The Playlist

The Code Orange guitarist/vocalist Reba Meyers talks starting on bass, killer riffs and her aversion to solos

The first song I learned to play... Seven Nation Army – The White Stripes “This was the first song I learned to play on bass because it was easy. Me and Jamie used to sit around and just learn songs by My Chemical Romance, and then Minor Threat. It was a real collection of stuff that was all over the map. I met Jamie in middle school and he was into punk, his parents were into punk and he showed me some stuff. I thought it was sick and we ended up being in a band. I started off on bass and then moved over to guitar. It was punk music that got me into guitar – Minor Threat and Black Flag. I’d just listen to them and try to learn how to play these songs. We weren’t usually good enough to learn a full song so that is why we started writing our own stuff. We thought that at least that way we could write to our own abilities.” The song I love playing right now... Spy – Code Orange “Spy is super high-energy and it’s also not that hard for me to play so I can give my all up on stage. The Mud is fun as well, that’s a real weird song that catches some people off guard.” The first song that our band covered... Killing In The Name – Rage Against The Machine “This was one of the first songs that we covered as a band. This was while I was still a bass player. We covered a few more things when I was playing guitar. But we didn’t play too many covers, we were always more into writing our own material. I wouldn’t mind maybe covering some Type O Negative now. That would be weird but cool.” The riff that I wish I’d written... Floods – Pantera “Something like Floods is amazing. The guitar hits so hard. There are so many riffs that I wish I had written. There’s some stuff on one side of the spectrum that is so simple but so hard – stuff like Hatebreed. Some of their riffs are so straightforward but they hit really well. It’s about the whole picture though. That’s how our band is too. We have some riffs that standalone but for the most part it is about

the whole band.“ The hardest song to play in our set... Forever – Code Orange “This is the first song that we play in our set and my hands aren’t usually warmed up fully when we play it. It’s hard to keep the consistent chugging going without falling about and gassing out because it’s the first song. It’s never going to be perfect, we do our best.” The song that showcases an amazing solo... Nutshell – Alice In Chains “I’m really not very big on soloing. I think I can only listen to maybe three solos for more than a couple of seconds. This solo, there’s something about it. He’s not playing a bunch of notes to be flashy. The notes he picks are so emotional and resonate with you. A guitar solo should never be a flashy, ‘Hey, this is the guitar solo part now.’” The song I would play to someone that had never heard my band... Bleeding In The Blur – Code Orange “Well, I would try to read the person a little bit first [laughs]. If it was someone that liked heavy music, I would play them Forever because that one has all kinds of stuff. If it was a normal person that had never heard heavy music I would play them Bleeding In The Blur. A lot of people say they heard that song and came to check us out. That was also the first time we ever did a guitar solo. We made it short and it served its point.” Code Orange’s latest album, Forever, is out now on Roadrunner