Shoutweb: The first question has been on the minds of all of your fans. With the new album out for almost a month now, why haven't you started touring yet?
Ryan: A lot of it was a matter of trying to find a tour that was going to be right, and we are going to be touring, actually we're leaving in about a week. We're going to be touring all through December. It's just not going to be a certain Orgy tour, we're going to play a one off and a ton of radio dates, and then in January we are definitely going to be touring. We just had a lot of other things that we needed to do, and tour wise, it's like all the good tours were wrapping up. You know what I mean, when we got done with the record. Sort of a logistics nightmare.
Shoutweb: So do you know who the supporting acts are going to be when you actually do hit the road on a full out tour?
Ryan: No.
Shoutweb: I've heard rumors that you're parting ways with your management company The Firm, is it true?
Ryan: Yeah...
Shoutweb: Are there any details behind the split that you can share with us?
Ryan: No, not yet, we're just at a situation right now where our management could no longer effectively go with Reprise records, and the only logical choice for Orgy was to get new management.
Shoutweb: I also heard that Elementree may be leaving Warner Brothers as well.
Ryan: That's probably part of the issue with what's going on with U2 (???) Because our management is basically Elementree. So you kinda have the gist of it. So obviously for Orgy to be effective as a band we're going to have to find new management. This is all really... current, so there's not a lot I can comment on at the moment.
Shoutweb: Your band recently threw a ball for your CD release party and the rumor is that it's going to be an annual event. Do you plan on repeating the Orgy Ball experience?
Ryan: Yeah. We'll see. If we do it again, I'd like to not do it in LA, but that's personally. It would be cool to do it in a different city each time. Like somewhere... not just New York and L.A. Somewhere cool, bring it to the fans. That would be really cool. We could do something like that, but I don't know about having a big L.A. party again.
Shoutweb: Bummer
Ryan: It was definitely fun, but it was kind of a nightmare. But it was a success, I mean that's for sure.
Shoutweb: Could you tell us about the party, give us some details?
Ryan: The way it came about was basically we wanted to have a big party for all of our friends. Orgy came to the management and to the record label and we were like, listen, we wanna play for all of our friends who don't normally get into our shows. I mean you can't have unlimited guests at your shows, so we wanted to play a free show for our friends. That turned into the Orgy Ball, which was kind of a contest winner slash industry slash unlimited guests for Orgy kind of thing. We had five rooms with different happenings. We had the open bar, we played, every celebrity in town ended up showing up. It was insane, there were like 1,500 people standing outside on Hollywood Blvd who still couldn't get in. It was ridiculous. The rooms were really cool, they were all themed. We had DJ's in every room. Spared no expense. It was fun.
Shoutweb: I was reading a lot of reviews on the album, and I found three different critics criticizing Vapor Transmission for sounding like Marilyn Manson. How do you respond to that, and did Manson have any influence on the album?
Ryan: My only comeback to that is that that's the fuckin' stupidest fuckin' thing that I've ever heard in my life. Vapor Transmission sounds like Marilyn Manson? How fuckin' deep do these people have to go? That is mind boggling. I mean, I normally just brush a lot of this stuff off, but that is fucking mind boggling. I think that all people need to do is read that and the audacity and the idiocy of that is going to just stand out like a sore thumb. That is the dumbest thing that I've ever heard. (laughs) And as for Manson having an influence on us, I don't know about that. I mean if you listen to our music and you listen to his you can draw your own conclusions. I don't know, I don't hear it at all, but that's people's jobs. The nature of being a critic is to draw really stupid comparisons, and tell people whether or not they like a record. It's a dumb job, and you're going to take a dumb job if you could. I mean if I was a critic I would think of even stupider shit I suppose, 'cause you know, what am I gonna do? It's my job.
Shoutweb: Your video for "Fiction" was on Total Request Live. How do you feel about bands like Orgy, Korn, and Limp Bizkit being beside bands like N'Sync and Britney Spears?
Ryan: I think that pop is coming back as a massive force again. I don't know if anyone's watched TRL lately, but pop is drowning rock again. On one hand it's nice that people recognize Korn, Limp Bizkit, and us. I mean outside our relationship with The Firm, we're all a brotherhood. I don't think that's ever gonna change. I mean, everyone's gonna put us in the same friendship bracket, and musical bracket. It's nice to finally get... I guess... credibility. It's nice to be recognized a little bit. It's also obvious that we're still in the under current in out current TRL situation. It's kinda hard for a rock band to get on TRL right now unless you're Limp Bizkit. I mean Limp Bizkit's big enough that... I'm not saying they're pop, but they've got kind of a pop stature right now. I mean, we get on TRL and we stay on for a while, but it's obvious that we're still in the under current, we're still the underdogs, and that's a very very cool position for a band like us. It makes us not ridiculous. You know what I mean?
Shoutweb: Yeah
Ryan: We're still these kids heroes.
