By James Wright

Orgy will return to the spotlight in July as they release their sophomore album, tentatively titled "Opticon". Shoutweb recently talked with Orgy's Ryan Shuck in an exclusive new interview about the band's new album and reflection on their experiences with "Candyass". Thanks to Lauren from "Tattoo The Earth" band Drown for the hook-up.

Shoutweb: Now let me first start off by stating I thought your '98 debut was an incredible album and was one of the best releases in '98. Were you surprised at the reaction critically and commercially that "Candyass" received?

Ryan: Yeah, surprised at both definitely. When we did the record we didn't even really know how we wanted to sound, but we did know how we didn't wanna sound.

Shoutweb: Now you guys have kind of ducked out of the public's eye ever since the video for "Stitches" was released... What have you guys been doing since?

Ryan: Well we're working on our second record now and we stepped out (of the spotlight) because things got a little bigger than we anticipated or even wanted. So we're just basically concentrating on writing a record that we want and that our fans are gonna like. We don't have radio necessarily right dead in our sights. I think that would be too expected of us. I think everyone expects us pretty much to come back with this record and blow the lid off the joint and have a buncha songs on the radio. This one's a little more edgy, a bit heavier but it's gonna be for Orgy fans. We're not changing things so much that fans who bought our first record aren't gonna like it, we're gonna give them an overdose and still push the envelope. We wrote a huge amount of material this time. We've written almost two records worth of material just because by the time the first record had already hit the shelves we had already been itching to do a second one cause after the first record we kinda invented ourselves. Like I said, we didn't know how we were actually gonna turn out and sound and we all just kinda all had our own idea. Now we know how Orgy sounds.

Shoutweb: Anything you can tell us about the new release? Album title or projected release date?

Ryan: We've projected a release date of probably July.

Shoutweb: Any songs that stand out so far as definite singles?

Ryan: There are but like I said this record has a lot more attitude to it. I mean it's a bit more paranoid, it hits home. It's a little bit more personal so weren't not really thinking along the lines of singles but there are a few that definitely stand out. It's kinda funny 'cause when we were writing it was like "Yeah, we're not even gonna try. We don't even care about that!" and then when you get done you kinda laugh and go "That one sounds like a single!" (Laughter)

Shoutweb: The thing I find interesting about how Orgy began is you guys didn't do the whole few years of playing the club circuit before signing a deal. You guys went straight from rehearsals to the studio.. Why was that the case?

Ryan: We felt like we'd lose the spontaneity that we had. When we all got together there was just kinda a spontaneous creativity that we had and we didn't wanna kill that by doing what we did in every other band we'd ever been in which is go out and play clubs for 5 years. Usually nothing ever came outta that because the club scene that we are used to playing is dying out. It's not as vital as it used to be. So we tried to go with what initially turned us on to even start Orgy, which was just this spontaneous weird way of writing. We played live for some labels but it was because we invited them into our environment. We had them come to our studio, invited some friends and had our own private show and we did it the way we wanted too even though we thought we weren't sure if it was going to work. But it did so we're happy. Despite the way it sounds, we just put a band together and got signed, there was more to it than that 'cause we been doing this for a long time.

Shoutweb: Do you find it easier knowing that your "friends" are the ones running your label instead of a record exec?

Ryan: You know what? They're friends, but they completely stay out of our business. The first record we didn't let anyone at all come to the studio. No one from the record label was allowed at the studio. We moved out to Tahoe which is really far from L.A and we isolated ourselves up in the snow so no one could get to us. Being on Korn's label allows you privileges like that cause Korn knows what it's like to be a band and try and do something unique. You wanna try and keep people out of your sphere of influence, but when you're around creative people like Korn and the people we hang out with you can't help but be influenced and effected by it. Playing "Family Values" with Korn was the most humbling thing that one can do, but you want your record to sound like you. They're not like bosses, they're like friends. I call them (Korn) whenever something's not going right and we need them to light the fire under whoevers ass needs to be burnt.

Shoutweb: The success of "Blue Monday" kinda won you over with the whole MTV/Much Music crowd, but were you glad that is the song people recognize you for or would you rather have an original be the song that sticks out in people's minds when they hear "Orgy"? Are you worried about the one hit wonder label?

Ryan: I would feel a little pressure if "Stitches" came out and wasn't a hit I'd probably be a little worried, but it worked so well after "Blue Monday". You kinda think after you do that "God I hope our material stands up!" but then you release your own as well and it does great too, then it's a good thing. We're OK with it, but I've found out that when you're successful a lot of other people hope you fall down. We kinda can't let that bother us or else we wouldn't be a very good band ya know? We're not the Backstreet Boys so... It can bother you to an extent 'cause business wise everyone wants to see you as successful, but like I said we didn't even know if this record would be a success so we're kinda thankful for what we have.

