kind of band and make one style of music, and that’s kind of what we did. We’d write a certain kind of song, record it a certain kind of way, play a certain kind of show, and we did that for several years, two records and about 500 shows. I think by the time we finished that we were both older and had been doing it for a while, and we’d discovered new music and kind of just began to be interested in doing things a bit differently. We were looking for a way to keep the band going, but also to keep ourselves very excited and interested in it. It’s easy, when you find success with a certain sound or certain kind of song to continue to do that indefinitely. Most people are glad The Ramones or AC/DC never drastically changed their songs or style of playing, as they’re both bands that do what they do incredibly well, that you don’t want them to stray from that, then there’s other bands that are equally as great, where part of their greatness comes from them deciding to switch things up and explore sonic territory with different kinds of songs, and those bands wouldn’t be as great if they didn’t do that. David Bowie wouldn’t be who he was, if he continued making the same record for 40 years. There’s that adventurous and rebellious nature in making music that can lead to spectacular failures, but also spectacular success, and I think we kind of looked at ourselves and the band and decided that for the third record, we could be going into either of those directions, but we had been in the game long enough to feel comfortable taking that risk.
Things that never used to interest us we began to find very interesting, changing the way we write songs, how we record them – just experiment more. Try to break out of our comfort zones. It’s our third record but in many ways it feels like our first record all over again, because we kind of just decided to ignore our past and do whatever we thought felt good, sounded good and what we were interested in, and in that process there was a lot of learnings both good and bad, but I think that’s what kept it interesting for us. Now that we’ve got that one record where we’ve started drifting away from what we were doing before, now it’s ok to explore some more. We play in a two piece band, and when a lot of people think of two piece bands, I think they typically think of minimalism, that the songs and recording will be done in a very minimal manner, and I think we’ve always had that opposite attitude where we’ve always wanted to see how big we could make everything sound, even if it was just the two of us, and I think that’s where we’re at now, with how we record those songs now. We did the minimal and lo-fi thing for a while and it was great, but for us there was no more adventure left in that. We know how to do that, and there’s no risk.
“There’s that adventurous and rebellious nature in making music that can lead to spectacular failures, but also spectacular success, and I think we kind of looked at ourselves and the band and decided that for the third record, we could be going into either of those directions, but we had been in the game long enough to feel comfortable taking that risk.” Brian King, Japandroids
With this album we knew that it would alienate some people who were really into the old records, but at the same time, most great artists alienate people along the way. That’s just what makes their careers as a whole so great, that they’re bold and adventurous artists, and that’s the sort of the company we want to be in. I think my point is, that we don’t want to be that sort of band where you can reduce our sound to one simple song or record. As I mentioned before with David Bowie, not that I’m comparing us to him in any way, but with him – you cant just play someone a song and say ‘this is David Bowie’, you have to play them at least twenty songs as he covered a lot of ground.
You mention exploring new musical territory – I know you recently played a show with At the Drive In, a band which sound is pretty different from yours, is that one of those newly found sounds or someone you’ve been listening to for a while?
At The Drive In is a band Dave and I was really into ages ago when they first were around, so to get to play with them was really cool as they were a band we’ve always looked up to and idolized. Even though our music is very different from theirs, we share a similar ideology behind the music and how we play it. Both bands go out on stage and try to perform as intensely as possible. Dave and I always go on stage and try to give everything we have to give, and those guys do the same thing, the difference is that there’s five of them, and when you have five guys giving their all to their instrument, and giving it as tight as those guys do, it’s pretty fucking spectacular. There’s some sort of release that goes on when they play, they physically let go and give their entire body to perform that song and that set, and that’s what we have in common with them.
Photo by Joao Machado via Fluffer Pit Parties
With you guys only being a two piece, there is a lot of pressure on you as a guitarist – what do you look for when selecting your amps, and what do you take into consideration?
