The Orange Peels
| The Orange Peels | |
|---|---|
| Origin | Sunnyvale, California, California, United States |
| Genres | Indie rock, pop rock, alternative country |
| Years active | 1994–present |
| Labels | Minty Fresh Records, spinART Records, Parasol Records |
| Associated acts | Allen Clapp and his Orchestra, The Mummies, The Phantom Surfers, The Ocean Blue |
| Website | www.theorangepeels.com |
| Members |
Allen Clapp Jill Pries Gabriel Coan John Moremen |
| Past members | Larry Winther Maz Kattuah Bob Vickers Oed Ronne |
The Orange Peels is a Northern California band known for its ability to melodically evoke images and atmospheres of life on the West Coast. The group uses standard rock instrumentation to produce soundscapes that are at once sweeping and jarring, giving them a unique place between orchestral pop, rock and indie-pop. Though the band's lineup has changed with each successive album, founding members Allen Clapp and Jill Pries have been the nucleus. In fact, dramatic upheavals in membership have ensured the band never releases albums more frequently than four years apart. The group currently features Clapp, Pries, Gabriel Coan and John Moremen.
In its early days, the group was an outgrowth of singer-songwriter Allen Clapp's fictional band Allen Clapp and his Orchestra, credited for Clapp's debut album One Hundred Percent Chance of Rain (The Bus Stop Label, 1994). Soon after the album's release, Clapp's high school friend Larry Winther reappeared after touring with garage-rock phenomenon The Mummies for four years. Clapp (guitar, vocals), Pries (bass), and Winther (drums) formed an energetic 3-piece in Redwood City, taking the fictional name from Clapp's first album. The orchestra played throughout the Bay Area and worked up new material for a second album, which they began recording at home on a four-track cassette recorder.
Soon after, music critic Jud Cost introduced Clapp to local producer Jeff Saltzman, who took on the task of engineering and producing the record in a double-wide mobile home in Campbell, California called Mysterious Cove Studios. Around this time, Maz Kattuah—Winther's bandmate from the Mummies—joined the orchestra on lead guitar. However, with the band's first recording session nearing, it was decided that Winther would be better on guitar, and Kattuah on the drums. The switch was made, but Kattuah's soon left the group due to an increasing tour schedule with The Phantom Surfers.
A session drummer, Bob Vickers, was hired for the initial recording sessions (Saltzman and Vickers had recorded under the name Cerebral Corps. in the early 1990s). The Santa Cruz drummer immediately clicked with the band, and he was soon asked to join as a member in 1995. As sessions progressed, the band received offers from several labels to release the recordings. The group signed with Chicago-based Minty Fresh Records in late 1996, but the label wanted the band to finish the album with a different producer.
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