Instant Orange, of San Bernadino, California, were certainly
in the right spot to play sprightly,
chiming folk-rock…but perhaps were in the wrong time.
Essentially a group of friends playing music they liked,
Instant Orange had discipline and ambition but little chance at the opportunities
that flashier or more well-connected bands might have had. So Instant Orange
played dances, bars, restaurants, parties, live gigs at radio stations, and
county fairs, and every so often put out a record when they could afford to make
one.
By the time the band released its first recording, a 45 containing “You
I’ll Be Following” (an original, not the song by Love) and “Reflecting
Emotions” on its own Margacado label in 1968, the original
California folk-rock style was long gone.
But in spite of car trouble, mediocre equipment, day jobs, draft
worries, and the like, Instant Orange—usually, but not always, a trio—kept at
it. Their approach could be haphazard, but effective; prior to their first gig, at the March 1968 San Bernadino
Orange Festival, the group realized it needed a name...instantly. And so it was.
The group eventually issued an album, Five
Year Premiere, on Margacado Media in 1973. With no ideas of how to
distribute the record to a greater audience, the band simply had local stores stock
them, or vended them at gigs, or handed them out to local radio stations or
friends. The initial pressing of 100 copies has been whittled by time and
inattention to probably fewer than ten. Those who have them want them badly, so they rarely come up for sale.
Many of the album’s songs are arresting in their directness
and fragility. While nobody in the band was a virtuoso, each member had a homegrown
approach and they played pretty well together. The overall sound transcends
the easy characterization of them as simple copyists of well-known acts.
This is the album’s opening track, “The Visionary (Reactive)”.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fFp866WsSkA
Their record was re-discovered in the 1990s by a collector
in New Orleans named Scott Bubrig, who after some effort was able to contact
members of the band—by then scattered to the winds—and with their permission
and cooperation re-released almost the entire Instant Orange catalog (which
included several EPs and singles besides the album) on CD and vinyl. In
particular, the two-record set on the Shadoks label is gorgeous, with photos, a
band history, and full discographical information. The remastering also gives the songs more punch than is heard on the original vinyl.
Not all of the IO output is great, but all of it is
interesting, running the gamut from pop, garage rock, folk, and country and even
working in some jazzy excursions. Some of it is as good as hit music on major
labels.
Terry Walters, IO’s chief songwriter (the band’s other
songwriter, Randy Lanier, sadly passed away after a series of physical problems
in the 1990s), was kind enough to answer some questions on Instant Orange’s
history. Thanks, Terry, and I hope we hear from you again…
Q.What got you into playing
guitar?
Initially, I was going to play trumpet, but that didn’t last
too long. My brother, who is older than me, convinced my Mom that guitar may be
the way to go. This was 1963, and I was drawn to surf music. In the beginning,
I had a Stella acoustic guitar, and I was playing melodies. Eventually, I went
electric and graduated to a Fender Mustang. A few lessons and learning bar
chords, I was working songs off the radio.
Q. Were the fellows in IO friends
before being bandmates?
It was friends first. The fact that we had music as a common
bond was almost coincidental. If we had friends who wanted to do music, we’d
teach them enough to get started. Being friends first probably kept the
tensions to a minimum and the egos in check.
Q. What were some of the bands you
enjoyed as a young musician?
I was listening to the Beau Brummels in ’64, and eventually,
it was Love, the Byrds, Lovin’ Spoonful, Moody Blues, and Procol Harum, all of
whom played a part in my writing and playing style. I was fortunate in that
Randy Lanier had the same basic musical tastes. That was what got us going; we
started as a duo and later as a band.
Q. Instant Orange went on a long
time with different memberships. What was it that made you want to continue
with the IO concept?
Randy came from a folk music background [and was] an
acoustic guitar player. I was on the electric side. We fused the two. We
decided to approach the music as a hobby. We were doing folk-rock, a style whose
shelf life had already elapsed. We continued with the style, almost as a
folk-rock preservation society, as a core, while exploring other styles.
Q. How did songs get written and
fleshed out for Instant Orange?
Randy and I wrote most of the material for the band. Joe
Bianchi, our keyboard player, came up with ideas for instrumentals and we did
have guys like Bryon PrudHomme and Jim Brown who had contributions. Usually,
Randy and I would get together and bring ideas to the table for material.
Sometimes we would co-write a song and other times we would bring in something
we had done individually. We would work the vocal and guitar arrangements and
then take them to band practice. We had an agreement that whoever wrote the
song would be the one to have the final say for the song, but guys like Joe and
Lynn volunteered ideas that worked well for us.
Q. Is there something about San Bernardino that contributed to Instant Orange’s sound?
San Bernardino was considered by most to be part of the Los
Angeles market, but there was a lot of local talent. Several bands charted
locally with records that were well produced: The Light, The Good Feelings, The
Bush, The Caretakers, [and] The Torquays were the some of the local groups.