Shoutweb: I've been paying attention to your message boards, and I've noticed a small war going on amongst your fans as to whether it's okay to be a fan of Orgy and be a fan of pop music as well. What's your stance on the subject? Perhaps you can set the record straight.
Ryan: Well... A song is a song. I don't have a problem with any of these pop bands. I mean, any one of those pop bands are as fake as Marilyn Manson. I mean, everyone (no matter what kind of music you're making) is a hard worker, and I wanna fuck Britney Spears as much as anyone. I don't think there's a problem with that at all. The nature of Orgy's music is that all those weird cliques of people are going to like us. And a lot of those people are going to hate us. You know? That's the nature of the band. And when you do some music that isn't heavy metal, and it's definitely not pop... I think what we're doing is new, and we are going to draw in from a lot of different genres. I hope people pick up on that and they like it, but everyone isn't going to get along... That's nature.
Shoutweb: Now the next single off the album is going to be Opticon right?
Ryan: Possibly, we've been talking about Suckerface a lot. It's up to the band right now, and we want to have a bit of control over what we're doing. We wanna come out with some heavy shit. We wanna sort of flip a middle finger at everybody. At radio, at MTV, at everybody, and I think that's a smart thing for us to do. We don't wanna put out easier things to grasp. We wanna come out with something that makes more of a statement, and so we wanna put out something heavy like Suckerface or something. Or Opticon, that's great. That was our first choice for a single.
Shoutweb: So how many singles are you guys planning on releasing off of the album? Or do you know?
Ryan: Who knows? There's a lot on the record that could work as a single, and this might be one of those records that hangs out for fuckin' two years. A lot could come off of it and we could do really well, or it could be one of those records that doesn't, but it's always nice to do well 'cause then you get to make another record.
Shoutweb: (laughs) Quite the privilege.
Ryan: It is a privilege, so... we'll see. I mean, I could see three singles off it no fucking problem. But what comes with three singles? Platinum record and tons of... you know, shit, and MTV and all that shit, so you know, ya gotta take the good with the bad.
Shoutweb: So do you have any thoughts or plans for the next video yet?
Ryan: We were thinking actually about doing a live video.
Shoutweb: A live video?
Ryan: Yeah, because I think that one thing that we need to get out... well... if anyone's seen an Orgy live show you know what I'm talking about. We're known for doing really science fiction/other worldly types of images in our videos, and we're still absolutely into that. And we're absolutely in to science fiction and all that, but I think it's time to show on video record what kind of a live band we are.
Shoutweb: So are you talking about making a live home video?
Ryan: No, we're talking about literally making a music video on MTV. Kinda old school rock. Like a live show. I think it's time. It's like every video is so overblown, it's ridiculous, and we contribute to that. I think that a video is art too, and when we do a video we very much get into the art of what we're doing. We try to conduct a cool imagery. We try to give everyone a little bit of a movie, but I get to a point where I wanna just see a band fuckin' rock. And I wanna see the band, I don't wanna see something else.
Shoutweb: So, what's your favorite song off the album?
Ryan: Um... Oh boy... Uh... I like the record and I hate to admit it. I like the record, I like a lot of the songs on it, and I believe in the record, so... I actually, I like Eva a lot, it means a lot. It's just one of those songs that kinda sticks with you. And I love Suckerface, 'cause it's really fun to play live. It's a rockin' song. And I like... Okay, I like 'em all, but I'll quit.
Shoutweb: I'm told that you have your own clothing line.
Ryan: Yeah. It's called Replicant Clothing.
Shoutweb: And you do all of the designs yourself?
Ryan: Uh huh. Actually, there's a full line. I haven't released anything yet except for a small amount of T-shirts to see if anyone would even be interested. And I'm putting them up in Hot Topic, because a lot of our fans would be able to go there and get it. If I put a bunch of shirts in some fuckin' stuck up boutique in LA, some fuckin' fagey bull shit, where none of our fans could even afford the clothes, that would really piss me off. I'm actually trying to make it to where our fans can actually buy the clothing. And if it works, then I'll start putting out the other pieces, which are kind of clothing that I wear. I'm gonna try and make it to where it's something that our fans can get into, and everyday people can get it. Not just in New York or L.A. But as of yet, all it is is kind of a test.
Shoutweb: So where do you find time to design clothing, and how did you get into that?
Ryan: Well, I got into it because there are clothes that I wanted that they didn't make. I've always been design oriented. I used to be a hairdresser. Jay's even got a line started. Kinda takes a higher end approach to what I'm thinking. He's even started a record label. I mean, we're an overly productive group of people. We're always doing things. We're artists, and that's what we do. When we're not playing we're creating art in one form or another. It's like I can't stop, I'm compulsive, I have to do things all the time, and everyone in the band is like that.
Shoutweb: Well that's all the questions that I had for you, is there anything that I didn't cover that you'd like to mention?
Ryan: I just wanna thank everybody. Come see us play.