Archive: Articles & Interviews
Archive: Articles & Interviews
Interview With MTV
Short Article From Alternative Press
RoughCutt: The Dio Discovery Delivers Hard Rock With A Sound All Its Own
Interview With MTV
MTV: So is the Love And Rockets tour happening?
Jay Gordon (frontman): Yes.
Amir Derakh (guitars): Yes, it's confirmed for March.
Jay: Very, very, very much looking forward to being on tour with Love And Rockets and think it's gonna be a good thing. What do you think?
Ryan Shuck (guitars): Yeah, definitely. God, that's like a band that we all grew up with and, you know, and is responsible for probably a lot of the way we think and view music and everything. So it's gonna be an honor and a pleasure, you know.
MTV: So how do you imagine that tour differing from the Family Values Tour?
Amir: It's gonna be a lot different.
Jay: It's gonna be a lot different because, I mean, it's smaller venues and whatnot. And it's not like, you know, like, Jonathan (Davis, Korn vocalist) and Munky (Korn guitarist), and Fieldy (Korn bassist) and those guys are like, you know, and Fred (Durst) from Limp and those guys are like, those are like your next door neighbors, like your friends, your buddies, you know? And you know... we know who Daniel Ash is, but he has no idea who we are. You know what I mean?
Amir: Well, we didn't know Rammstein.
Jay: We didn't know Rammstein either. We got along with them. We destroyed quite a few dressing rooms, actually, together so... (laughs)
Ryan: I think we'll, it'll still be the same Orgy on tour, but...
Jay: We're gonna have a good time, either way, you know. We're going out to have fun and, you know, destroy your town.
Ryan: I think it will be funner to play more small places too. You know, playing big places is fun, but I think smaller places will be really cool too, you know, it's a different vibe.
MTV: I imagine it will be a very different crowd too, maybe on that's more in tune with what you guys are doing musically. How do you guys think you were received on the Family Values Tour?
Jay: I think, uh, overall it was, it was a success, you know. There were some areas that were just not ready for us yet, but I think even there, we gained a lot of fans. By the end of the show people were like, you know, "Cool man."
Amir: That was cool, people were really, like, respectful. They were there to check it out. I mean, our record had just come out so nobody really knew what to expect, so they were really just watching us and they would get into it. You could feel them kinda warm up as the set went along. By the end of the set we could generally feel them coming with us or they just were, you know, maybe didn't get it at that point.
Jay: And I think Korn fans are generally... I think that they're one of the more open, you know, fan bases, so to speak, and thank God. You know what I mean? It's just that, you know, you're going on tour with like two of the largest rock bands, in Korn and Limp's case, around right now. Like, those are like the two biggest bands out there, and thank God that they're friends of ours. (laughs) So, they pulled us on this tour, you know, and we didn't know what to expect, and it came out really good. In the long run, it was cool.
MTV: I've read that in describing your music, you seem to keep coming back to the phrase "death pop."
Jay: Yeah, that one doesn't bother me so much. "Death pop" is kinda like, you know, that's cool. That's something I came up with in the shower one day, like, "Oh, yeah, you know, death pop." I don't know...
Amir: We're dark and melodic, so it kind of fit.
Jay: Yeah, you have those tendencies to... It just seemed like an easy thing to say at the time.
MTV: In reading about you guys, I keep coming across the verb "conceptualized" in reference to your origin. What does that mean in terms of how you guys got together?
Jay: He (gestures to Amir) was doing a record, you know, out and away in Canada, I think. Was it Canada? (Amir nods) And, uh, I had put together the Orgy thing with Ryan, and we were just thinking of ideas. I didn't want to be like another... every band that comes out is like, sounds like Korn and whatnot, so I definitely wanted to do something different. I ran it by him (gestures to Ryan) to see what he thought of it, and I kind of played him some of my ideas that I was thinking of doing, you know, and he seemed to be really into that, you know what I mean? It was like his chance to, you know, kinda go for it too in a different light so to speak. So, we got together and talked a lot about all the things we were just talking about, you know, the aesthetics, the visual stuff and how we wanted the band to come off live and what our sounds should sound like and, you know?
Ryan: Yeah, yeah, I totally jumped at the opportunity to be with someone one as like-minded as Jay and as the rest of the band is.
Jay: Right, so then it was like, just putting together the other like-minded individuals, and we thought of Amir and we were like, "We gotta call Amir because he'll definitely be into this."
Amir: And I was like, "I don't wanna play guitar anymore," remember?
