When the virus screwed up their album release campaign, CODE ORANGE took control.
Reckon a pandemic is gonna stop 2020 being Code Orange’s year? Through quick thinking, bold ideas and some unlikely collabs, Pittsburgh’s finest have shown the rest of the metal scene how it’s done
This year should have been Code Orange’s most successful to date – a new album, massive tours and high-profile festival spots. But with a certain worldwide lockdown falling on the cusp of Underneath’s release, cancelling all foreseeable tours and festivals, they had to act fast. In just two days, Code Orange completely reinvented how a metal band can operate. Frontman Jami Morgan and guitarist Reba Meyers tell us how they did it.
YOU RELEASED UNDERNEATH IN MARCH AND THEN LOCKDOWN HAPPENED. WHEN DID YOU GUYS REALISE THAT YOUR PLANS
WERE SCREWED?
Jami: “A couple days before the record came out we were supposed to have our big record release show in Pittsburgh. That’s when we kind of realised everything was coming to a halt.”
AT WHAT POINT DID YOU GET YOUR HEADS TOGETHER AND THINK, ‘RIGHT, WE HAVE AN ALBUM OUT, HOW DO WE DEAL
WITH THIS?’
Reba: “It’s funny – me and Jami were in a car ride and we both randomly brought up: ‘Well, what if we live-stream it?’ I think we both clicked on that idea like at the same time. It was a very quick transition; I think if we had taken time to accept that we weren’t going to
“WE HAD TO FIGURE OUT A NEW PLATFORM. WE DON’T SIT AROUND CRYING”
JAMI MORGAN
be able to do anything, we would have been pretty destroyed because of how much work we put in.”
YOU GUYS HAD A BUNCH OF OTHER TOURS PLANNED FOR 2020, INCLUDING YOUR RUN WITH JESUS PIECE AND SHOW ME THE BODY, AND ALSO KNOTFEST. WERE YOU UPSET ABOUT CANCELLING EVERYTHING?
Reba: “I mean, we were just confused. We were bummed out about the tour [but] it was almost like that became small for a minute. There’s a greater thing going on and it still is.”
Jami: “It is what it is. You try to avoid it, you try to make it not happen but you realise it’s not in your control and so you just put your mind toward, ‘OK, what are we gonna do?’ We’ve worked for two years on this record, we think it’s the best record that’s gonna come out this year for heavy music and rock music, period. So, we have to figure out what we need to create a platform for that. We don’t sit there crying about it, it’s just life.”
YOU WERE ONE OF THE FIRST METAL BANDS TO TAKE AFFIRMATIVE ACTION WITH THE LIVE-STREAMS. HOW DID THAT GO FROM AN IDEA INTO A REALITY?
Reba: “I think we were just trained since we were young to really take matters into our own hands. People sometimes wait for their leader, or their crew, or this or that person to tell them what to do. We had a crew that I really believe in, it wasn’t just random people who were worried about themselves; it was a hive-mind moment where we all knew what to do and made it happen.”
Jami: “The idea was sparked, I called Reba and she was thinking of something along the same lines. The first person I called was my friend Sunny from hate5six – he’s filmed everything for us and is an amazing videographer. We got him onboard, then he got his buddy who works for, I think, Feet First Productions, so then we had a whole crew. Then we hit up Roadrunner because they had a good connection with Twitch, to see if they could hook us up with anyone over there. We just started making moves, making calls, and trying to make it happen for as cheap as possible and still make it great. We had about two days, that’s it. We ended up having to get to the venue at 8pm to figure everything out. We just went right to work, that was it.”
IT SOUNDS LIKE A LOT OF WORK! Jami: “Yeah! Ha ha ha! But at the same time, it was a great opportunity – we ended up in frickin’ Time Magazine and GQ, all this crazy shit we wouldn’t have been in, so it was hard work but a lot of fun.”
YOU ALSO BEGAN YOUR YOU AND
YOU ALONE SERIES ON TWITCH. HOW HAVE YOU FOUND DOING THAT? IS THERE MORE STILL TO COME OR ARE YOU WORRIED
THAT YOU’LL RUN OUT OF STUFF TO DO FOR IT?