Groups like Touch were great in live shows, but made no records. It seems as
though there was a band on every block. We didn’t sign with any of the major
labels—we simply did our own—but we managed airplay through student stations
like KVCR and KSDS in San Diego.
Q. Were timely concerns—the War, drugs,
political protest, the sexual revolution, etc.—a part of the scene surrounding
the band?
The war was a major concern as we had the draft hovering
over us. Some of our friends were wondering what to pack for the Canadian
winters. I can speak for myself and say that I didn’t get into the drug thing,
but there were friends and band members, some of whom were in transition, who
were into it. Oddly enough, it was probably the music that kept me away from
the stuff, which worked to my advantage career-wise in the long run. We had
opportunities with the sexual aspects, but Randy and Lynn were married and I
was looking for something a little more long-term. My Christian value system
was at work, sometimes to my irritation.
Q. It appears from photos that a
lot of your equipment wasn’t name-brand. Was money a concern?
None of us came from money. Randy and I were in college and
working menial stuff on the side. Joe toured with the U.S. Army for a couple of
years, so he was doing alright. Lynn worked nights doing mobile fuel delivery.
When we started, Lynn had a no-name drum set. Randy’s bass was made by Liro and
an acoustic guitar made by Orlando, a Japanese copier of fine instruments. In
fact, I had a Rickenbacker copy by the same manufacturer. One day, Lynn decided
we needed better stuff. We emerged from the music store with a double-bass
Slingerland acrylic drum set, two Aims amplifiers and an Aims P.A. system. (Aims
was a company founded by a former Fender employee who sold a product guaranteed
for life. Randy’s amp had to take the train ride from San Bernardino to Arizona
three times, which probably helped destroy the company.)
Q. When you released Five Year Premiere, did you think it had resonance with what
was happening in America during 1973?
Other than the Vietnam War, which ended in ’73, I recall all
of us being somewhat politically apathetic. We had probed in different
directions, including country and, to a degree, jazz, but we remained committed
to our core musically. We released “Genesis II” and “Same Old Thing” in
January. By springtime, two of the members had left—Dennis Hoff on guitar and
Bryan McDonough on vocals, harmonica, and piano. We were more electronically
oriented than we had been, meaning recording and effects, but incorporating our
original style.
Q. Atypically for the hard-rock
era, you continued to plumb a sort of folk-rock sound. Was that decision
conscious?
Yes. Hey, I was still making payments on the Rickenbacker. I
recall when Thomas Hartlage called from [his label] Shadoks Records in 2007. At first, he
said the album sounded like nothing more than a spin on the Byrds, but then he
realized that the Rickenbacker gave it that flavor and decided that we were
more than a tribute item…not that the Byrds were a bad thing at all, but just
because someone played acoustic guitar didn’t make every song a campfire
sing-a-long.
Q. The live recordings on Five Year Premiere are especially good. Were you generally a
hot live band?
We played a wide variety of venues. There were private
parties, dances, the county fair circuit, the battle-of-the-bands gigs and even
an occasional bar or frat-party gig. Bob recorded several of our live
performances which Lynn had put on an 8-track tape. He found this tape in a
horse trailer years later, which we had restored at a lab in Orlando, FL. In
listening to it, I would have to say we were not all that bad. We were able to
get the crowd moving. And Bob knew how to capture an audio moment.
Q. What would a typical Instant
Orange practice session be like? Did you have a discrete space?
Although we began in our garages, we were rehearsing in a
house in Crestline, which is a mountain resort community. Lynn lived in a house
that was occupied by three drummers, each in a band. Oddly enough, we never had
a conflict of schedule for practice, but these were some strange times. Later,
Lynn moved to Cedar Pines, another mountain cabin, where we began work on our
last two records.
Q. When IO recorded, was any one
band member in charge? How did recording generally proceed?
We used studios for everything other than Five Year Premiere. Randy and I were
telecommunications majors, so we already had an idea as to how things worked.
When we arrived at the studio, I would go to the engineers and explain our
setup, microphone needs, song order, and logistical aspects. The guys in the
booth always commented on our preparation and execution of material, but we
were limited in time and money and we knew what needed to happen. Randy would
coordinate the floor plan.
For the album, Bob conned his parents into letting us use their home as a recording studio. We were crammed into corners and Bob was buried with his gear somewhere up against a wall. Bryan McDonough played piano on a cut, and had a song he had written recorded: however, his cut was somehow erased, and he had to leave to go to work. Lynn was irate, as he felt this song was the best thing on the album. Randy and I were somewhat elated, as the song didn’t fit well with the flow. So Lynn took Bryan to work and Randy and I did multi-tracking on the cuts until Lynn got back.
