Rockezine.com interview with Orange Goblin on Mar 01, 2002

with Pete O`Malley and Martyn Millard on Mar 01, 2002

A couple of hours before the show, guitarist Pete O`Malley and bassist Martyn Millard are relaxed and comfortable. As Grand Magus is doing their soundcheck we move upstairs to find a more quiet place. In the ... room we sit at a table. The walls are covered with posters and promo-pictures of the numerous bands that played the legendary Vera club over the years. From Mudhoney to Napalm Death and from Rollins Band to Slayer. This is the room they all waited in, probably bored, before the show. Seems like the right place to talk to Orange Goblin.
		Ok, to start off: The new album, Coup The Grace, are you satisfied with it? Martyn: Very much so! Definitely the album we’ve wanted to make for a long time. Very rock `n` roll. A bit punkrock. There`s no leaving things out because it might not be us. There`s just... us. Basically this is the first full album where we do what we wanted to do. So everything you hear is just us and if you don`t like it: fair enough.
		Over the years there`s been quite a change. Time Traveling Blues was typical stoner with more mid-tempo, longer tracks. Did you really choose to change or did it just happen? Pete: No, to be honest I don`t think it was intentional. We do actually want to get away from the stoner rock tag. But that`s because we never thought we were stoner rock. We have no problem hanging around with bands that do classify themselves as stoner rock but the majority of the fans don`t anyway. It`s like, a media thing and we`re from England so we can`t be really stoner rock can we! We`re heavy me`al. Martyn: The straining thing is not stoner rock itself. The thing is people pigeonhole you, label you and things. That can be restrictive It`s not that we`ve made such a drastic change. I mean, we don`t want to be stoner rock but there are tings on the album you can call stoner rock.
		No, but it`s the feeling of the album. Pete: Yeah, but you can tell it`s us. We quickened up a bit. Martyn: And we`re slightly more aggressive and have more attitude as well.
		What are the reactions so far? Pete: Good, but we don`t really know yet because it`s not in general release yet. We`re looking forward to see what the fans think. We sell them at the shows. It`s nice to get a bit of feedback and it`s usually good. We`re starting to get reviews and they`re quite good. We`ve only done one show so far though. We`re playing a hell of a lot of new songs live while the album`s not even out. Nine out of twelve songs are new which can be hard. You can`t expect people to be going nuts because they don`t know what they`re hearing. The first show went down ok.
		The Misfits cover. Where did that come from? Martyn: It`s the same sort of thing really. Most bands do a cover from the seventies you know, like Mountain or whatever. We`re just doing something different. We could do a Sex Pistols cover. This is our thing. It`s a step away from the stoner rock label. Pete: If you listen to all four of our albums there`s fast songs on every one.
		Yeah, but it`s obvious you want something different. Pete & Martyn: Yeah. Martyn: It`s very accessible. Big Black was very heavy and very bottom end while this is very accessible and easier to listen to. There`s more choruses, really catchy stuff. And the We Bite thing was just... Martyn: We do our cover! Ha ha. The cover on the album is actually totally live. The album is mainly recorded live. 80% was recorded live. What you hear is us playing together in the studio. The vocals are not live and some guitar bits. But We Bite is totally straight live. Apart from the backing vocals. Us shouting very English: We Boit! Pete: (Laughing) And not very aggressive!
		Produced by Scott Reeder.... Pete: Good Bloke. Martyn: Good friend of ours really. (Smiles:)It`s going to be hard, us saying we want to get away from stoner rock when we`ve got John Garcia and Scott Reeder on the album. Scott was actually supposed to be recording and producing the Big Black but his father died and he had to sort out things in the States. And next choice to us was obviously Billy Anderson. But that`s where Scott comes from. Pete: And we did a small tour with Unida anyway. We got along really well with each other. Martyn: Good friends. And he`s good to work with. He`s got different ideas and this stuff we never tried before. Pete: He`s a very talented man.
		And John Garcia`s a friend from the tour as well? Pete: Pretty much yeah. Martyn: John flew in for two days. He sort of flew in, recorded and flew home again.
		He didn`t co-write the songs? Martyn: No, but he definitely sat down with Ben for a couple of hours. He was very serious about it and really wanted to do it right. Pete: We have good contact with him ever since the Unida tour. Ben`s always on the phone with him. Martyn: The album was recorded in the middle of nowhere really. There was nothing but a local pub. But! We drank an incredible amount of alcohol over there. We had really good fun. We take the music very seriously but when we record it`s all really relaxed. It always has been. We never get really pinned up or frustrated.
