ORGY 
Exclusive Interview 
"We're a rock band with a singer, not a studio project." 

Orgy 
Candyass is "...A bunch of lies and fairy tales." 
HEAVENS, NO! 
A Candid interview with lead vocalist Jay Gordon 

Orgy lead, Jay Gordon describes his band's breakthrough album. Candyass 
as "a bunch of lies and fairy tales", while their producer and sixth 
member, Josh Abraham describes the debut masterpiece as 
"five-in-the-morning, pissed-off, fighting-with-each-other, 
kill-each-other kinda stuff". But however you describe it, history will 
label this album as the break of a lifetime for this death-pop quintet. 
Their first single, "Blue Monday" has become a alternative-radio and MTV 
staple and their album has found a welcome home in the collections of 
weary rock fans nationwide. 
Candyass rings in your system like a rainy Sunday morning when you don't 
exactly remember where you were the night before. It's a little gruff; 
but overall there's a certain mellow mentality which relaxes you; numbs 
you, but you don't mind. This emotional immediacy stems from the way the 
band was formed according to Gordon. "Ryan [Shuck, Orgy's guitarist] and 
I conceptualized Orgy only about six months before we were signed. We 
started writing songs together as soon as we hooked up. It started off 
in a garage with Josh our co-producer. We just started throwing some 
rough shit together, and the next thing you know we're recording an 
album and making plans to tour with Korn!" This punctuated rout to 
success has allowed the band to feed off the initial energy and spark of 
their creation. They haven't had to mutate their sound to suit record 
label heads, or water down their appeal for a wider audience. However, 
many young bands feel the need to compromise their artistic instincts in 
turn for fiscal security on their first albums. 
Orgy is compromised of five southern california musicians who spent 
their time in various bands until they came together on a chance rocket 
ship to the top. 
Orgy was introduced to the public with one hell of a business card. The 
band toured with established superacts like Korn, Limp Bizkit, Ice Cube, 
Rammstein and more on the "Family Values" tour last year. 
The tour, the record contract, the wild ride is all in part due to the 
band's close bond with Korn. Being the first band Korn signed on their 
new Elementree Records label wasn't just dumb luck for Orgy, but due to 
the fact that Jay Gordon had a working relationship with Korn frontman, 
Jon Davis long before anybody heard of the Bakersfield quinte (or even 
before they had a record contract of their own.) The two shared the same 
management company and used to hang out and play in the same clubs. So 
once Korn found their own label where they made all the decisions, 
naturally Orgy was their first choice. The five guys from Orgy, Jay 
Gordon (vox), Amir Derakh (g-synth), Ryan Shuck (guitar), Paige Haley 
(bass), Bobby Hewitt (drums), certainly agree that it's a privilege to 
be signed with a label that is run by musicians and not by a bunch of 
bourgeois, money-seeking, record company suits. 
"But you know the best thing, the very best thing about it all is that 
we have a great label, it's fantastic to be part of a label that is run 
by real people, guys like us, and not some guys in suits." 
Whoever would think that these electro-glam-punks were always fascinated 
by the groove and possibilities of electronic sound is dead wrong. As 
Jay Gordon confesses, his first step into music was influenced by 
decidedly non-groovy and vehemently glamorless Heavy Metal. This was the 
case since it was the first concert he ever saw at the impressionable 
age of twelve. 
"I was 12-years-old and saw Iron Maiden and the Scorpions in concert. 
Somebody must have given me some crazy drug and I loved it. I was so 
impressed, the show, the music, everything. I was completely into it!" 
Small wonder that the rebellious allure of music didn't do wonders for 
his achievements in school once Jay discovered this new passion. He 
completely lost interested in everything that concerned books, pencils, 
and school so to focus completely into his music. 
"I was a rather good pupil until high school, but when I decided to 
concentrate on music, to play more music, the teachers started to bore 
me to death. Somehow I managed to finish high school, but I still don't 
know how I did that, don't ask me how. I realized that I'd need a job, 
so I [studied to become] a sound engineer and I guess that's the 
direction in which I want to go: production and movies. But not now, 
sometime later in my life, not straight away, for the moment, Orgy is 
pretty important." 
