So first of all, how are you today? Joe: Great! Been going to sleep way to early these days. Like 11pm! How un rock n roll of me right?
Alec: HECTIC! But amazing, went to watch iron man with my main squeezes Joe and Alysia, loads of fun!
Zak: I’m great. im on a well needed day off. Just relaxing watching tv and hanging out with some friends.
Perry: I’m doing great today. at the moment i’m sitting in the las vegas airport, heading home after a lost weekend in the desert. i attended this years annual punk rock bowling.
Are you excited to be coming back to the UK in july for the Orange Tour?
Joe: Fuck to the yes to the gangsta. We cant wait! England is the best place weve ever toured and our fans there ROCK so much harder than they do in America. Plus the girls are way cuter.
Alec: Of course, last tour was by far one of the best experiences i’ve ever had. Met so many amazing people and can’t wait to make new friends.
Zak: Fuck yes! i can’t wait to get back across the pond. I love it over in england. people know how to have a good time over there.
Perry: I cant wait to come back to the u.k.! we had such a blast the first time and i can only imagine how fun this tour is going to be. it’s going to be different since this essentially a headlining tour but i’m confident that it will be one for the books!
Have you got any funny/weird tour stories you would like to share with us?
Joe: Oh wow, where to begin… There are literally hundreds. Off the top of my head this one time me and the guys mummified Zak with toilet paper and made his casually go about his entire day like that! Luckily we have the whole thing on film. After a few hours we stripped him of his toilet paper armor in the middle of Hollywood Blvd. Zak wasn’t wearing any clothes underneath….
Alec: Wind Settlers(zak), enough said.
Zak: this one will stick with me for my whole life: it was the fourth night of the tour and i had been drinking pretty heavily. i was on the side of the stage watching zebrahead and thought it would be a good idea to stage dive. BAD IDEA. i wound up breaking my foot and having severe pain, as well as a limp for the rest of the tour. when i got back to the US, i had to be on crutches for another month to let my foot heal.
Joe: Oh for sure, but at the end of the day they are our fans so we cant hold any negative feelings towards them at all. We love you all too much! I get a little too giddy sometimes when I meet people I really look up to as well sometimes…. Sometimes. Sometimes.
Alec: I wouldn’t necessarily say crazy, maybe a bit excited, but i really am happy to meet people who like what we do. If it wasn’t for the fans we would have nothing, and i really do feel lucky to have the awesome fans we do.
Zak: I make it an effort to talk to everyone i can at one of our shows. we definitely have met some crazy fans, but you just have to take them in stride. they love your band, so you should at least give them some acknowledgment and show them your thanks.
Perry: I have yet to meet a fan that’s as crazy as me. i’m a huge music fan and i while i don’t consider myself a “crazy” fan, i do have bands that i love to death and would completely wig if given the chance to hang out with them. So i’m grateful for every fan…even the crazies
I am loving the new video for Generator Rex! How does it feel to have your music as the theme song to a cartoon network show? (View video HERE from previous post)
Joe: Absolutely fucking amazing!!! It is one of the best things that’s ever happened to us. The response has been overwhelming and last time I checked the video had 150,000 views on the generator rex website! Honestly were so so happy and so so thankful that this has happened.
Alec: To be honest its a little weird. I remember being a little kid and watching cartoon network and just being so enamored with the shows and to be apart of it is a little surreal. I never thought i would be on such a cool network representing such an awesome show.
Zak: it all came so quick! i was told 3 days before we shot the music video for the show that we were actually going to be doing the theme song for generator rex. i get phone calls from friends every day saying “hey i just saw you on cartoon network! what the fuck!!!!?!?!?”
Perry: It’s definatly a trip to have our video being played all over cartoon network. I have been playing music for a long time so it’s nice to feel like we are finally getting some recognition. We actually just the the opportunity to tour the cartoon network headquarters, which was f-ing amazing. So yeah, it’s an honor…hopefully cartoon network is just the beginning.
Have you always wanted to be a musician, if not, what did you want to be when you were younger?
Joe: When I was younger I wanted to be a writer and an actor. Mike and I, who also used to play in Orange, used to write these hysterical scripts together and film them starring only the 2 of us. We would play every character in these ridiculous costumes. We had so much fun! Ive always wanted to put them on the Orange DVD when we do one.
Alec: Surprisingly yes. I begged my parents for guitar lessons, when i was a kid. Never got them, so i had to teach myself. I have always been fascinated with music and how you can evoke so many emotions with something as simple as a guitar. Before orange i played in a few other bands/worked in studios, i really can’t imagine myself doing anything else.
Zak: ever since i was 5 years old i knew i wanted to play music and/or be involved in the music industry. there is nothing better than traveling all over the world and meeting the local people, eating the local food and partying alongside everyone my band and the locals every night.
Perry: Well, i guess yes i’ve always wanted to be a musican, unless you count those years in elementary school where i wanted to be an archeologist. i totally wanted to be indiana jones! but yeah as long as i’ve been playing guitar i’ve been craving the stage.
It must of been amazing being signed by Rancid’s Tim Armstrong! Can you remember where you were when you got the news, and how much did your life change when Orange started to get noticed?