Jay: I was like, "That's fine with me, just figure out something to do on that thing, you know? If you don't want it to sound like a guitar, that's fine with me." So, that's another thing about Orgy, is we don't want our guitars to sound like guitars because, I mean you can only play the same E chord or same A chord, F sharp. You know what I mean? You can only play that so many different ways before you're just like, "Ok, enough already, you know, I'm done." So, I don't know. We try to make them sound like weird machines and grimy sounding tonal colored things.
Ryan: The same with drums, and with his voice... it's all new.
MTV
Feb - 99? No Title-From Alternative Press
You can just imagine the recipe in the Lonely A&R Guy's Cookbook: Take one band called Orgy, add a debut album called Candyass, then mix in a signing to Elementree Records, the label started by Korn's Jonathan Davis. Instant funk-metal product; serves millions.
But if you were expecting the same old Rage Against the White Zombie gruel, singer Jay Gordon has a gloomier, glammier surprise for you. "Bowie's like my favorite person in the entire universe," he volunteers, making it quite plain that when the singer goes way out on tracks like "Fiend" and "Gender," he means Diamond Dogs diva David Bowie and not cleaned-up Let's Dance Bowie. Better remove guttural growling from the list of ingredients.
Enter guitarist Ryan Shuck, who volunteers that '80s flashdancer Duran Duran were "hardcore in a way. They were so cool," he enthuses. "They looked so cool." Scratch bare chests, flying hair and skull tattoos, as well.
Finally, there are the vintage '80s guitar synths, an instrument banned for life earlier this decade by the Seattle Flannel Fraternity. "They're really abstract-looking," Shuck volunteers. "They're awesome."
In other words, everything you know about Orgy may be wrong. "Yeah, we're into the surrealism," Gordon says.
Aw-shucks modesty was never a big part of the Southern California punk-metal scene in which Gordon and Shuck came of age. Even so, with fans scouring every word Trent Reznor or Billy Corgan sings for Authentic Deep Meaning, it's a throwback to a far nervier glam age to admit that your songs are artifice, "bullshit" and "a bunch of lies," as Gordon puts it in Orgy's press kit. And it takes true in-your-face nerve to make a cover of New Order's "Blue Monday" the centerpiece of your debut when so many alternative stars ended up looking like wimpy fools on the 1995 Joy Division tribute album Means To An End.
"Well," Gordon recalls, "we went to this used-record store in Tahoe"-where the band were recording Candyass with producer Josh Abraham-"and saw a cassette of [the New Order compilation] Substance. We said, 'How could somebody fucking do that, sell it to a used-record store?' So we bought it, and about half an hour after we decided to do it, we had some tracks for 'Blue Monday.' " The result turns up the darker, heavier vibes that occasionally get lost in New Order's continuing love affair with the dancefloor, hardly the move one would expect in a year of a swing revival. But darker and heavier rarely get lost with Orgy.
"I love heavy," Shuck says, "but I think we're going to need a new category. A lot of Korn people tend to like us, but then so do a lot of people who haven't had a scene for a while, who like the kind of music we grew up on."
Even the band's name comes from mixing it up: "Jay thought of the name when he was asked what we sounded like," Shuck recalls. "He described it as the sound of Joy Division, Bowie and Kraftwerk having an orgy."
But is America ready to throw aside its PC prudery and join in?
"I'd love to take credit for shaping the face of a nation," Gordon says, "but that's not what's going on here. I think it was just time to go in this direction, to bring a few things out of the '80s that showed hope for the future."
Lest it appear that some aw-shucks modesty may be creeping in after all, Shuck clarifies. "we're going for a sound that's superhuman. Something more than human-definitely."- John Kappes
AlternativePress
i thought you all might get a kick out of this...glam ;)
The Dio Discovery Delivers Hard Rock With A Sound All Its Own
By Elianne Halbersberg
From Hard Rock Video Magazine, March 1985
"It all started right here in this building," says drummer David Alford as he looks around the Atlanta Omni. " I was introduced by Vinny Appice - it was his fifth gig - and the dressing room we're in tonight was Black Sabbath's that night. That's how I met Ronnie James Dio. Talk about deja vu!" Alford had been doing the club scene with such regional favorites as Maxx Havoc when his 1979 talk with Dio convinced him to relocate to the West Coast. But the now stable Rough Cutt lineup of Alford, vocalist Paul Shortino, bassist Matt Thorr, and guitarists Chris Hager and Amir Derakh is actually the result of numerous personnel changes and, according to Alford, "searching, searching, and searching."
