Orange Tutti Frutti

Rip It Up, Issue 106, 1 May 1986, Page 4

Orange Tutti Frutti

. So, what stops you guys . from being “just another - Lo AndreW Brough looks .. - _pérplexed. ‘Um... (long pause) suwell T think we're more - poppy than other Dunedin bands like Sneaky Feelings ... bands like the Clean, the Stones, Douh!eham&Wlth a - lot of Dunedin stuff the . -poppy side to it and there's a real aggressive side to it, and | “probably lack some of the aggressive Dunedin stuff” . Diplomatic, bespectacled and be- - topped with an unmissable mop of .

red hair Brough leads the Orange, who for the past 18 months have been spasmodically popping up squeezing out pips of pure pop at various Dunedinite gatherings. Brough sure as hell ain't no punk — “I go back way before that” — and the Orange’s debut Flying Nun EP Fruit Salad Lives has a heart buried way back in the paisley past. Recorded appropriately enough at Strawberry Studios, Fruit Salad Lives oozes '6os. “I| spent three or four years listening to that type of music after | left school,” says Brough. “Recently | haven't listened to it as much but | still love it. In the '6os they had a strong sense of melody, which has influenced me a lot.” Brough's airy vocals and melodic, unabrasive guitar lends the five track EP a floating, almost Chilly quality that, as it turns out, ismore a result of first-time intimidations

rather than influence. ~ “lwanted a more full sound with perhaps louder guitars and the vocals more full-on, but not having beenina studio before | didn't know what to expect. The production’s come out quite clean but as far as getting a certain sound like a dreamy sound or a more aggressive sound ... there wasn't any intention that way. It just turned out the way it has ... probably by accident.” As a three-piece, chockablock with melody and set with a tune-before-moves attitude, the Orange totter dangerously close to that yawning chasm of cliche, being all that's expected of a Flying-Nun-band-from-Dunedin. But Brough considers his band as riding something of a new wave, and as those before break onto foreign shores, he ponders problems closer to home. “| think the Dunedin scene where groups can be seen around town is

disintegrating cos bands are taking off to different centres and it’s a worry there aren't more bands com--ing up to keep the scene going. And that's where | think the Orange aren't part of the old stable. They're one of the newer bands that can keep the scene alive.” But Brough's vision of the Orange as the proverbial fresh fruit for rotting vegetables could be misplaced. He talks of an unsure future with committment currently running a 'sore second to ambition in the band. So long-term aims are blinkered, although there are promises of an increase in the live performances that have been so scarce until now and, yes, more recording. , , We tie up the interview, take a listen to the BiFiM compilation over coffee and decide things are looking pretty healthy in Auckland.

Buffy O'Reilly