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Orange Spotlight: Lowen

Who are Lowen?

Nina: Lowen is Nina Saeidi on vocals, santoor, daf and shruti box, Shem Lucas on guitars and bass and Cal Constantine on Drums. When we play shows we also are joined by a live bassist.

Our music is written to convey the sense of isolation and liminality that forms my experience of being born in exile from Iran. The rich mythology of the region, its history and stories are combined with the high metaphor of science fiction to create a sense of connection and shared narrative to include anyone who has ever felt like they don’t belong.

The word “Lowen” comes from the root “lion”, which is a shared symbol in the east and west. It represents power, chaos and a meeting of two cultures within our band and music.

Shem: Nina and I met at the front row of an Akercocke show in our home town of London and Nina expressed interest in forming a metal band that drew on Middle Eastern rhythms and musicality. Originally Nina wanted to be the bass player in the band and had no experience as a vocalist. I wrote a demo, which would later become the song Krenko’s Command from our first album, and sent it to her. When she sent it back with some vocal ideas recorded over the top it became very evident that she should be the singer for the band, and quite quickly the focal point of the band shifted to being based on Nina’s experiences, culture, ideas and knowledge.

I think a lot of great bands have fallen by the wayside due to bickering and different people vying to be the centre of attention. I really enjoy playing a supporting role within the band and helping Nina realise her vision. The joy I derive from being part of a collective is far greater than any I would get on a personal level, I don’t really like attention that much.

Me and Nina have always been the core of the band. I actually used to see myself more as a bass player than a guitarist, so I tend to write all the guitar and bass parts in the band in conjunction with Nina and then we have a live bass player, and Cal Constantine on drums. Cal’s incredible drumming really helped to elevate the different eastern rhythms in the band and that’s something that really helps us stand out.

What inspires Lowen?

Nina: My inspiration comes from my experiences as someone who never felt a sense of belonging or acceptance for most of my life. I found refuge in art, history and literature from a young age and have found that somewhere between the flight of imagination and the crushing weight of ancient history there is occasionally a fleeting sense of home. From an early age I hungrily read any fantasy or science fiction I could get my hands on and have constantly consumed literature of all types since. William Blake, Mervyn Peake, Ursula K. Le Guin, Tamora Pierce, Victor Hugo and Robert Jordan are among many authors who have directly inspired my lyrical style and content as well as the curation of our merch and album art. Artists like Francis Bacon, John Martin, Blake and Albrecht Dürer, led me to appreciate the incredible oeuvre of Hervé Scott Flament, who’s work we are very grateful to have on the covers of all our releases.

Musically I draw inspiration from many genres, from 70s prog like Atomic Rooster, Wishbone Ash and Rare Bird to death metal bands like Death, Bolt Thrower and Akercocke. Iranian artists such as Fereydoon Foroughi, Googoosh and the Shajarians are core influences that must be mentioned when answering this question.

The poetry and history of ancient Mesopotamia and Iran deeply informs the music and lyrics of Lowen. I have spent years studying various transliterations and treatises on cuneiform tablets to form a basic but enthusiastic understanding of the stunning literary history of the region. There is something powerful and meaningful about connecting with ancient voices and stories that are stored in languages no longer spoken and barely understood.

Our new album “Do Not Go To War With The Demons Of Mazandaran” is directly influenced by an eponymous chapter of the Shahnameh, also known as the Persian Book of Kings. It contains a collected mythology, history and folk narrative of Iran in the form of an epic poem consisting of more than 50,000 couplets. The story of this chapter concerns the folly of King Kay Kavus and his ill fated expedition to conquer the wild and enchanted region of Mazandaran.

Shem: We all have an eclectic taste in music and Nina is inspired by a variety of Iranian folk artists, ancient history, inscriptions from ruins, mythical beasts, science fiction, aliens and more. The Shahnameh, also known as the Persian Book of Kings is the main inspiration of our new album “Do Not Go To War With The Demons Of Mazandaran.”

I myself am inspired by a lot of mostly Doom and Death Metal such as: Disembowelment, Lykathea Aflame, Pestilence, Death, Bolt Thrower, Akercocke, Artificial Brain, Depeche Mode, Admiral Angry, Immolation, Asphyx, Rush, Morbid Angel, Afterbirth, Confessor, Creepmime, Tears for Fears, Dying Fetus, Immortal Bird, Cathedral, Solitude Aeternus and many more, I’m also quite into fusion music and really inspired particularly by Chick Correa and Return to Forever, and I’m a huge fan of Allan Holdsworth as well.