Shoutweb: You were on the Family Values live album and video but here in Canada the home video was banned and deemed pornographic because of some of the Rammstein content... Where you surprised by that at all?

Ryan: (Laughing) Was it banned?

Shoutweb: Yea it was banned in Canada. It was available for like a few weeks then banned 'cause of the whole Rammstein thing.

Ryan: (laughing) That's kinda cool. It may suck money wise for whoever's involved, but it makes it special for the kids. On one hand I wish the kids could have it but then again it's kinda cool and lets us know we're still involved with something being kinda shunned.

Shoutweb: Oh yeah for sure. Whatever is considered taboo makes it that much more desirable.... In the Family Values home video it seems like you guys can party with the best of em'... What is the wildest shit that's happened backstage with you guys?

Ryan: OH GOD! They call our bus the "rape" bus! (Laughing)... Actually on the Family Values video they show some footage and it looks like it's flashing like a nightclub while we're playing "Blue Monday"? Well that's flashing on our tour bus as we're going down the freeway! On Family Values we got banned from a few cities. We are good natured guys and the guys in all the other bands know that we're pretty fun, but I know that managers don't like to put certain bands with us cause they know that we'll get them into a lot of trouble. And hey that's cool! I mean we don't go out of our way to do anything dumb, but get the five of us in a room and usually chaos will ensue. You get so bored on the road that you just wanna fucking cause some trouble! You name something and it's happened! We don't try and be crude to women, but you get the people that hang around us and you name it. The most ridiculous thing could be happening on the floor while we're eating dinner. As for the band, everyone in my band is kind of a gentleman, we're nice to women. We like girls.

Shoutweb: After getting questions posted from the fans everyone seems to wanna know why the name "Orgy"?

Ryan: Honestly? It sounded cool. It makes people go "Who or what is that?" You can't think of Orgy in one sense, but we kinda thought of it in the musical sense. A whole bunch of styles and musical thoughts, everything coming together into one big mixing pot instead of a whole buncha people having sex. Like I said we're trying not to be overt with sex and stuff like that 'cause that's not what the band is about. So with us it's an Orgy, but it's musical. Also for obvious reasons it definitely gets your attention. We didn't know what we were gonna call it 'till we did the first couple songs, it was just a name Jay had always tossed around. He actually cut out those stickers and ya cut out the letters and make words out of em' and they look like a stencil? He put that on his bass case, cause he was a bass player before, and it just looked cool. He had it in this silver print on his bass case and after we were done doing the songs we just kinda looked at it and it just said "Orgy" and we said "Fuck that would really work." It just seemed to fit and now that we're who we are it just feels natural. If the shoe fits wear it, ya know?

Shoutweb: What can we expect from Orgy in the future?

Ryan: We had some tour plans for Europe with Korn but we're not done with the record yet so... We're just trying to get the record done and we will definitely be touring extensively. We're gonna do what we did last year and more. Last year we toured Canada and the US about four times each and we hit every place/market about four times, which is a lot of touring. This time we wanna hit places that we haven't hit. Definitely Europe 'cause this is the second time we copped out on Europe and that's not 'cause we wanted to, the first time wasn't our fault. There are a lot things involved with getting over there, a lot of money that if you can't get it out of the label then you're not going. This time we wanted to go over with Korn and we tried to finish the record but you can't rush it. We wanna play some places we haven't played before, we wanna play some more places in Canada and believe it or not we're from California and we've only played here about 3 or 4 times. So we wanna fuck California up! We've played a ton of bible belts and East Coast America and we just wanna play places we haven't been before.

Shoutweb: How was the reaction in the Bible belt for you guys? Did Family Values make it there?

Ryan: Yeah we fucked it up! Family Values wasn't for us, and it wasn't what it was for other bands 'cause we were brand new and noone had heard us, so when we played there was a whole bunch of people just standing there trying to listen and understand what the music is. We didn't start getting big 'till after that, but our shows there and everywhere have been really really good. The kids there totally go off and they fuckin rock! I mean the L.A. crowd usually fuckin sucks cause everyone is so jaded. If you live in L.A. you pretty much get to see every rock show that goes on the road. But if you live in Oklahoma chances are you don't get to see every show that goes on and the kids are more ready for it and they're hungry. I'm from a small town myself, I'm not originally from L.A so I have a lot of appreciation for the way a lot of people think that aren't from the big cities. The band as a whole likes going out to those places and bringing it out to them and fucking it up!