The album music was done in less than eight hours. The following day, we returned to listen to it. Only one cut had an intro by design, “Silent Green,” but then we started getting other segue ideas. By the end of the day, every cut had something.
Q. It seems that IO had its share
of car trouble. Were you guys sort of perpetually trying to make ends meet?
Joe has this ’57 Chevy, which he maintained. He was actually
pretty handy with that stuff. I was driving a ’58 Chevy, a far cry from my
first car, which was an Austin Healy Sprite. I didn’t do a whole lot of
maintenance on mine. Maybe that’s why it fell apart? He was still driving that
car the last time I saw him. Yep, cash was tight.
Q. What led to the decision to
dissolve Instant Orange?
What became our last project was initially was slated as an
acoustic project. We met at Bob’s apartment for a pre-production meeting. We
brought Jim Brown (formerly of TNF) in and decided that we would have Bob do a
synthesized string section. We were operating a six-man line-up. So, Jim, Randy,
and I were meeting at Jim’s place, but then the cracks started happening. By
this time, Jim was engaged, and there were time conflicts and the chemistry was
getting acidic. So, Jim left, and we began thinking this was it. Jim, I
believe, was thinking Air Force. We eventually recorded the Ghirardelli EP, and I was now thinking
Florida. I told Randy that we could keep this thing going as a recording band,
but he wasn’t interested.
Q. Do you still talk to any of the
other living members of the band?
We were reunited via e-mail and phone for a period of time
when the album was released in 2007. Once in a while, I hear from Lynn. We
actually had a reunion album planned, but interest waned. But things were
always on friendly terms.
Q. You wrote a bit about how you
were involved in other music projects during IO’s time. What were they?
When Instant Orange was going, I was with a hard-rock band called
Moon Grass, but that was done by the end of the summer of ’68. From ’68 until ’72, when we brought the band
back, Randy and I formed the Walters-Lanier Folk Experiment. This was an
acoustic approach. Then there was TNF, which was an acoustic trio. Jim Brown
was a high-harmony singer-guitar player. I believe we had our best vocal
approach during this time, actually doing three parts.
Q. What are you doing now?
I retired from careers in law enforcement and the military
reserves. These days, my wife and I live near Weeki Wachee, Florida. I still do
music. I’ve done some CDs and distributed them through thrift shops. My theory
is that if they sell it, at least they can keep the lights on for a few more
minutes. I play the clarinet for house concerts and in performances here in our
community. I’ve done some Praise Team efforts, starting from my days in
southern Florida. I’m a Church elder and I somehow ended up on the board of
directors where I live. I have a list of hobbies and activities that are
physical, mental, spiritual, and hopefully creative. I keep busy, thank you.
Q. When you think back on the days
of IO, is there anything you wish had gone differently?
Considering what we had available to us, meaning finances,
equipment, and talent, overall, no. I believe we did the best we could with
what we had, and we managed to exploit our means overall. It would have been
nice had the acoustic approach to the final album come to fruition, but I
believe we managed to accomplish what we set out to do. I did do a CD which
added instruments to the initial tracks, such as strings, but I never released
it.
Q. How would you describe Instant Orange to someone who had
never heard the band?
We were your typical Southern California band whose hobby
extended to the studio, had a great time “doing our thing,” and lived to tell
about it.
Q. When you wrote about having put
out other recording projects, I was wondering whether these were post-Instant
Orange projects. I'd love to hear about them.
The idea behind the solo projects came when my wife bought me of the first generation multi-track cassette recorders. This was January, 1999. I took ten tunes—two of which were old Instant Orange songs, all of which were instrumental—and went at it.
The idea behind the solo projects came when my wife bought me of the first generation multi-track cassette recorders. This was January, 1999. I took ten tunes—two of which were old Instant Orange songs, all of which were instrumental—and went at it.
Since then, I've completed five other projects that I've done the same with. They vary in style from ambience to light jazz to clarinet versions of Tin Pan Alley tunes as well as hymns. Thanks to friends that travel, copies have made it to Massachusetts, Maine, Alabama, and California, as well as England, Japan, and Ireland, all to thrift shops. It's fun.
The Instant Orange material I had done in '99 I shelved, because at the time, the equipment was really ultra-lo-fi, both from the recording side and the keyboard standpoint. That could be a future project.
There was also material recorded for an Instant Orange reunion album. There were some song fragments that Randy and I had worked on, some of which was for the acoustic album that never quite happened. I recorded beds for nine songs and sent them out to the guys. The production style was what Randy and I had planned for the album, but apparently the rest didn't like it too much. Oh, well. That may be issued some day with a different group. I have people here that I deal with that liked it, so…
