Since their inception in 2007, Orchid appear to have been riding the
crest of a wave, building a formidable reputation for themselves,on the back
of 5 official releases in the last four years, culminating with the release of
The Mouths of Madness on heavy metal heavyweight label, Nuclear Blast. Not bad at all, considering the genre of doom
is largely an underground force, however given the recent success of one Black
Sabbath, who’s to say Orchid or other bands of this type, can’t go on to emulate
the god fathers of doom.
Orchid have been thrust into the spotlight and been hailed in some
quarters as the ‘next’ Black Sabbath. So
with that in mind, I thought a Sludgelord interview would be in order to
discuss all things Orchid and to get their views on being hailed as the ‘most
important doom band of the last five years’.
This is what happened when I talked to Mark Thomas Baker, guitarist with Orchid a few week back. Enjoy!
Mark, welcome to the Sludgelord, thanks for doing this
SL) How are things in the Orchid? You recently finished up a European
tour, how was that and what are your plans for the remainder of 2013?
Mark) Things are going
ok, thanks for asking. The tour went pretty good. It was by far our longest
time out and we were all pretty happy to get home when it was over. There were
a lot of nerves going into it as we had prepared for months to support
Witchcraft only to be told the day before we left that they had cancelled and
we would be the headliner. When we got there we heard that Spain and France San Francisco
SL) Congratulations on the successful of The Mouth of Madness, you must
be stoked at the response to the record.
No.18 in the German chart is awesome. Can you tell us about the record and the process of putting it
together? Is it fair to say you wear
your influences on your sleeve, so to speak?
Mark)
Charting that high in Germany
SL) So you talked a little about
how the album came together, but readers might be thinking, who the hell are
Orchid? Give us the lowdown on the
gestation of Orchid, how you came together?
Mark) Theo
and I have known each other since the late 80s when we both played around the San Francisco San Rafael
SL) To me, it may be a given that Black Sabbath turned you into what you
are today and SF is the home of Metallica, but which band or artist turned you guys onto
Heavy Metal/Rock and wanting to form a band?
What was it like growing up in your hometown and being fans of metal for
example?
Mark) It was fantastic
being a 14-15 year old kid with the thrash metal scene exploding around me! Probably
seeing Metallica early on, and not just them, but also Exodus, Megadeth, Death
Angel, those are the bands that made me know that I could do it too.
SL) How did your influences from music and different art mould Orchid
into what we have today?
Mark) I probably can’t answer
that as Orchid is pretty much Theo’s trip artistically and sound wise and the
other three of us are sort of like actors in his movie. That might sound weird
and be overstating it a bit, but it’s sort of like that.
SL) 2007, Orchid came into existence,
when did you go from say a garage band that jammed, to writing and
releasing your own music, did your sound come organically?
Mark) It’s been like this
from the start. A lot of the songs on Capricorn are some of the first things we
ever wrote. Even on the new album, Marching Dogs of War is a really old riff
from the first year of jamming. Some of it is organic; some of it is very
calculated.
SL) In your experience, how easy/difficult was it for Orchid to get
coverage in the early days?
Mark) I guess it seems
like it was pretty easy. We never tried to do anything, things just kind of
happened as soon as we had some demos done.
SL) What would you say to bands that were willing to sacrifice
originality in favour of success? Do you have any words of wisdom for any
up-and-coming bands that are out there?
Mark) Man, I just don’t
know what anyone could do to be original these days. I really don’t know what
the fuck is left in rock music that hasn’t been covered already. Don’t quit
your day job. Even if you are on a bigger label, there is no fucking money in
this, so you better love what you’re playing or it will get old pretty quick.
SL) you’re 6 or so years down the line with Orchid, are your aspirations
the same as they were when you formed?
What is your M.O. if you will?
Mark) There were no
aspirations when we started doing this, so the further along we go, the more we
wonder how far it can go. I’m pretty sure we’ll do one more album, but I
wouldn’t guess on anything beyond that. I’m not sure any of us see ourselves
spending a bunch of time on tour. We’re all pretty resistant to being away from
home for long periods at a time.
SL) What were your aims for The Mouths of Madness and has it exceeded
your expectations? It has been remarked
that it is the record Black Sabbath should have made, thoughts?
Mark) I think every day
that we are still doing this exceeds my expectations. Haha. I get kind of
bugged when I hear that stuff that we’re the new Sabbath or this is the album
they should have made. I don’t think we really reach those kinds of heights at
all. It’s insulting to Sabbath for people to say stuff like that. We’re more
paying homage to a certain era of theirs, not trying to be a competitor.
SL) Would you say that this record stretched you both as performers and
creatively?