		A lot of bands release records through different labels, you have been with Rise Above for a long time now. What`s your status within the label, are you one of the main bands? Pete: Still hanging around, heh heh. Well, thee main band. Martyn: We don`t want to sound big headed but we are, you know. I think this is our last one with Rise Above. We`re at the end of our deal. Rise Above was going to go to Music For Nations and as soon as Big Black was released they cut their ties with Rise Above. Obviously with us as well. So we had no tour support, we had nothing. So the Big Black was a waste. Rise Above has gone to Dreamcatcher now, which seems good at the moment. Hopefully we now get more money for tour support.
		Are you looking for another label? Martyn: Not at the moment really. We`ve reached a stage where we can live and do what we do. We all have our families now. We`ve all lost work. Pete: A lot of that is on the new album. A lot of the new faster stuff was because we released a good album with the Big Black and we got joked around really. Martyn: We ‘was’ totally screwed.
		By Music For Nations? Both: Yeah. Pete: Pretty much yeah. They just didn`t have any faith in us actually.
		And the tour with Alice Cooper. How many shows did you do? Pete: O ho! That was fun. Five or six. It weren`t many but it were big shows: Wembley Arena.. The crowds weren`t big when we were playing. We were the first band on. Martyn: We ‘was’ on as soon as the doors opened. Alice Cooper was playing nearly two-hour sets and Dio was on between us and Alice Cooper. And he was doing over an hour so we was on in the middle of the afternoon. It`s nice to play big rooms. Just checking them out and playing the Arena. Pete: It`s a dream when you`re a kid. Martyn: We lived around Wembley. Pete: I used to sell T-shirts there as a job. Martyn: I worked there once `round the bar. Pete: I did hot dogs there! It`s a great place to play but there was no one there. Martyn: Some of the other shows were good. Where they`re all standing and there`re no seats and they all came up front. But the Wembley is all seats and they was just spread around. There are over a thousand people in there but it looks like there`s no one.
		I read on your website that you made it into the Mirror? Pete: The Daily Mirror, a tabloid. Yeah. Martyn: It was a bit strange. It came out of the blue didn`t it? Pete: It was Matthew Rights, the man who does all the showbiz columns. He just happens to like bands like Black Sabbath and stuff. He said that when he saw the song titles on the back of Big Black, like Quincy The Pig Boy, he listened to it. And then he just put it in. Check out the new Orange Goblin. We was all at work and workmates came and said: `Did you see this?` And I was like `........Fuck! Shit! Daily Mirror!` Ha ha ha. People read it. Millions do. Pete: It`s a shame we didn`t get any shows of it. Martyn: We only did a small UK tour with Goatsnake, Nebula and Roadsaw. With two shows in Holland and that was it. We did a couple of big shows in the UK like the Monster Magnet support.
		But you`re a live band... Pete: Yeah, that was because of Music For Nations. We didn`t get enough money for tour support so we couldn`t go on tour. Which was really, really annoying.
		You said you all have families now. Does that fit in with the rock `n` roll lifestyle? Martyn: It`s very hard. It has to. It`s not easy though. Myself and Ben have children and everyone`s got mortgages to pay. We`ve been doing it for six or seven years now and when there comes a time you don`t get any money it becomes harder and harder. It`s not that we do this for the money but you got to live. I got two children and I`ve got to make sure there`s food on the table. So it can be tricky. We`re doing five weeks of touring and then we go home for two weeks. Then we go to the states for five weeks with Alabama Thunderpussy. We`ll never be millionaires but it would be nice if we could get a small wage. We make most of our money on merchandise.
		Are you going to play a lot of new songs this tour? Martyn: Yeah, we play sixteen songs and nine of them are new. It`s hard for the crowd. Pete: Actually I don`t think it`s too hard with our style of music. Martyn: We expected it to be out a few weeks ago but it`s not out until next Monday. We put a set together and rehearsed the fuck out of it so we didn`t want to change the set. We actually recorded a video for the song Monkey Panic. It`s been directed by Alex Berglund from Entombed. Hopefully Dreamcaster can get it on MTV. We hope that by the end of the tour people have seen it.
		What`s in the video? (Both start laughing) Martyn: Ooh dear! Pete: People dressed up in monkey suits. It`s in a club where we play quite a lot in London. Ben and Alex came up with this story that a guy walks in a club and keeps seeing monkeys out of the corners of his eyes. Eventually at the end of the night there`s monkeys on stage. Martyn: We`re all in big gorilla suits and all that. Pete: It`s all good fun. Martyn: It`s terrible..heh..heh..heh. We must have mimed that song at least thirty times and by the end of the day almost everyone was gone. Ha ha. Pete: It`s fun. It`ll make you smile!
		(Walter de Korver)