Orchid celebrates a decade of fulfilling ominous acid rock fantasies

Tropic of Capricorn: Orchid celebrates 10 years of fulfilling ominous acid rock fantasies

by Christine Leonard

5 November 2016

Celebrating a decade of fulfilling ominous acid rock fantasies, San Francisco’s Orchid is in a pretty good place right now. Not specifically the sunny sidewalk outside of guitarist Mark Thomas Baker’s home in Petaluma, CA, but thereabouts and getting closer every day. Predicated on the vibrant vocals of Theo Mindell, who also plays percussion and synths, along with bassist Keith Nickel’s surf-worshipping undertow and Baker’s exotically organic guitar strains, Orchid is easily next best thing to having Pentagram play your quinceañera. Firmly rooted in the lush loam of ‘70s psych-rock, Orchid’s musical virtuosity melds traditional American blues and hard rock influences with a flair for emulating British heavy metal mainstays; earning them frequent comparisons to the likes of Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath.

“We try to write classic rock songs and every song that we’ve ever worked on is really hook-oriented and constructed around Theo’s vocal lines,” says Baker. “A lot of bands I hear are obviously coming up with riffs and trying to write vocals over that. I don’t know if it’s a signature thing, but our songs are written around vocals and not really based on the riff so much.”

Regaled for their head-noddingly good 2009 debut EP, Through the Devil’s Doorway and subsequent 2011 LP, Capricorn, Orchid were signed to the Nuclear Blast record label in 2012. They released their EP Heretic that same year with the full-length album Mouth of Madness following in 2013.

With two LPs and a fistful of EPs to their current credit, the career retronauts behind Orchid are now faced with their biggest musical challenge: creating new and interesting compositions that hold their interest (and hopefully the audience’s too) while still sounding like themselves.

“That is a battle for sure,” he confirms.

“I think you can’t get too hung up on what you’ve done in the past and you have to keep creating and finding things that keep you excited about your music. If you just chase your tail and try to produce work that you think your fans want to hear, that can really lead to failure. There’s no point trying to guess what people want from you, cuz I don’t know. They just want the Capricorn album over and over again! But you can’t really step back in time and be the person you were. We’ve got all these years of experience between us and that time. Everything that’s influenced us in those years is coming out in what we’re doing now.”

After forging ahead with their fourth EP, Sign of the Witch (May 2015), Orchid found themselves adrift in the doom miasma as they sought a new drummer to anchor their quartet. The ongoing process of adjustment and acceptance has done little to diminish the band’s desire to create compelling songs and perform them in front of adoring crowds. Regardless of these inevitable upheavals, Baker portends that the natural potential of Orchid is still emerging and that their artistic friendships are growing deeper even as their audience and influence expand.

“I think that the next album that we’re writing now is going to be awesome. We’re really excited to do it and I think it’s going to have ties to our past as well as some steps into the future, whatever that may be. It’s so hard to say because there’s a new member in the mix,” Baker continues, referring to new drummer Tommy, who is not yet a permanent member of the band.

Cultivating an ear for improvisation while satisfying vocalist Mindell’s obsession with artistic perfection, heretical guitarist Baker acknowledges that Orchid will never produce elevator tunes for the mall-roving masses. But on the other hand, he is equally quick to admit that hearing Orchid’s heavily-grooved anthem “Eyes Behind the Wall” used as bumper music during a World Series radio broadcast was one of the proudest moments of his life.

“I had all these people messaging me, ‘Dude, KNBR is playing your song for the Giants’ game!’ So that was a really cool thing for me to have something associated with my favourite sports team. But as far as accessibility or what people want, we’re not that concerned about it. We’re not popular enough, I don’t think. I wouldn’t worry about having hits or singles.”

Orchid performs on November 5th with Napalmpom and Temple at The Palomino Smokehouse in Calgary.