Ahead of their first-ever Australian tour this coming October, Orgy frontman Jay Gordon discusses modern inspirations, stage fashion, and 25 years of their genre-defying debut, 'Candyass'.
"It's always had the EDM influence, or 'whatever-I-want' influence," Gordon says, explaining the band's recent direction. "Just bring it all in."Orgy have always been a difficult band to categorise. Introduced to the world through nu-metal association as part of Korn's Family Values tour in 1998, Orgy's saw-wave synth sounds, industrial rock electronics, and androgynous stage presence set them apart from their tour mates.
Now drawing influence from modern metalcore production, and with Gordon promising some drum & bass elements on one of their upcoming releases, their blending of musical styles continues to define the band.
"Sometimes people get mad about it. I can't help that, though. It's like, look, 'if you see this sh.t at a festival, it's going to be a lot better than a lot of the other songs'. Just roll with it, it's going to be fun.
"It's something that I'm comfortable with, producing other people that do it, but people are not used to us doing it. So it's a weird thing."
Gordon references examples of Verials, Vana, and even local favourites Alpha Wolf for acts he's currently listening to and drawing inspiration from. "These guitar players like Alpha Wolf, those guys. Wow!" he beams.
"It's like, holy sh.t, bro. It really keeps me on my toes, these young guys. Music has progressed and my God, have these guitar players progressed. They're they're so f...ing good." Gesturing to a guitar across from him in the studio. . . "I'm writing riffs, I got an eight-string here. I'm just like, 'Oh, this thing's f...ing hard to play!'"
Alongside the additional guitar strings, Orgy has also recently added second vocalist Joey Scream to the line-up, making the band a six-piece for the first time in their career.
Genre and production style aren't the only way Orgy has tried to adapt to a modern audience, releasing mostly one-off singles alongside a sole EP (2015's 'Talk Sick') since reforming in 2010. "I like doing singles because people don't have the attention span and it just works out better that way; and neither do I."
I joke about it being the ADHD model for releasing music, and he agrees. As for the paradox of celebrating 25 years of the album 'Candyass', with a sound heralded as futuristic at the time, while nu-metal and Y2K style is seeing a resurgence in the present day. "Exactly that. There's definitely a paradox," Jay says.
"I used the most wild magazines I could find with fashion stuff just to see what was out there and what was happening," he says about the inspiration for the band's aggressively androgynous stage wear, which drew heavily from the queer and drag scenes, "and to this day, some of that stuff is so cool, stuff that I never even got a chance to mess with, like the Alexander McQueen collections and things like that.
"Nowadays, it's a dime a dozen. It's so crazy because it's not so special anymore, unfortunately, but it's cool; and there's not a lot of places you can take it from there. I'm looking at the style now and it's just like, oh, they’re just rehashing this and rehashing that. Everybody does a copy of what used to happen."
I pose to Jay that while people often claim Orgy were 20 years ahead of their time, if 'Candyass' was released today it might be praised by queer youth the same way that Billie Eilish and Chappell Roan are. Songs such as 'Gender', 'Fetisha', and the single 'Stitches' carry their allusions to queer and non-binary identity or sly references to the act of drag. He smiles. "That's cool. I wish they would get on this!"
Asked if he hears the influence of nu-metal in hyperpop and modern electronic music, he beams. "How could you not? That's what those kids grew up on. I hear it in there. Deftones are a huge influence to people, and Korn, of course, undeniably, everything is Korn. Everything is Korn."
Appropriately, Gordon has added a cover of 'Slept So Long' to Orgy's live rotation, one of Jonathan Davis' original songs from the 'Queen Of The Damned' soundtrack, which Jay provided vocals for. "People always asked me to do it, and then finally, we just did it – and now we can't take it out of the set. It's f...ing great."
Was the song rejigged to better suit Orgy's style? "You don't really need to in that song. That song's got everything you need in it. It's cool. It's Egyptian. It's dark. It's mysterious, and all that kind of stuff. It's sexy, y'know, like, people love that sh.t. We roll with the ones that people definitely want to hear."
Despite marketing the tour as the 25-year anniversary of 'Candyass', Gordon says it won't just be a nostalgia party for the first album, but a well-rounded balance of their catalogue. "I've been asked that several times, if we're just going to go there and play the whole 'Candyass' record.
"As much as some people would like to see and hear that, we do a good chunk of it. I still think, you know, you go to another country, they've never seen you before, you want to be on your A-game. You want to play a bunch of 'Candyass' and a few 'Vapor Transmission' songs, and then you want to bust out a bunch of new sh.t."
Orgy 2024 Tour Dates
Fri 25 Oct - Max Watts (Melbourne)Sat 26 Oct - Metro Theatre (Sydney)
Sun 27 Oct - The Triffid (Brisbane)