Musically, we fuse a Middle-eastern inspired approach to Maqam and Iranian folk music to western death and doom metal instrumentation, but also bring in more interesting influences alongside that, especially when it comes to mixed meter rhythms and a variety of time signatures that stray from being in standard 4/4. We incorporate a lot of traditional middle eastern rhythms, as well as some North African ones.

The first album was a lot simpler musically, and more traditionally doom metal, the long gap between albums has allowed us to really study different forms and incorporate them into our sound.

What Orange gear is important to Lowen?

Shem: For our first album “A Crypt In the Stars”, all the guitar is recorded with a Pignose Detonator boost pedal going into a cranked Orange CR120 head dirty channel. I tried all kinds of different combinations in the run up to recording and that combo really stood out to me.

The new album features a wide variety of amps including the CR120. When playing live I use an amp modeller to access all these different tones. I tried a variety of power amps that I didn’t get on with to power my cabinet onstage until I saw a post online where someone had seen Conjurer support Carcass using an Orange Pedal Baby. This was my first encounter with them, and after doing a bit of research I realised that the Pedal Baby would be a perfect fit for me.

Sometimes a situation will arise where you have to use house cabinets and you don’t know what their ohm resistance will be until the day. The fact that the wattage of the Pedal Baby only drops to 75 watts in a 16 ohm cab instead of 25 is a big draw for me. In different styles of music it wouldn’t be a big deal but if you’re trying to create oppressively thick atmospheres having extra volume on tap is crucial.

I also love that it doesn’t sound sterile, it adds its own little something extra to the sound and it also really helps me make use of controlled feedback as part of our sound, that’s something I wasn’t able to do with any other similar device. I like the flexibility of modelling software, but this way I also get to have the best of both worlds. I’m a huge fan of the Pedal Baby and I swear by it and really appreciate the design philosophy Orange used when making it with a travelling musician’s needs in mind.

Future Orange amps?

Shem: I think for the next album I’d like to experiment more with edge of breakup tones as that’s not something we’ve really done yet, and I like the idea of giving Nina new textures to explore and work with. I’d like to get an Orange 2×10 as I’m using a 4×12 at the moment and now that we’re playing larger venues we’re starting to have to incorporate more complex backline and I think I’d be happy to switch to a smaller stage cab and let the PA do more of the work. The newer material is more technical and less reliant on bludgeoning walls of sound, though there’s still plenty of that in there.

We also would like to get one of the Orange Isobaric Bass cabs for onstage as we’ve tried one before and it sounded fantastic.

What does Orange mean to you?

Shem: I can’t remember the first time I saw an Orange amp, but I’ve always been drawn to them and have really enjoyed a lot of music made with them and by artists that play through them, I love their unique look, my first practice amp was an Orange 35 crush and I still have it, I played my first gigs with it and have fond memories of opening it and playing it for the first time.

What’s the most memorable Lowen moment?

Shem: As I type this we’re still on the road with Green Lung for our first UK/Ireland Tour and it has been an incredible experience, they have shown us tremendous kindness and we have learned a lot from all of them, We’re very grateful for the opportunity and have been absolutely blown away by the response from the audiences across the tour. Sharing a tour bus with them has been wild and a lot of fun! We’ve made a lot of memories and I really hope that we can do for another band one day what Green Lung have done for us. A rising tide raises all ships and musicians and bands have to support each other and help pull each other up, as we all benefit from each other’s success.

Nina: The Green Lung tour has been by far one of the most memorable moments for us as a band. We were so lucky to have this experience be our first tour and to do be able to do it with the incredibly kind and supportive people that are Green Lung and their team. The crowds and friends that we shared the many highs of the tour with will always be part of my most treasured memories.

What’s on the horizon for Lowen?

Shem: Our new album “Do Not Go To War With The Demons Of Mazandaran” will usher in a new era for us. We have a whole bunch of great shows and festivals booked currently and some things coming further down the line that we can’t talk about yet. Musically I am going to keep studying and trying to improve myself both as a person and as a guitar player and composer. Nina has a lot of excellent ideas when we’re writing songs together and our musical language has become more advanced over time and I look forward to seeing where we can take that and what the reception to the album will be like.