Joe: Well theres actually an interesting story behind that. Hellcat were the smallest label that wanted to sign us at the time. We had labels like Geffen, V2, Interscope, and Sony all wanting us but we decided at the end of it that Hellcat were really the only label at the time that didn’t want to change us too much and get song writers in and market us to Disney. We could have been the punk rock Jonas Brothers.Zak: I was at our first show when our manager came up to us and said “hey tim from rancid is here and he wants to sign you guys” at first i was skeptical, but then when we finally signed it was one of the best moments of my life.
Joe and Zak have been in the band since the start of Orange, How did you meet Perry and Alec and did the band change much musically when they joined? (To Perry and Alec: You guys haven’t been in the band as long as Joe and Zak, how did you meet them and how did you get in to the band?)
Joe: Alec and Perry joined the band at a time when Phoenix was already written so the sound was changing so much already before they came in. I wrote most of the songs for the album at a time when the only members in Orange were just me and Zak while we were in between getting new members in. That being said though what Perry and Alec bring to Orange is in-fucking-credible. The best guys and the best friends I’ve ever had. I would drop trou for them.
Alec: I actually met the guys when they were working on there first album, we were working with the same producer at the time. We became very close friends and i filled in for them here and there on a few shows. Joe later gave me a call and asked if i wanted to become an official member, so i thought to myself “i get to play music with some of the coolest dudes i know? FUCK YA!”
Zak: well, ever since our early days, we have been friends with perry and alec. it just took a few people to quit the band to get the lineup that we finally needed to take it to the next level. i feel like with our current lineup, we all are able to focus on our goals on playing as much as possible and getting our music out to as many people as possible.
Perry: I met joe at a hellcat christmas party, somehow me and and a couple friends were able to get in and at the end of the night i met joe, and he was too drunk to drive home so i game him a lift, a few months later i got the call…and the rest is history.
Are there any other bands you would like to tour with, or even duet with?
Joe: Yeah like a hundred! Touring or working with our hero’s of course would be amazing. Green Day, Weezer, Sum 41, Blink 182, Social Distortion, Muse, Andrew WK… The list goes on and on and on. And on. And… on.
Alec: There are tooooooo many to list. Im trying to think of one of my top favorites and there are so many to name i think i would run out of space.
Zak: my dream tour would be to open up for one of my favorite bands: Blink 182. i konw it sounds corny, but they have been such a big part of my childhood and adolescence, that it would just be a dream come true.
Are there any songs you would love to cover, and why?
Joe: Peace love and understanding by Elvis Costello, Spice up your life by Spice Girls, No one by Alicia Keyes and the Pokemon theme song.
Alec: “Radio, Radio” by Elvis Costello. Just an amazing song by one of my biggest hero’s.
Zak: I want to cover the song “jinx removing” by a band called jawbreaker.
Perry: I would love to cover the song “Gates of Steel” by DEVO. I grew up listening to them. to me its such an epic fun song…besides we already cover help by the beatles another favorite of mine.
Affirmation song is one of my favorites on Welcome to the World of Orange, but what made you decide on recording that song as an acoustic bonus track? and have you ever thought about maybe doing an acoustic album?
Joe: Im not sure if I would be interested in doing a purely acoustic album but I would love to do something like what Green Day did with Warning. Or something along the lines of Frank Turner, I think he’s amazing. I was a fan years before he got famous.
Zak: As a drummer, an acoustic album sounds like no drums! fuck that! keep the loud rock going!
What do you guys like to get up to when you’re not on tour with the band, do you have any hobbies?
Joe: Video games, beer, and wanking.
Alec: Hang out with my HUGE family, I’m 1 of 6 kids, and have tons of nieces, nephews, and cousins. And ummmmmm, oh ya, play guitar.
Zak: When im not on tour i enjoy riding bikes, hanging out with friends and playing poker.
Perry: When i’m not on tour i do other work as well. Rock n’ Roll doesn’t pay all the bills the way it used to. But as far as other hobbies, ummm i like to cook, eat, sleep, watch movies, party, read, play video games. Im just an average guy.
Any favorite songs/albums right now?
Joe: I am in love at the moment with Muse and Phycadellic Furs. They are for sure my biggest inspirations for the new album I’m writing.
Alec: I love music so the only real way to answer that is to tell you what’s in my CD player at the moment. I’ve been listening to The Band “Music from big pink” such amazingly talented musicians. Every song has such beautiful melodies/sounds i love to get lost in.
Zak: I am really liking the album “ups and downsizing” by the swellers.
Perry: I just recently got into the strokes, but also the singer Julian Casablancas. He has a solo record out right now which is brilliant!
And my final question, what made you decide to call your band Orange?
Joe: Well, it was a few weeks before our first show and we needed a name! We had lots and lots of names before we settled on Orange. Raven 54, Nameless, West si-eed. But ultimately Orange has always been my favorite color and it was also the title of the first song I ever wrote which is on Welcome to the world of Orange so therefore it represented the beginning of everything to me.
Alec: Thats more of a Joe question, but if im not mistaken it was his favorite color. It is a pretty sexy color.
Zak: WHY NOT?
Perry: Sorry to say that i can’t answer this question. I think it was Joe’s favorite color as a kid, haha. but you’d have to confirm it with him….or maybe it’s cause nothing rhymes with it.
Take care Jodie! and thank you!!!