Jami: “I’m not worried because I think every single one so far has been really cool. I have a list of all kinds of things we’re working on, from movies, to 3D animated movies, to remixing stuff for other people, to video stuff.”
WHAT DO YOU THINK OF THE WAY THE METAL SCENE IN GENERAL
HAS REACTED AND ADAPTED TO THE PANDEMIC?
Reba: “I’ve seen [there are] various live-streams. There’s not a ton of bands doing stuff right now and part of me understands that because most people don’t have the means to do it. We’re fortunate that we have a unit that knows how to do shit like this and is willing to dig into the technical aspect and make it happen.”
Jami: “I don’t think metal has superadjusted to it. I’ve seen people who were gonna have records come out or are having a record come out. But other than that, I don’t think anyone other than us is really doing anything on a consistent basis, other than Slipknot. They just launched a pretty cool [Knotfest] website that I think is awesome.”
HOW DO YOU THINK THIS SCENE WILL SURVIVE WITHOUT ANY TOURS HAPPENING FOR THE FORESEEABLE FUTURE?
Reba: “It’s hard to say. I’m sure it’ll come back hard. There’s gonna be a lot of changes, hopefully it’ll be positive changes in a sense of a little less corporate involvement in the scene. It’ll give us a chance to take a step back and relook at how things are structured. Because it’s starting to get to that point where we can’t survive doing this, and people need to know that. I was looking at like Gary Holt from Slayer’s Instagram, and he was saying about how artists are often forgotten about and not really taken care of. I totally agree and I hope more people like him in metal, metal icons and legends, are able to speak up a little more about that because they’ve lived a full life of that and you know it’s only getting worse. A lot of us are making more in unemployment than we ever did on metal music, so it’s ridiculous at this point. I hope that we can reconstruct it so it’s a little more from us, by us, as opposed to just being controlled by a corporation, everything divvied up into pennies and one penny goes to the artists. It just feels like a lack of respect.”
YOU GUYS PLAYED THE NXT IN YOUR HOUSE SHOW. WAS IT IMPORTANT
“A LOT OF US ARE MAKING MORE IN UNEMPLOYMENT THAN WE EVER DID IN METAL”
REBA MEYERS
TO HAVE THAT OPPORTUNITY TO GET YOUR MUSIC OUT THERE IN
THE CURRENT CLIMATE?
Jami: “Absolutely, that’s why it was so important and pivotal that we go down there and do that. It was a week’s notice and about a 20-hour drive. We’re always searching for a platform, so if we get one we’re not gonna say no, we’re gonna take that opportunity. I thought we made the best of it; we got a lot of fans that week, a lot of streams, a lot more people bought the record, so it shows me that kind of thing worked. It was very fun.”
YOU ALSO DID A T-SHIRT COLLAB WITH NXT FOR THE EVENT. HOW DID THAT HAPPEN?
Jami: “They basically just said, ‘Would you guys wanna do a shirt?’ and I got on the phone with them. We were like, ‘Can we design it?’ and they gave us a fair deal. They just let us do our thing and they loved it!”
Reba: “No bands get to do shirts with them so it was kind of a stepping stone. We’re the first ones to do this and open up that world. Hopefully other people will get to do that too.”
WHAT ELSE DO CODE ORANGE HAVE PLANNED? HOW DO YOU PLAN TO KEEP THE MOMENTUM GOING?
Reba: “We have a lot planned! A lot more streams, a lot of bigger ones.” Jami: “Collaborating with a lot of good people. We’ll take and are taking any options that come to us, and there are many things we have to come that include the full band being able to play in a new way, not just regurgitating old stuff, and they’re coming very soon. That’ll be fun and exciting for everybody. I think we’re gonna lead the way on that.”
IT FELT LIKE 2020 SHOULD HAVE BEEN CODE ORANGE’S YEAR.
IS IT STILL?
Reba: “Yes, it is. This record is very representative of the times. I think it makes sense.”
Jami: “I think it’s always our fucking year! What the hell else is going on?
Tell me one thing that’s going on, I don’t see anything else. I’m sure there are people with records that have come out, but they ain’t been talking about that. We’re still hungriest, the most ambitious, we still made what I think is the best record, and like I said, there’s a lot of good things coming out. I don’t think anyone’s willing to put out the effort we’ve put in.”