King Orchid has been one of the most interesting bands and unique live experiences Boston has had to offer for the past few years. Unfortunately, the instrumental duo will be calling their April Saturday night residency at O’Brien’s their final show. This is sad for obvious reasons. They’re incredible technical musicians with unmatched chemistry, their last album, For Battle, was a mind-melter, and they’re two awesome guys who really do a ton to represent our local scene. On the bright side, King Orchid fans have a hell of a month to look forward to, as the bills these guys have put together are top-notch, and are making O’Brien’s the place to be on Saturday nights all month long. Do yourself a favor, especially if you’ve never seen these guys live before, and make it out to at least one of these shows to help King Orchid complete the final chapter. We were able to talk with Doug Wartman and Zack Fierman briefly about the end of the band and what to expect this month and beyond.
King Orchid will officially end after their April Residency at O’Brien’s. How did you guys go about putting together the bills for these shows? What made for the decision to end the band at this point?
Doug: Well, I originally started booking this thing back in November. I didn’t realize at the time that the residency would also be our farewell, but since it turned into that, I honestly couldn’t think of a better way to go out. As far as putting the bills together, we came up with a big list of bands who we had played with or had been meaning to play with, and are in love with and just started emailing them to see if they could do it. Zack and I are stoked on the bands who we get to share the last 4 shows with, total dream lineups. The decision to say farewell, came up about month ago. Zack is getting his move on, so it just made sense to make the residency a big 4 show long going away party.
Tell me about how you and Zack first started playing music together. Was King Orchid your first project together?
D: KO was our first project together. Zack and I met in school and started hanging out that way. We thought it would be cool to play some music together, so we did, and it felt like pure happiness, so we just kept doing it. We come from pretty different backgrounds as musicians but we share a lot of the same love for Zeppelin. Playing together always has felt easy. Hopefully we will have many more projects together in the future.
When there’s only two members and vocals aren’t a huge factor, there’s definitely a different dynamic. What is it like playing this way and how is it different than larger band setups that you have played in? Improvisationally, do you find that you are able to take greater risks and challenge your other bandmate more?
D: We have never felt like King Orchid needed any more members, so we never really considered it. It has always been very natural for Zack and I to write and practice together, that we never really wanted that to change. Being in a two piece is dramatically different from being in a band with more members, for a lot of reasons. It really makes it easier. We have always been and will continue to be super close, so it’s been really easy to read each other in a musical sense and in a personal sense. I think the level of trust we have with each other’s musical abilities is uncanny, which shows when something unexpected happens at a live show or when we are writing together. To be more literal, there is really little to no improvisation, everything is quite composed and practiced for hours. The only things that really change from show to show are the vibes of the audience members and how Zack and I are feeling that night. Again, it comes down to trust, knowing that the other half is going to hold you up and vise versa.
As you continue on as a musician after King Orchid is no more, is there a single most important lesson that you have learned from your time as one half of King Orchid that you will take with you?
D: First of all, great question. It is hard to pick just one, but I would say the most important lesson I have learned form KO is to always, no matter what have fun with what you are doing. Every time either of us would get really stressed out, whether it was because of the band or not, we have always needed to remind ourselves why we do this in the first place and make sure to enjoy every second of it. This band has been a release for us since day one.
Other than playing in a band, I know you have worked sound for a number of venues around town. Are there any bands that you’ve had the chance to see lately that we should look out for?
D: I definitely see a lot and I try to remember the ones that roll through that totally blow me away. There was a band from central New York called Cattle Drums that kicked ass, also there were two bands from Georgia that came through O’Brien’s last week called Hello Ocho and Faun and a Pan Flute, they were both great. One of my favorite shows happened about a month and a half ago. I had the pleasure of doing sound for Tallahassee, they were incredible musicians and incredible guys. Also, Elder, everyone go listen to Elder and see them live.
What are both of your musical plans going forward? Anything else you would like to say to King Orchid fans?
Zack: Playing music isn’t really a choice, but more of a necessity for Doug and I. Personally I plan to keep playing drums in one form or the other with Doug and as many other people as I can. I’ve been playing a lot of guitar recently so I’d like to keep writing and having fun with that. Maybe I’ll play guitar in a band or something ridiculous like that.
Doug: As for me, definitely keep playing. I am going to release some solo acoustic stuff hopefully over the summer. I hope to start up and new project with some other human beings too. Really I just want to write more. I will also let Zack finish up here with some words to the KO fans:
Zack: King Orchid has been the center of our universe for almost 5 years. We originally started playing this music because it was fun, and we kept on playing it in front of people because they had fun with us. I just want to say thank you, from the bottom of my heart, to everyone that has ever given a shit about us. It feels so good to have people other than Doug and I enjoying the music we make. Thanks for the love.
Doug: Oh, and when in doubt, “What would Zeppelin do?”
—
– Perry Eaton