Nina: We will continue to make art and hone our craft as musicians. We have many plans within plans and hope that they come to fruition.

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Live pictures by Lee Lewis

Main picture by Aija Miranda

by Joe Gray

Articles, Spotlight

Orange Spotlight: Troy The Band

Who are Troy The Band?

We are a London-based four-piece, composed of Sean Durbin on bass, Sean Burn on guitar, Craig Newman on vocals, and Jack Revans on drums. We are best described as a mix between stoner-doom, shoegaze and post rock.

We formed in 2021, after Sean Durbin put an ad out seeking members to form the band. Our original drummer, Dan England, who recorded drums on the EP and our album, stepped down after recording the album. After that we were lucky enough to have our friend Jack, who had already been sitting in on our live shows quite a lot, join on a permanent basis.

We also had a few other guitarists that we jammed with before Sean Burn joined. Sean and Sean actually knew one another from New Zealand, and it was a chance meeting on the street in London at a time when the band was in need of a new guitarist that led to them joining. When you think about it, it was a pretty serendipitous set of circumstances that led to them joining, which in turn had a vital impact on the trajectory of our sound that just wouldn’t have happened with the other guitarists we had initially been playing with.

What inspires Troy The Band?

We’re inspired by a lot of different genres and bands; both consciously and unconsciously. Obviously we fit broadly within the stoner-doom genre so there are bands that will influence us from that end of the spectrum, but all of us tend to enjoy a broad array of musical styles which will inevitably make an impact on the way we approach a specific piece of music. To name a few bands whose names often come up for us: High on Fire, Khruangbin, Operator Generator, Acid King, All Them Witches, Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs, Rush, Melvins, Big Business, Jesus and the Mary Chain, Joy Division, Black Midi, Smashing Pumpkins, Bossk, Godspeed You! Black Emperor, The Horrors, Deerhunter, Women, My Bloody Valentine, and Unknown Mortal Orchestra among others.

We aim to make music that first and foremost we enjoy and find interesting, and then try and bring others along for the ride.

What Orange gear is important to Troy The Band?

Sean Durbin uses an Orange Terror Bass and also splits his signal into a guitar amp, which is currently an Orange Tiny Terror valve amp. Both work well for our sound, and they are also pretty portable and indestructible. Plus they look cool sitting on top of the stacks next to each other.

This dual setup has evolved over time. Initially, Sean started splitting the signal through a bass and guitar amp because when the band first started we didn’t have a regular guitar player and splitting the signal helped fill out the sound in the rehearsal room more.

When Sean Burn joined, rather than just mirroring the bass, they brought more atmospheric and complementary style of playing to the existing riffs, so we made a conscious choice to keep the bi-amped bass setup, where the bass is doing the work of a bassist and rhythm guitarist that holds down the main riffs of the songs, while Sean B adds harmonic layering over the the top of those riffs.

This might be somewhat surprising, especially within a genre that extols the virtue of monstrous amps, but Sean Burn uses an Orange Terror Stamp which is mounted at the end of the signal chain on a very elaborate pedalboard setup.

They purchased Terror Stamp initially due its affordability, but it has been an incredibly reliable and great sounding piece of equipment. When we went to record our album, even with a wall of mega-powerful tube amps at our disposal, Sean opted to record with the Terror Stamp since it sounded great and all their pedals were already calibrated to it.

It does have its limitations in some live situations, trying to compete with the other Sean’s Terror Bass and Tiny Terror, but these are easily overcome. We either just mic it up, or use it like a preamp and slave the power section of whatever house backline head is available to achieve the necessary volume. But the tone all comes from the terror stamp and accompanying pedals.

Future Orange amps?

One of the problems with Orange Amps is that they are so bombproof and consistent that there isn’t much need for constant GASing. However, the Orange fur coat fuzz with octave up is likely to replace the current octave-up/distortion configuration on the guitar side of Sean Durbin’s bass signal, and replacing the Tiny Terror with a Pedal Baby might be on the horizon too.

For Sean Burn, The Orange Pedal Baby or something similar will also likely make its way into their set up to provide the volume we need for our shows.

As much as we’d love to have a wall of big beautiful all-tube heads behind us, it is not always practical for a band that often travels via public transport, so it’s nice to be able to capture the Orange tone that we love in more accommodating packages.

What does Orange mean to you?

For us, Orange Amps are kind of synonymous with the heavy music we play. They mean great tone and reliability.

