Since the days when the electronic adrenaline fueled Orgy clanged dance floors and stages with synthesized bravado, Ryan Shuck and Amir Derakh have made their own path creating electro-rock narratives of sophisticated dark poetry drawing inspiration from the hidden noir looming under the bright California sunshine. Assuring there will always be cracks and crevices in the corners and shadows of paradise where Julien-K draws inspiration from. In an area where illusion and reality often mix with the blinding reflection of the sun off the waves and where decadence is mixed and often swallowed by destitution, depending on where you go.
They’ve delivered four records since 2009 combining new wave and electro-rock in a way that visualizes Depeche Mode, The Cult, New Order The Cure and Metallica jamming in medley.
They’re touring this summer with The Cult, Bush and Stone Temple Pilots on the Revolution 3 Tour, billed as 3 headliners, 1 great night. “We’re doing this giant tour with these amazing bands,” Shuck says. “We haven’t toured with any of them.” Back in their Orgy years, they performed with The Cult at several radio shows. “I was always out in the crowd watching The Cult play. Every time we played with them. They’re definitely one of my favorite bands.” They’ve also known the Stone Temple Pilot guys for years.
Shuck found inspiration on a song they’d been struggling with for awhile in the blinding light of the morning horizon one day. That morning as he went surfing the rays of the sun washed over him, and lyrical inspiration hit. “Yes, it was definitely an epiphany.” They’d been working on the song “Photo Voltaire” for months, without a name and in a different time and format. “It was very different than how it turned out on the album” Shuck explains. “I surfed and thought about it. When I saw the sun pop over the horizon it just kind of exploded, like a nuclear explosion and I thought of the words ‘Photo Voltaire.’ The chorus came to me, I ran up the sand, texted Amir and let him know we had a direction for the song. It really came together after that. Amir really gets off on coming up with unique names for songs. He thought it was a really great name, to me it means, exploding sun.”
The concept of California Noir, “It’s similar to the way a fashion designer thinks of a collection of clothing,” Shuck describes. “Like a season. All our albums have a bit of a theme and aesthetic. A completely vertically integrated methodology and thought process goes into them.” California Noir was a reflection of their lifestyle. “We’ve finally honed the concept of creating a lifestyle of music, albums, clothing, brand, color and feel. If you’re around us, you’d even notice smell and taste, everything.”
They cover all aspects of the process including the records visual look, sound and what it stands for. “Amir and I usually come up with the concepts but this concept I came up with,” Shuck says. “It’s where the desert meets the mountains meets the ocean. I get a lot of influence from my environment and I think the juxtaposition of us being these dark, gothic guys in this strangely beautiful state made it a really, really cool concept. We are the California dark-siders.”
The “Kick the Bass” video was an answer to some of the insanely wild but real party moments they experienced and survived. “It’s an absurd and overblown reflection of our lives at that time,” Shuck recalls. “Like many of the parties we attended to be completely honest. The song’s also about excess and the results of being in a band as big as Orgy and how normal it was for us to feel comfortable in the spotlight. Coming into party situations and being so fucking insane that you literary thought someone was gonna die.”
MTV didn’t share their vision, “Having videos on TRL for so long, in Orgy we kinda wanted to make something that really rocked the boat,” Shuck states. “We turned it into a complete pornographic blood orgy. It honestly fits the song perfectly, almost literally. I thought it was really funny. We submitted it to MTV and their answer was; are you fucking kidding me?”
The video for “California Noir” conveyed their cynicism about the California dream, “Absolutely, it’s also a reflection of where I grew up in California, which is very desolate. It looks very much like the Salton Sea where we filmed the video. When I saw that place I thought, wow, this is an exaggerated version of where I grew up. California Noir’s very much about the way we’re living the California dream and what brought us all out here. There’s definitely some cynicism backed into that cake.”
Living in L.A. is a diverse experience, “There’s a lot of fucking traffic, taxes are really, really high,” Shuck explains. “The weathers typically really great and there’s lots of awesome people there. A lot of music businesses are there but you have to be very aware if you plan on driving around at all, plan on spending a large portion of your life in your car. If you wanna buy a house or property, you’ll pay taxes as high as a house payment in any other state. There’s a lot of things that aren’t great, but you have the beautiful beaches. The amazing weather and the beautiful mountains. You pay a high price for that stuff. California’s not a super friendly state if you want to own a business, a house, try to make money or be middle class at all.”
Time Capsule: A Future Retrospective cleaned out the closet, for now, so to speak,“We did clean out the musical closet. We’ll probably have some more stuff but that’s pretty much it,” Shuck says. “That was a mega-dump of most of the releasable material and our fans really love it and were super impressed we got a cohesive record out of that data dump. It’s pretty awesome. We write a lot, we’re pretty prolific. We already have more than enough material for Harmonic Disruptor. So there’s probably a lot of songs that won’t make the record that are really good. I see this happening again sometime in the future.”
Harmonic Disruptor is going to be a return to the elements that people loved about Orgy, like heavy, D-tuned guitars, baritones and 7-strings. “All the stuff we loved when we were making music before.” There will be throwbacks to early NIN, Marilyn, Manson, Ministry and Killing Joke. “We just feel like no one’s doing it or carrying that torch right now. We feel we legitimately own a space in that world and we’re gonna go back and reclaim it.”
The California Noir symbol is California with an X going through and a hashtag Shuck started, “Whenever we come up with a concept we write it different and hashtag it different until it catches on and someone seems to get it. A common misconception is people think that we’re anti-California, if you don’t know the band, which is not true.”
They’re not doing another Indiegogo campaign or kickstarter though crowdfunding is still an option. “I’m almost positive we will,”Shuck says. “We’re gonna do something different. They’re not pleased with several of Indiegogo’s features making it unfriendly for fans. “We think we could do something a lot better on our own at this point. We really wanna focus on offering awesome products and music for our fans and make it really easy. I think they will appreciate that. Every artist crowd funds their record whether it’s with a label or on your own. They’re all crowd funded. The fans are the only thing that matters, nothing else. The music and the fans.”
He’s cool with cell phones in the crowd but social media addiction concerns him, “I really don’t mind if people use their cell phones and cameras during shows,” he says. “It really doesn’t bother me at all. On the flip side, I’m definitely concerned about people living in their phones. Completely living their lives on their phones and not experiencing life. I worry about myself being on my phone all the time. In our business, we have to use Instagram, Facebook and all the tools to connect with our fans.” He prefers fans enjoying the live experience in front of them, rather than through a small screen.
The year’s really busy for them with 40-some dates in addition to the Revolution 3 dates followed by European shows. “We’re gonna play London and very likely Berlin and Amsterdam.” They’re playing Mexico in December. “We’re also going to do a big memorial for Chester (Bennington) at what used to be the Nokia Theater.” It’s organically organized by friends and Linkin Park fans. “We’re gonna be playing some Dead by Sunrise material in honor of Chester at these shows, a cool thing. In between that, we’re gonna get Harmonic Disruptor done.”
The fans keep them going, “We’re so grateful for your support,” Shuck endears. “You guys have absolutely enabled us to do everything we’ve wanted to do. We wouldn’t even be out here touring if it wasn’t for your support on Indiegogo and your continued support. We’re so grateful at these shows, even the small shows. The strong support with merchandise, and VIP packages help keep them going. “We can’t do it without our fans. We thank you very, very much for reading this interview and thank you for this interview. This is a busy fucking tour, take care.”
