Orange 9mm

The scene was the basement of the New Hope Center after Orange 9mm had finished their set. The band spokesman, at least on this occasion, was Chaka Malik. He was pretty much physically exhausted from performing, but his mind remained sharp.

SLUG: Vibe Magazine printed an interview with Orange 9mm and your guitarist, Chris Taynor, was strumming your 60-year-old blues guitar during the interview. Is it a National Steel? 

CM: No, it’s a Dobro. It’s a Dupleero or something like that Brothers. The two of them started National and then they left to start the Dobro company. It’s like these three brothers who created the resonator, the resonating guitar. National’s are generally steel bodied, dobros are generally wood bodied.

SLUG: Is that the guitar you are playing on “Kiss It Good-bye?”

CM: Um hum.

SLUG: It sounds really cool.

CM: Thanks. That’s actually one of my personal guitars.

SLUG: Are you playing it? (Sorry, but at the time of the interview I was working from an advance cassette.)

CM: No, I play the bass on that. Gosh I’m sorry, no I didn’t, I’m thinking of something else. Go ahead.

SLUG: The Rolling Stone ran a story about death in the mosh pit. You spent a lot of time in mosh pits when you were growing up. Today there are barriers in front of the stage. In the old days there weren’t. It seems to me the barriers and security guards make things more dangerous than they used to be.

CM: Well, yes and no. I’ve been going to punk shows since I was 16 years old and now I’m 25, so that’s nine years. There were no barriers when I first started going to shows and that was because it was a much smaller situation. It wasn’t like every band you’d go to there would be stage diving. If you went to see a band in 1986, a band you’d go see in a 1,500 seat place, generally no one would be stage diving. Unless it was the Cro-Mags. The reason we didn’t need barriers then was it was an underground scene and everybody kind of knew what to do. You understand what I’m saying? It was kind of like, it was smaller, it was much tighter, there were less people going to shows, everybody knew the routine. Now it’s like different kinds of kids start coming to shows and start getting into dancing in the pit and stage diving, a lot of times they don’t understand. When you dive, okay, make sure there’s somebody there to catch you, and make sure there are people paying attention and you gotta know to not dive if you’re going to hit your head on the ground. You gotta know when you’re dancing it’s not about punching somebody in the face. There’s such a community that’s not there. That’s why there needs to be barriers. Because otherwise kids will fucking kill themselves at a lot of these shows. I’ve been there. A lot of times when we’re playing and there’s a barrier I end up catching some kid who comes flying over that’s not paying attention. A lot of times people just ride the crowd and they expect to be caught by someone. They expect the security guard to catch them. And kids I’m warning you, just don’t expect fucking people to catch you. You gotta like pay attention, control your body when you’re riding the crowd and know exactly where you’re going. That completes our safety lesson for this month. The instructor was one who knows. He’s been on both sides. Unless his words are heeded there will not be any mosh pits, stage diving or “festival seating” type of shows. Your elected officials will pass laws banning such activities. The lobbying is already the beginning.

SLUG: “Fire In The Hole” is on the Escape From LA soundtrack.

CM: It’s also on our new record called Tragic that just came out on July 30. It’s the first song on our record.

SLUG: How did the song get on the soundtrack?

CM: I think it was an Atlantic thing. Our label is Atlantic Records and Atlantic Records puts out the Escape From LA soundtrack. They wanted to showcase some of the bands that they liked and that they wanted to get out there and we thank them for that.

SLUG: Is it a single?

CM: Yes and no. It was a song we gave to certain radio stations to play. The real single is going to be called “Failure” and it will come out in September. “Failure” is about people that beat themselves up and sit around and wonder why they’ve got no life. And it’s because you really didn’t give yourself the chance to fuckin’ do something. It’s about getting out there and doing your share and grabbing what you want by the neck and fucking taking it. Not in a fucked-up disrespectful way, but in a way that makes sense. You know what I’m saying. It’s not all about being ultra-positive. I think that life has some positives and some negatives. Everything is not positive. If everything were positive it would be complete bullshit. “Failure” is one of those songs you can use to either wallow in your pity or to get yourself out of it. I think it’s a great song and hopefully kids will dig on it.

SLUG: How about a video?

CM: Yeah we’re going to make a video for “Failure.” We’re going to make it in California on the 10th or 11th of August.

SLUG: Any hints on what’s in the video?

CM: It’s just gonna be us playing in like this weird area.

It is now September. The single should be coming out. The video is completed. Now we wait for those that govern our tastes and our buying habits to decide the fate of Orange 9mm. The public is incapable of making any decision not influenced by what the television screen tells them is good, worthy and desirable. —SLUG Mag

Read more interviews with musicians of the 90s from the SLUG Archives:
Drill
Les Thugs

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