When we first started playing together we had drums, one guitar and one amp and double microphones, very minimalistic, but that’s sort of all you really need. The White Stripes proved that you can be very minimal but still write great songs and put on a great show, and become one of the biggest bands i the world in their time, and that’s how we started. As I mentioned earlier though with us changing up our sound and what we do, we decided that instead of embracing that minimalism, we wanted to sound bigger than we really were capable of sounding. First, we added a second amp, and then a bass amp. After that, a third amp. What you start doing is creating this Frankenstein monster of amplifiers, and the idea is that each one is creating a different sound that on it’s own, necessarily isn’t anything special, but as a whole becomes something really big, really massive. Another thing we take into consideration is if the amps can actually survive to be an tour with us, as we treat our gear pretty rough. We’ve been using Orange cabs for quite some time now and they sure can take a beating.
In a few hours, you’re about to play one of the Fluffer Pit Parties, as show that’s set up completely different than a normal gig, with the stage and band in the middle of the room and the crowd 360, how is your approach to that? 99,99999% of the shows we play this year, we’ll be facing the crowd, so the fact that we have to re-think the way we set up, and the way we perform means that it wont be a typical show. There will be people here who’ve never seen us before and might not ever get the chance to do so ever again, so we’ll be trying to bring our ‘normal’ and proper Japandroids experience, then there’s people who might see us every time we’re in town, so we also want to give them a different experience than what they’ve seen from us in the past. We’re gonna set the amps up on the floor and have the stage pretty clear, which is very untypical for us as it’s normally pretty tight and we’re a bit boxed in, so I guess there will be a lot more room for me to spin around and play. Just given the set up and the fact that we’ve never actually played this way, I cant say how it’s going to go. I think it will very much be one of those ‘in the moment’ situations where you just get up there and get on with it and see where the vibe takes you and lay the land as you go along.
https://orangeamps.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/Japandroids-14-theone.jpg20033000Ella Stormarkhttps://orangeamps.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/Orange-Pics-logo-307px-279x103.pngElla Stormark2017-09-26 14:00:502018-12-18 13:19:11Interview: Japandroids’ Brian King
Tim Commerford: Yo, my name is Timmy C, and I play bass for the ‘Prophets of Rage’ and I did some bass playing for a band called ‘Audioslave’ and I’m the bass player of ‘Rage Against the Machine’, and I’m here to talk about some bass with these kids from Orange amps.
I think I was more influenced by the feeling of bands like the ‘Sex Pistols’ earlier on but then I gravitated to more intricate, progressive rock and became a Geddy Lee fanatic. He actually was playing this amp that I am standing on and I was searching for a certain tone. It sort of came from him, the sound he has is similar to what I was looking for.
I have an Ampeg head, Barefaced 8×10 cabinet and then I have another Ampeg SVT pro with a gain control through a 4×10 Barefaced cabinet and then the Orange head. This head is an incredible head for just going to that next level of overdrive. When I want to push it into a higher end, not going crazy but more into the white noise and the higher distortion; This head is a beautiful amp for that. I have different amps for different tones and there is all different tones, and there is all different ways that you can make the bass sound even better.
I’m a finger player and I feel like it is a sport and that’s the way it is supposed to be played. I’m on that field with those guys who play with their fingers and realize it’s just like a little miniature body on the end of your arm. It’s a deeper, for me, a deeper science, a deeper low end, a different feel.
Because I still enjoy going on the internet and going “Hey, bass lessons” or “advanced bass lessons”, these videos come up and there are great players out there and they aren’t in these huge bands but they are showing you how to do cool stuff. That’s something I didn’t have when I was growing up as a kid, now any song you want to play is on the internet. So it’s actually a good time to learn how to play an instrument and do it the right way. My advice is to put away the computer for everything expect for bass lessons, its killer for that!
https://orangeamps.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/Tim-Prophets-of-Rage-No-Logo.jpg17242584Orange Ampshttps://orangeamps.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/Orange-Pics-logo-307px-279x103.pngOrange Amps2017-09-15 14:14:362019-11-30 16:51:56Interview – Tim Commerford of Prophets of Rage.