Orange is also a big supporter of the underground music scene in London, providing the backline for a lot of venues and festivals that we’ve been a part of which is great. And we always see Ade and Joe at shows, not as representatives of Orange per se but as fans of the music, which is always nice to see.

What’s the most memorable Troy The Band moment?

We’ve had a few memorable moments, but perhaps the most memorable was an all-day show we put on to launch a beer we brewed with Old Street Brewery in East London called Troy The Beer. It was an outdoor mini-festival with six bands playing throughout the day, that we held in August. The weather had been great leading up to it, but it’s London so you never really know.

The morning of the event, the sky was blue and the weather report looked good. There was meant to be some light drizzle in the afternoon, but nothing major so we made the call to keep the event outside and set up some tents for the bands to play under just in case there was a bit of rain.

It turned out the weather report wasn’t entirely accurate and we were hit with one of the most intense thunderstorms we had ever experienced. What was particularly surreal was that the thunder storm arrived while one of the bands, Purple Kong, were playing their song “Blood Lightning” which has the repeated refrain “Blood, Lighting, Earthquake and Thunder….” So it was pretty fitting. All that was really missing in that moment were earthquakes and blood, and thankfully it stayed that way. Fortunately the rain ended up dissipating completely for the rest of the bands but for a minute there we were worried we were about to be responsible for organising Fyre Fest Part 2.

What’s on the horizon for Troy The Band?

A lot!

Bonebag Records are putting out our debut full-length album Cataclysm on February 2nd. We are kicking off a tour supporting it on the 9th of February.

We’re also working hard on getting our second album ready and will head back into the studio this summer to record that, among a few one-off dates that we have in the calendar this year.

So there is lot’s to look forward to.

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by Joe Gray

Articles, Interviews

Our interview with Brant Bjork at Black Deer Festival

Brant Bjork is a legend of the stoner rock scene of the 90’s, he was the drummer in Kyuss, he played in Fu Manchu and he has released a string of solo albums to name just a few achievements. He came into the Orange cabin at Black Deer Festival to talk inspiration and the Pedal Baby 100 which he had just started using.

What inspired you to start playing music?

I grew up in the Desert in southern California, in a very small boring town, my folks would play stuff like Little Richard, Bo Diddley in the house, Ray Charles. Then the kids in neighbourhood were listening to Kiss and Queen but it wasn’t until I discovered The Ramones that I thought I might be able to participate and play music. I bought Ramones records and I pieced a drum set together and I taught myself to play to Ramones records and when I was done I picked up a guitar and taught myself how to play Ramones records. Then I never stopped.

How did the desert scene come about?

I think we epitomised the DIY movement in the earlier 80’s we took that to heart, cuz’ there was nothing and we were super bored, frustrated and some of us were super creative and we just went to work. Part of it was entertainment but I think it was needing to do something, the energy, skateboarding and punk rock were synonyms back then and we just created a scene. I mean we didn’t know it would become this, that is just an ironic twist that we so motivated to do something for ourselves because we realised no-one or nothing was going to happen for us.

Do you prefer playing solo or in a band?

I currently have a band that I have been playing with for years and we are very much a band, even though it’s under my name. I recorded my first solo record in 1999 called ‘Jalamanta’ and I did everything myself but that was mostly because of the urgency and financial reality of that moment. I didn’t have the time or the means to put a band together and being a guitar player and other things, I just did it myself. I am mostly more excited to play with my band as music is about interacting and communicating with other musicians.

Tell us about your latest record ‘Jacoozzi’?

Well ‘Jacoozzi’ is a record I recorded back in 2010 and then I shelved it for many years, then it just happened that Gabrielle who owns and operates Heavy Sycs Sounds records out of Rome, we decided to work together and it’s a perfect platform for what I do and the catalogue that I have. These things didn’t really exist when I first started in 99′ and even in 2010, they’re wasn’t the platform and infrastructure, so I feel really lucky that I have been around long enough to be able to inject my past into the present.

How did you start using the Orange Pedal Baby 100?

I have been touring for quite some time and I have gone through a number of amplifiers and being in the rock world, I think I speak for most rock musicians, we want that classic rock sound. It’s not easy to obtain and when you do have it, it’s not that easy to maintain and lug around. I have to credit my guitar player Bubba Dupree who is way more of a technical wizard than I am, I just follow his lead! He discovered the Orange Pedal Baby and he was like ‘I think i have found it!’ We now carry the sound on our backs and we now go where we need to and do what we need to do, the way we need to do it and it’s pretty much because of that thing.

