Today we’re bringing you a full stream of Taxonomy, the new full-length from Vegas progressive/post-hardcore band Oranges. The album was produced and engineered by Mike Sahm at Dream Awake Audio, it was mixed and mastered by Stephan Hawkes at Interlace Audio and it features artwork by Joel Kirschenbaum. Taxonomy is available today from Blue Swan Records.
In celebration of the album’s release, we spoke with the band about their origins, songwriting process and more.
You guys formed in 2012, but you were playing together prior to that in At Sixes and Sevens. So how did Oranges come together? How did you settle on that nearly unGooglable name?
Oranges came together when we parted ways with our second guitarist that we played with in At Sixes and Sevens. It was kind of a fresh start from our high school band. The name was originally a suggestion to Narrowed back when they were changing their name from “Chuck the Yeti” to “Marathon” (we were calling them Chuck Spaghetti or other nonsensical things that rhymed). They didn’t like it, so we took it.
What was the songwriting process like on Taxonomy?
Our songwriting process is pretty straightforward: one of us will come up with an idea and if we all are into it, then we just kind of build off of it, working on transitions and spicing it up until we’re happy. This is the first time that we’ve experimented with actually notating our songs out and being able to dissect everything out on paper, so that’s been really helpful.
What bands – local and national – influenced your sound on Taxonomy?
Locally: Alaska has been a pretty big motivator for us. Watching those dudes constantly working hard and writing real dope tunes has always kept us on our toes.
Internationally:
Parker: Foals, R Kelly, The Progress, Polar Bear Club
Ricky: International dj0nt
Mason: Blakfish, MF Doom, Blackstar
Skylar: Animals as Leaders, Chon, Mouse on the Keys, The Cambiata
Your last release was an EP in 2013 – why the long gap between releases?
The long gap was for a couple of things, but the main reason we really took our time with the writing process was because we wanted to make sure we were 100% on everything that we wrote since it was our first album. Secondly, we all got jobs with different schedules so that sucked. After recording, the extra time has been spent getting everything else together (artwork, orders, etc) in preparation for the release. Shoutsouts to Joel for pulling together our artwork quickly and reliably after other artists snowflaked out.
I love the seemingly irreverent nature of your song titles – titles like “Snow Monkeys(So You Think is a Fucking Game?)” and “Part I. Ernest Goes to Whatever.” I feel like they well represent the Vegas song title lineage passed down by Curl Up and Die. How are song titles chosen?
The song titles usually represent how we were feeling at a certain point in time, sometimes relevant to the song, other times definitely not. For example, “Wildcard Joey Ain’t Shit” we wrote during a time where we were playing a lot of League of Legends with Cody and Nick from Alaska. Nick would always pick this bunk character (Twisted Fate) and would swear that “He’s actually really good,” only to spend the next 20 minutes getting killed.
Now you guys are on Blue Swan Records – congrats! How did you get hooked up with those guys?
Hey thanks meng! Sergio [Medina. Stolas] just messaged us one day and asked for the album because Will had a long drive and wanted some tunes. Will was scouting for bands, so we sent them to him and I guess he liked us or something.
What’s your favorite Blue Swan release thus far?
Hail the Sun’s Pow! Right in the Kisser is our fav. It’s technically not a “Blue Swan release” unless you count the re-master, but it brings us back to those baby days playing with them when they were just a tiny little band that not a lot of people knew of.
The all-ages scene in Vegas has changed a lot since you guys started, with countless venues shutting down and being replaced by a more vibrant house show scene. Why do you think Vegas struggles with all-ages venues?
The city focuses all of their efforts into the entertainment on the strip. This being said, it never favors well for the bands starting out here in town because you’ll be playing a house show and the cops will shut it down at 8:00 and tell you to join a cover band at the Rio.
Do you have an all-time favorite Vegas venue?
All-time favorite would definitely be Yayo Taco, probably forever. It was the place of origin for a lot of the bands in our Vegas family: Alaska, Caravels, ourselves, and many others. One of the things that set Yayo apart was the general feeling that you didn’t know what to expect every night. Someone could show up there almost any night and hear intimate sets of many different styles of music. It was the place where this scene realized that Vegas has something to offer: an original desert sound that can’t be replicated.
Thanks, guys! If you like what you hear, you can order the album now via Blue Swan Records. You can also pick it up in person on Sept. 25 at the Zarfest Fairgrounds, supporting Alaska at their tour kickoff show with My Iron Lung. Details for that gig can also be found on Facebook. It is also available digitally via Bandcamp.
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