Gordon, originally from San Francisco, not exactly a home town 
synonymous with Electronic Rock confesses with a grin and explains that 
he used to meddle in quite a lot of different scenes. 
"For a while I kind of flipped through different scenes, you know. For a 
while I was enthralled by trash bands like Exodus, Megadeth, Metallica 
and Death Angel, but I was always open for almost every style there was. 
I went to glam shows and was inspired by Bowie, Slayer, everything. 
Music and science fiction always fascinated me. When I moved to LA, I 
started to play in hard-core bands and met people like Korn. You could 
say I assimilated a lot of different styles." 
It's pretty amazing that the frontman of Orgy, who's makeup rivals even 
Marilyn Manson's admits, growing up he had a second passion with his 
love of music. 
"I saw only two possibilities for me, one was music and the other one 
was sports, and here I am now, a singer in a crazy band!" He laughs. 
Obviously music replaced sports, and like a lot of bands all over the 
globe, Orgy discovered the digital side of music composition. However, 
American electronica has a very different style from their European 
counterparts. European electronic style are usually a duo work in a 
studio. America has a strong ingrained guitar and band-oriented history, 
which transferrers to the unique sound of American digital tunes. Orgy 
take pride in being a real band who performs together and collaborates. 
"I think the general public is ready for new dimensions in music, 
especially the people in America. If you look at The Prodigy for 
example, they're such a huge success, it simply proves the fact that the 
audience is hungry for new ideas. 
But I'm used to be in a real band, being a member of a band and now just 
being locked away in a studio. If you're in a real band there's so much 
more gonig on, especially on stage. Far more visual effects and all 
that." 
Another reason why he thinks it's so important to be in a band is, that 
Orgy loves playing live. 
"We know how to use a computer, but it's important to produce that sound 
live on stage. We're listening to tons and tons of stud, like albums, 
new album, old albums, and then we find a sound, or just a fragment of a 
sound we like and we sample it, change it around and come up with a new 
sound. Our drummer Steve has a brand new system, he can play it live... 
We don't want a computer on stage, we're a rock band with a singer, not 
a studio project. Okay, we often face some technical difficulties, but 
so what? We've managed to overcome them so far and we'll continue to do 
so." 
Jay starts explaining what was the original idea behind Orgy and why the 
glam punks embraced the electronic sound with such a ferocity: 
"We wanted to do something else, something completely different. Our 
guitars shouldn't sound like guitars, but like weird space sounds. I 
love drums, real drums, and I love a real bassist, but there's no reason 
that a bass should sound like a real bass. The technique is always going 
forward and is giving us new dimensions to work with, some real sound 
adventures and it would be really narrow minded not to use them. There's 
no reason not to use everything that's available." 
His background as a sound engineer also started to give him the habit to 
collect drum machines, he confesses that he collects them excessively 
"I think I own a graveyard of drum machines, they always fascinated me. 
Of course, now they're all outdated, but I still keep them, they sound 
so cool and you can always use them again. I'm not parting with them." 
Jay Gordon already explained that his previous musical tastes helped him 
to "assimilate" a lot of different styles, but his influences are firmly 
panted in the 80's new wave and electronic roots and not in the 90's 
sometimes gruff industrial genre, even if he is a fan. 
"Of course I listen to industrial. I like Skinny Puppy, Ministry, Nine 
Inch Nails and all that, there are a lot of cool elements in industrial. 
But I think it's a bit boring to listen to the same loop over and over, 
for a lot of people it's just noise. I think the gothic element has a 
lot more feelings to offer and it makes our sound more accessible for 
people. 
"I think it all started in the 80's, the paved a way, music was 
accessible for almost everybody due to the new technologies that were 
available. Depeche Mode, New Order, Scritti Politti, Eurythmics, 
Bauhaus, The Sisters of Mercy, they showed that there are new dimensions 
in music, they opened doors and we're trying to walk through one."