By definition an "orgy" is characterized as proceedings marked by unbridled indulgences of passions." Perhaps the band known as Orgy has taken those words to heart - at least in a musical sense. As shown throughpout their debut album, Candyass, vocalist Jay Gordon, guitarist Ryan Shuck, bassist Paige Haley, drummer Bobby Hewitt and keyboardist Amir Derakh have displayed their unbridled rock and roll passions over and over again. By doing so, this distinctive So Cal-based unit has emerged as one of the year's most notable success stories with their first album attaining gold sales status, their videos becamin MTV staples and Gordon emerging as a bonafide tock rag pin-up boy. But despite all the commotion this unusually-attired, synth/ metal unit has caused over tge last 12 months, the members of Orgy insist that the world has only begun to sample everything that they're capable of presenting.
"What's happening to us has been really good," Gordon said. " But one of the things we're determined to show is that we're not one of those one hit wonder bands. We have a lot to offer, and i think we've only shown a small fraction of what we're capable of doing. What we're happy about is the success we've had with Candyass, and the exposure our tours have given us, have provided us with a very strong foundation to build upon."
A strong foundation, indeed! In fact, it would seem to many observers that Orgy was a band destined to success from the very first moment they appeared on the rock and roll scene. After all, they own the distinction of being the first band signed to Korn's Elementree Records label, they've performed in front of over half a million fans (thanks mostly to the participation in last year's super-hot Family Values tour), and their first single Stitches, has popped up on radio and vid-TV with the frequency of a Pepsi ad. Certainly things have gone amazingly well for this hard rocking quintet, but according to the all-seeing eye of Korn's Jonathon Davis, he never had a second's doubt concerning Orgy's eventual success.
"What they're doing is something very fresh and very new," Davis said. "That's what turns me on. I think they'll appeal to a lot of kids, and a lot of different people. They're fashionable, pretty dudes, so all the chicks will dig 'em. And they're really heavy, so hopefully a lot of our friends will like 'em too."
It certainly didn't take Orgy long to score big in the always-unpredictible rock and roll sweepstakes. Amazingly, it took Gordon and Shuck only six months from start-to-finish to conceptualize the band, put together the group's lineup and get Orgy signed. Evolving from little more than a notion in the two rockers' ever creative imaginations to standing on stage in front of 20,000 people in such a short period of time must certainly rank as a rock and roll record of some sort (anybody have a copy of The Guiness Book of World Records handy?), but even as they look back on their meteoric rise to the top, these Orgy boys seem to be taking in stride just about everything that's come their way.
"Ryan and I conceptuaized Orgy only about six months before we were signed," Gordon confirmed. "We started writing songs together as soon as we hooked up. It started off in a garage where we just started throwing some ideas around, and the next thing you know we're making an album, then touring the country with Korn. Right from the start we knew we had something a little different going for us. That was the way it was designed. We never know exactly how people are going to react to what we do - but they always react."
Doing things "their way" and sticking to their guns when it came time to deliver the musical goods has certainly paid some big - and fast - dividends for Orgy. Eschewing the normal "let's play clubs" route to notoriety, the group still managed to make rapid work of aquiring a major name for themselves in the rock and roll world. Sure, without the looming presence of the guys in Korn perhaps things wouldn't have happened quite as quickly for Orgy. But these guys have never lacke for confidence in either themselves or music. In their minds it just-so-happened that they were the first band that the Kornsters went out to sign. And while such a distinction is certainly not lost upon them, the members of Orgy believe that success would have come their way... sooner or later.
"Korn has played such a big role in our success," Gordon said. "They certainly understand what it's like yo be in a band - especially a band that doesn't necessarily do everything in the conventional way. So that was a big help. But we also have confidence in what we do. We know they saw something special in us because there is something special there."
There undeniably is something very special involved with just about everything Orgy does. With a style that blends Gordon's highly theatrical presence with the bands industrial-inspired rhythms and metallic guitar attack, some media scribes (including this one) have already advanced the notion that in a number of important ways Candyass may well represent the ultimate Y2K collection. Such tracks as Social Enemies and Dissention are filled with cutting-edge studio wizardry and techno-rock posturings, all effectivly utilized by the band in their efforts to bring forth their unique musical message. And whil some cynics may state that they've seen and heard all before through the seminal work of Manson, Bowie, Reznor, etc., for Orgy any and all such comparisons only serve to further solidify their ever-tightening grip on hard rock's upper echelon.
"The whole point of making this record was to make something raw, that really grapbbed you," Gordon said. "We know that a lot of it is all crap, a bunch of fairy tales and lies, but that's okay - this is rock and roll. We like the idea of taking as many different elements and mixing them together - then we see what we've come up with. We like taking as many chances as possible, both in the studio and on stage. It's living life on the musical edge. For us, that's what makes all of this exciting. It's all a great adventure, and we're enjoying every second of it,"