How does it work in with your set up?

We have spent many years located the pedals that will get us exactly what we want and it’s deep! We obsess and we are fascinated by these classic tones that will never really be gotten but we have fun trying to get as close to it as we can in the modern context. I mean Hendrix was playing out of three stacks but he was also playing in front of 5000 people, we are all not lucky enough to be doing that every night but we want that sound, we don’t want that sound to die with an era. There is elements of purity that you want to use the same stuff but in the end, it’s the sound you want and I will rub to sticks together if it gets that sound that I want. This here it works perfectly with our pedals and allows us to be mobile and it’s a really awesome, malleable, it wants to help you!

by Ella Stormark

Articles, Technical

How would you use the Pedal Baby 100?

So the dust has settled from last weeks announcements from Orange and we hope you were equally surprised and excited by what we have been busy working on for the past two years. A lot of time and effort goes into researching and developing products we believe you as our fans are going to love. One of these products is the Pedal Baby 100 and i’m sure there are plenty of questions about this compact amplifier. It’s a slight departure we feel from what Orange is primarily known for, so we thought it would help to show how the Pedal Baby can be used.

Why was the Pedal Baby created?

The Pedal Baby was designed to give guitar players the feel of an analogue amplifier incorporated into their small, touring rig. Orange is one of the most recognisable amplifier companies in the guitar amp market and we have spent most of our 50+ years building high watt, heavy amplifiers. We understand though that some guitar players just want to arrive with a pedal board to the gig, or use their favourite profiles on their digital modeller. So the Pedal Baby was created to allow players to bring a compact, lightweight source of neutral, clean power. Meaning whatever you use it with, you can rely on it to bring your rig to life.

So hopefully that has give you a window into why we designed the Pedal Baby but now it’s probably best to give you some more information on the Pedal Baby, so here is a quick run down of the features.

What is the Pedal Baby 100?

The Pedal Baby is a 100 watt Class A/B neutral power amplifier, it is built for the road, fly dates and anything the modern musician can throw at it. Its lightweight, small and able to push out up to 100 Watts into 8 Ohms! The front panel has EQ controls, so you can fine tune your treble and bass setting quickly and easily.

So now you have a quick overview, here are a few ways you can use this new piece of kit:

If you are the type of player who spends days building the “perfect” pedal board and can’t wait to take your “work of art” out into the gigging scene, then the Pedal Baby could be perfect for you. You’ve got your perfect pedal setup but your stage sound is still missing something? Well the Pedal Baby can give a transparent power source and lift all your pedals sound, you don’t have to rely on the venues amplifier, which lets face it, is always in need of TLC.

We know there are plenty of players who don’t want to play big heavy valve amps and want all their effects and amps in a rack mountable solution. The Pedal Baby can be used with your Kemper, Positive Grid Bias Rack, Fractal or any other modellers to power your rigs. All your patches and profiles you have spent weeks preparing and fine tuning will sound the best they possibly can with the Pedal Baby powering them.

Picture the scene, you grab your profiler rig and rush to the venue only to find the cabinet you were not expecting. Its got too much bottom end and makes your profiler sound rubbish. This wouldn’t happen with Pedal Baby, too much bottom end no issue! Use the front panel EQ to dial the bass frequencies back and when it sounds good, you are set. The Pedal Baby’s EQ settings are dialed in for guitars, so are the perfect controls to use with your guitar effects.

Any more questions?

So there is a quick overview of the Pedal Baby 100 and some of its applications. We shall leave you with the product video which sees John “Denzil” Dines going through the features and we hope you get to check out our new amplifier.

53 Comments/by Orange Amps

Orange Spotlight: Lowen

Orange Spotlight: Lowen

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Orange Spotlight: Troy The Band

Orange Spotlight: Troy The Band

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Our interview with Brant Bjork at Black Deer Festival

What inspired you to start playing music?

How did the desert scene come about?

Do you prefer playing solo or in a band?

Tell us about your latest record ‘Jacoozzi’?

How did you start using the Orange Pedal Baby 100?

How does it work in with your set up?

How would you use the Pedal Baby 100?

Why was the Pedal Baby created?

What is the Pedal Baby 100?

Any more questions?

Brant Bjork

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