January 2010 - ORCHID
It is nothing new that we live in times where musical innovation is difficult to find, and for me that's no problem. Let's be honest: how many rock/metal bands have really created something new? There are not many of them. It is however always a pleasure to discover a band which has the ability to write remarkable songs and it all depends on riffs, arrangements and the vocals. With regard to these qualities, San Francisco's ORCHID are way ahead of the competition.
At first sight, their debut 'Through the Devils Doorway' seems like a rehashing of the old Black Sabbath formula, but after listening to the MCD for a few times I must say that ORCHID have significantly more to offer than only this. Charm and esprit - catchy melodic tunes and passionate virtuosity are connected with the spirit of the early 1970's heavy blues rock period. This and more are the reasons why ORCHID are among the best newcomers in the world of doom-laden heavy rock of the last year 2009. Cosmic Lava got in touch with guitarist Mark Thomas Baker and vocalist Theo Mindel to find out more about the band's own philosophy. The results are highly original and refreshing answers from two musicians, who doesn't let themselves be restricted by the demands of the doom mainstream.
First of all, would you mind to resume the band's history? What have you done before you founded ORCHID?
Theo: Ha Ha! Nothing anyone would have heard of gratefully!! I was in a bunch of rock bands growing up. Anything from super heavy Celtic Frost kind of stuff when I was in high school to later on in my early twenties, a band that sounded like Humble Pie. Steve Marriott is still one of my heroes...then later in a band called LOADED that kind of sounded like 60's psych and the Stooges mixed together... Mark and I were in a kind of 70's rock band called BOMBER together, more kind of psychedelic-melodic stuff.
Mark: Theo and I started doing music together in 1996, although we had known each other since maybe 1989 or so. He had just opened a tattoo shop in San Rafael and I stopped in one night to say hello and talk to him. We got talking about music and realized we liked a lot of similar stuff so we decided to jam together. That turned into a band called BOMBER. We did that band from 1996 until 1999. It was earlier 70's rock sounding stuff, Bowie, T-Rex, good British rock and roll in general. That band ran its course and we didn't work together again until 2005. We were still good friends, both of us were very much not into the concept of being in a band and dealing with other people's bullshit though. After about a 3 year phase for me where I was purely into Black Metal, I started to gravitate towards programming synths and drum machines. I played him some electronic stuff I'd done and he wanted to sing on it, so we did a recording project of that stuff for about a year maybe. It was fucking awesome, like Sisters of Mercy or early New Order, dark sounding stuff.
I think that project is what made him want to be in a band again. He told me he wanted to do a heavy band, like the stuff we grew up listening to. I was still completely uninterested in playing in a band. I considered myself past the age where I wanted to put up with all the stuff that goes along with working with 3 or 4 other people on music. I remember at one point telling him I wasn't even interested in playing guitar any longer, just synths. I think it took me about 6-8 months for me to come around to the point where I thought, "Yeah, I want to do this metal band with you". He had everything planned out already, the way we would sound and look. The kind of imagery he wanted to use. I was cool with just playing guitar and not worrying about all of that. It took a year of going through people to find other members that were the right fit and the right mentality to do this. ORCHID is no place for a musician who has a big ego about his playing. I think we started around the end of 2006 and a year later Carter and Nickel were committed to the ORCHID cause. We've grown nicely since then.
'Through The Devils Doorway' is a fantastic debut and even the artwork is superb. The only thing that disturbs me is the fact that's it's only an EP. What was the reason for that decision?
Mark: I knew the full length was going to take a bit longer and I really wanted to get something out there for people to generate some interest. I also liked the way Mercyful Fate did it with an EP followed by a full length. I was glad that both Oli and the rest of the band liked my plan and went along with it.