Shoutweb: What was the most beneficial tour for you guys? Was it Family Values? To reach that many people on your first tour is amazing!

Ryan: Fuck that was cool, but there wasn't those shows where people we're just going Orgy crazy! That's in part 'cause we were new but being on tour with your best friends is cool ya know? Being out there with Limp Bizkit, Rammstein, Korn and Ice Cube and playing arenas? That was magnificent! We went out with Love and Rockets after that and that was a whole different kinda cool. People would start chanting Orgy and we had never heard that before. I guess it's just one of those things that you can say over and over. It just tends to happen a lot and that was the first time we ever experienced it and on top of that we were playing with our idols Love and Rockets so... I got to play with Daniel Ash and that fucking ruled. Then after that we did the Campus invasion tour with Sugar Ray, whom are our friends, but musically you couldn't get any different. That was another one where we started to get big and crowds started showing up for us which was cool. All these tours were super fun, the tour with Sugar Ray, cause their our friends, but one of the best tours for us was the tour we did with Videodrone, our label mates. They are all from my hometown and same for Korn. Going on that tour was literally like taking your best friends on the road with you and that was our first headlining tour so we were in all our glory and we brought all our own show, our own lights and just all our stuff. It's like all our tours were different so it's hard to say which one was the best 'cause they were all different experiences. The Sugar Ray/Orgy was really diverse and they were our buddies from back home. The Korn/Family Values thing was huge and monstrous, The Love and Rockets tour we were out with our idols and the Videodrone tour we were out with best friends and getting really popular so it was cool. We were selling out shows on our own which is a neat feeling!

Shoutweb: So you find yourselves getting lumped in with the groups you've toured with like Korn when your music is so far from theirs musically speaking?

Ryan: For one thing we've been really lucky to have Korn fans 'cause Korn fans are the best fucking fans to have. Those kids have heart and Korn are their heroes. Hell they're my heroes too! (laughter) Those are good fans to have, but people will still lump us with the NIN and Korn or Depeche Mode and The Cure and we kinda like that cause it's kinda obvious we stand out. With bands like Limp Bizkit and Marilyn Manson, I think people lump them into the whole Korn Genre and under that umbrella, but I'm not saying they are. I don't think fans view us in that. God ya think they would 'cause Korn signed us but... Bands like Korn like a diversity of music and I think they demonstrated that by signing us. It's just like the stuff we listen too, like fuck I just bought an ABBA CD and have Korn's "Issues" playin in my car so... Right now I think "Issues" is one of the coolest CD's to come out this year cause it's almost like after Korn's commercial success they put out a 4th record that said "HEY, FUCK YOU!"

Shoutweb: What else has been dominating your CD player lately?

Ryan: Well this is funny... When I was younger I listened to a lot of Death Metal, Slayer and stuff like that. So you know when you go through that stage when you go back into your CD's and pull out all those old albums. Well I got Death and Obituary in my car. Those bands really influenced me A lot and if you listen hard you can still hear it in Orgy's music like in the guitar tones how it's all tuned down, we just do it a different way. So right now I'm listening to that...

Shoutweb: I know exactly what you're going through cause I'm going through it too. I dunno why but back in the day I used to love all those 80's hair bands and shit so lately I been on this fuckin' Skid Row kick! (Laughing)

Ryan: Oh me too! (Laughter) Dude, Orgy just got off a major Heavy Metal kick where we had fuckin' Ratt playing in our dressing room every night before we went onstage! Oh God! We had Ronnie James Dio! There is a night down here in L.A. now called "Rocker" night and I been goin' to that every Sunday! (Laughing) People are out there headbanging instead of dancing! It's pretty cool, they play good music and I love all that shit. I love a ton of different music like futuristic, drum and bass and all kinds of stuff. You just have your itches and have to scratch 'em and right now I'm having that Death Metal/Evil streak. It's a little phase and I'll be listening to something else again.

Shoutweb: Finally anything else to say to the fans or get out to the public?

Ryan: Thank you. Thank you for being fans and just being there sticking by and supporting us. We tried to do something a little different, but when we first played it for a lot of people it was hard to get people in the business to pay attention 'cause it sounds different and it's because of you guys that people have. It's because of you guys that we're able to do another record. I appreciate it and I hope people will like our new record 'cause I know our fans will love it. Also by all means go out there and check out new bands like Videodrone and Drown. There are a lot of new bands coming up that they should support cause it'll help bands like us break through and make good music.