The initial Rough Cutt was the product of a chance meeting between Shortino and Alford. Shortino, who moved from Ohio to California as a teenager, had grown up in a musical environment. "My mother was a singer and her family was into music, vaudeville and things like that," he recalls. "Also, my uncle played banjo and did minstrel shows, and when I was two or three, I used to play a little ukulele. I was singing 'Bill Bailey' and songs like that when I was five or six. By the age of nine or ten, I started playing guitar and singing in a band. I was really influenced by blues, soul - people like Ray Charles, Janis Joplin, Steve Marriott. By the time we moved to California, I was playing bars at 15, banging my head against the wall, and I got a record deal at 18 with Bell Records. Snuff Garrett produced it, and it didn't go anywhere. So I went back to bars. Then I met David."
At the time, Shortino and keyboardist Claude Schnell (now with Dio) were in search of a drummer; likewise, Alford was looking for a vocalist. "I said, 'I sing,' Shortino remembers. "and David says, 'Yeah right.' So I took him to my house and played him a tape I made in my parents' 24 - track studio. He still didn't believe it was me, so I said, 'Let's get together.' A jam session was scheduled at the Starwood. Alford looks back, "When he opened his mouth and started singing that night , it was like the first song we were playing ...you're on stage and it's really good and everyone feels it! We knew what we wanted before we even finished the first rehearsal. I said to Paul and Claude , 'let's down to business - I know this guitar player who really smokes' and we got Jake E. Lee."
Alford and Shortino both had other commitments when they began ground work for Rough Cutt. Shortino was "on paper" with another band; Alford was wrapping up a few dates with Ratt, a virtual revolving door on the Los Angeles scene; a circuit that Alford laughingly describes as " the real Peyton Place!" He notes , "Chris Hager and Steve Pearcy started Mickey Ratt, then it became Ratt. Chris quit and went to Sarge. That's when I was in Ratt with Jake and Matt (Thorr). Then we all quit Ratt and went separate ways. Matt went to Sarge, Jake went to nothing, and I went to find Paul! Actually, two months had gone by and I was really depressed. I called Ronnie and he said ''Move to San Fernando Valley - you'll find a singer.'' And I did!"
The first ten months of Rough Cutt's existence are what Alford calls "our hardest time." A showcase was set up for Atlantic Records but, says Shortino, "neither of the representatives could make it. They called at the last minute to say so." Alford, however, took matters into his own hands and contacted Ronnie James Dio. "I called Ronnie and all these people to come down ," he notes . "For two weeks , I had been talking to Wendy Dio, because we'd made this tape at Paul's folks' studio and I took it to Ronnie. They were knocked out , so we were talking about this management trip and if Ronnie would take us into the studio and produce us. When I called him, that's what clinched it, because during those two weeks between giving them the tape and Ronnie coming home from the Black Sabbath tour ... " Shortino interjects, "All I kept hearing was ''Ronnie James Dio wants to check us out'' and I was committed to these other guys. So they came to see us, liked the band, and about a week later, they negotiated with the people I was with to buy them out of the contract I was signed on."
"They knew Paul had commitments," Alford observes, "but as soon as Ronnie saw us showcase, that was it. During that two weeks I mentioned , he had made plans to leave Sabbath, start his solo career, and have Wendy manage him, and since it would be good for the company to have another act, they asked us. Of course, we said, Yeah! But what about ...'' so we let them handle that. They got Paul out of it, we signed the papers, Ronnie took us into the studio and we did a tape. Two of those songs, which Paul and Claude had written - 'Used And Abused' and 'A Little Kindness' - wound up on a compilation album, L.A.'s Best Unsigned Bands." Shortly after, Rough Cutt underwent their first alteration when Jake E. Lee became part of Ozzy Osbourne's band. Craig Goldy was recruited and spent approximately one year with the group. Meanwhile, Claude Schnell transferred over to Dio, Chris Hager and Matt Thorr entered the picture, and Rough Cutt was selected in the top ten of 40,000 entrants in a radio talent search that led to another compilation album, Rock To Riches, featuring "Try A Little Harder" Goldy eventually joined forces with Giuffria; Alford and Thorr went to San Diego where they discovered Amir Derakh, a longtime fan who secured his position by performing Rough Cutt material for two surprised members. Alford states, "Right away, we said ''Hey, you've got the gig!" He wasn't doing anything and that day I told him , 'If you want to try out, you've got to come right now,' so he just grabbed his guitar and stuff , dropped everything , and went to Los Angeles. Two weeks later, we were doing a national television show, Rock Palace. Amir was stunned! It's his fifth gig and he's on national television! Then we got signed, went to Europe - he got in the band at the perfect time."