Mark) I think so. You
have to try to stretch a little and add something to your bag of tricks every
time. There were certain songs on this album that forced my playing to be
different in a way that I hadn’t done before. It was a bit difficult getting
there at times. The leads in Mountains of Steel and the acoustic leads in See
You on the Other Side were definitely different for me.
SL) The record certainly feels like it could have been conceived in the
70’s and has that vintage old school sound, was that the specific aim, did you
record to analogue for example as opposed to pro-tools?
Mark) It’s supposed to
sound that way. I don’t think we nailed it at all. Lately I’ve been hearing
Wizard of War on the radio here in the states and it just sounds like shit,
totally muddy and lo-fi to the point that I just can’t stand hearing it. The
masters for the cd and vinyl are fine for me, but something about the radio
compression just fucking ruined that one. The album was not recorded to tape.
We are talking about how we’d really like to try to be good enough to do that
on the next one though. I think we’d like to get a little more fidelity without
sounding too modern.
SL) I’m assuming all musicians like to talk about the gear they use, so
with the previous question in mind what do you use in terms of guitars, amps
and why? Also what tuning do you use?
Mark) I’m not sure that I
get that excited about it, but I’ll try to indulge everyone! Haha. For this
album I used my main live guitar, which is a 2005 ’61 SG reissue. Most of
Mouths was tracked through two different amps, a 60w Laney Supergroup, and a
100w Sound City MKIII. Both are from the early 70’s. Most of the tracks have
those layered together. When we play live, I usually use an Orange
SL) Taking a more general view of the changes in the music industry how
important is the role of social media, such as facebook, twitter, blogs and has this source of media been particular
important to Orchid as a band?
Mark) I’m sure we would
be unknown and just doing this for fun if not for social media. I don’t think
anyone would have ever heard us if not for posting some demo tracks on a
MySpace page way back in 2008. It’s important for sure, as well as being a bit
of a pain in the ass trying to keep up with it all.
SL) It has been announced today, 3/7/2013, that The Mouths of Madness
will be released on cassette through our bros at Easy Rider records whom I
recently interviewed... What do think about the renewed interest in this format
and what’s your preference? Cassette,
CD, Digital Download or Vinyl? And why?
Mark) This is the first
I’ve heard of this cassette release, so naturally I wrote everyone at NB and
asked “what the fuck is this guy talking about?”. Funny thing was, I had read
the interview that you did with him a few days earlier and I thought, “that guy
seems cool and has a cool trip going on”...and then I hear that we’re going to
do a cassette release with him. It should be pretty cool! I like listening to
vinyl when I can. It really just depends on the situation or where you are. I
do dig records though.
SL) As music fans yourselves and given that music seems to be so
disposal at times, how important for you to present a great package for the
release of your record?
Mark) It’s a huge part of
the Orchid trip and I know that people do appreciate it because they tell us
that all the time and I see people writing about online.
SL) Do you have some favourite cuts from the
new record? Anything that you particularly like to play live, or that has been
well received by audiences?
Mark) I’d like to play more of the new stuff than
we do, but we’re just not there yet. Hopefully for the November tour we will be
playing more of the new album. Wizard of War is always a blast to play live and
it seems like people kind of go off when it kicks in. My favorite tracks to
listen to from the new album are probably Nomad and Leaving it All Behind. Not
sure why, I guess I just like the emotion in them.
SL) Do you have any interesting stories from your tours, favourite
places you’ve toured and bands you’ve toured with or bands you’d like to share
the stage with?
Mark) In general, it’s a
good experience in the larger German cities for us. The venues are nice and all
the amenities are pretty modern. We don’t usually get to spend a lot of time
anywhere, so there are only a few places where I’ve actually had a day off to
go do anything. Last tour that day was in Salzburg ,
Austria
SL) Reflecting upon your time together as a band, what have been some of
the high and low point in your careers?
Mark) Nothing really that
bad has ever happened to us. All of this was totally unexpected, so it’s all
kind of a high. For me, the low points are all the business dealings that go
along with it. I hate thinking about all of that kind of shit and going to
meetings and listening to people talk about different deals and future plans
and all the deadlines that come with that kind of stuff. I really only like the
private part of being in the band. By that I mean the time that we are in our
room jamming together and creating music. I don’t care that much about all the
public stuff. I often wonder if it’s worth the trouble. This is just me
personally speaking though, not speaking for the band.
SL) Thanks for answering my questions, but one final question, you got
anything you like to say to your fans?
Mark) Thank you all for
the support! Hopefully our best is still in front of us.
As ever, show your support to the band by checking them out at the various links.