According to Alford, the key to Rough Cutt's securing a record deal with Warner Brothers was a self produced tape that the group recorded in Shortino's parents' studio. "That studio," he says, "is the nucleus of where we could get by with doing what we did. We could go in and put our anxieties down on tape. The song 'Dreamin' Again' is the one that got Warner Brothers to set up the showcase for Ted Templeman and that's what got us signed." Although Templeman was originally expected to produce Rough Cutt's debut album, complications prevented the sessions from taking place. Veteran Tom Allom (Judas Priest, Def Leppard, Krokus) heard the group, was impressed, and agreed to take them on. Sessions began at the start of October, 1984, and ended in mid - November, with a total ten weeks spent recording and mixing the product. Rough Cutt was basically responsible for their own pre-production, and Shortino explains, "We wrote ''Black Widow'' in the studio and cut it live - the vocal tracks and everything." The single, "Piece Of My Heart," was the result of Shortino's intense admiration of Janis Joplin. "I really love her," he remarks. "She had a lot of soul, really sang from the heart. Wendy Dio mentioned doing that song so David and I went home, came up with the arrangement, showed it to the band, and it was pure magic when we did the track. I'm a dedicated Janis Joplin fan; in fact, I'd like to also record ''Ball And Chain.'' " he muses, before breaking into a flawless rendition. "Anyway, there was a six-month hold out before the album was actually released." By that time, the group had acquired considerable press attention and appeared on the television series Fame. They headlined a month-long tour of Europe, and participated in a twelve-hour concert marathon in Japan. This summer, Rough Cutt began a five month, 80-city tour opening for Dio in the United States; a cross-country venture that will carry them into the second week of December. Earlier this year, they participated in a Dio founded project, Hear' N Aid, a heavy metal/hard rock star studded recording entitled "Stars," the proceeds of which will raise funds for worldwide famine relief.
"After the tour is over," says Shortino, "we'll begin pre-production for our next album, which is probably going to be released in April or May. We've been writing like crazy, collecting ideas on this little tape recorder we carry with us on the road because we aren't able to bring a portable studio with us yet, We've got enough new material for probably two new albums. We've got some possible working song titles for the album, all of which are song title as well: 'Rip It Up, Tear It Out,' 'Don't Settle For Less,' 'Money Talks,' 'Ball And Chain' - those are all possibilities. The next record is going to be better. The material is a lot better; The band has really grown a lot. We've got some other songs ready: 'All For One,' 'Love Won't Let Me Walk Away,' 'Caught In The Act,' and 'Love Me Tonight - It's Forever,' which is a funky tune that I wrote. There are also four others that, at this point, we aren't sure of the titles for. I also have a song, which I don't have a title for - it's a real pretty song (he offers a cappella sample) and it will probably be the only ballad on the album. I don't know whether to call it 'Every Time I See You' or 'Take My Breath Away' or what! Plus, we're thinking about using older tunes, for example, there's a song called 'Prowler' that Chris and Matt wrote; they had recorded it before the band got together with them and it's a really good song. We've got a lot of material to choose from!"
While Shortino is usually responsible for melodies and lyrics, he notes that "Everybody in the band writes individually and collectively. I've been playing guitar for 16 years, so I write with the guitar and at the piano. I usually write with a melody. I put a chord change around it, and the music around that. I think melodies are really important - if someone can hum what you're doing without any music, that really says something, and not many heavy metal songs actually have that." Shortino feels that the next Rough Cutt album is going to be a progressive step from their debut. "The songs are really better," he emphasizes. "We've all gained a lot of experience; we know more about each other, what each person likes. I'm finding myself more in terms of my voice and what I sing best. The band basically lets me trip on melodies, and I'm a really open-minded person to the point where I take constructive criticism from all of them. We tape our shows every night and listen to them carefully in order to clean up our mistakes. I'm very critical of myself - we all are - and we share our opinions with each other. It's the only way we can learn. Interestingly enough, we seem to all hear and notice the same things about each other."
Belief in the strength of their material is preventing Rough Cutt from feeling any pressure to follow up their debut. "We had bad timing, I guess, when we released the first album," Shortino concludes, "We should have released a bit sooner because of the backlash on heavy metal, but I don't consider this band heavy metal anyway. I consider it heavy rock and roll. We have five writers, so that brings in five different styles. Our first record was pretty versatile; it wasn't all one kind of song or tempo all the way through the album. It went different places, and the next album will take that even further . You take a band like Led Zeppelin - all their albums were a little bit different; they progressed on each record. I think Rough Cutt has that kind of quality; it's going to always change, and always improve."
courtesy of RoughCutt homepage