ORCA TEAM
An interview with Leif Anders of the Portland, Oregon band Orca Team
by Maya Muñoz-Tobón
Maya: What bands have influenced your style?
Leif: Young Marble Giants. Marine Girls. The Ronettes. Quix*o*tic. Deep Time. Roy Orbison. Pylon. Jan & Dean.
Maya: How did Orca Team become a band? How long have you been playing together?
Leif: It started when Jessica and I were introducted to one another in Portland, circa 2008. We started a romantic relationship and thought it would be fun to play music together. It turned out to be very fun so we continued playing music. After numerous drummer changes, Jessica and I ended our romantic involvements. We migrated up to Seattle in 2011 to secure ourselves in a stable position for writing music and performing. Currently, Orca Team is: Leif Anders, Jessica B., and Dwayne Cullen.
Maya: What is your inspiration for creating a look or feel of the band?
Leif: Orca Whales: All of the instruments are black and white. Post-Punk: The bass guitar carries the melody rather than the guitar most of the time. Black: We mostly wear black clothing to help get a unified sense of belonging between the three of us. Minimalism: Rather than constantly adding things to the music or look of the band, we are always willing to leave things out. The space in the music and feel is our secret.
Maya: Do you have any bands (local or not) that you like and follow?
Leif: In L.A.- Deep Time, Pony Time, and Timecopz. Also- Psychic Feline, Unnatural Helpers, Night Beats, Craft Spells, Dead Ghosts, Fungi Girls, The Mallard, Swearin’, Magic Milk, K Holes, X Ray Eyeballs, and White Mystery.
Maya: What are some future plans for the band?
Leif: We are going on a pretty big tour this summer to the East Coast and UK. In fall we are going to tour around the US again. I would hope we could tour Europe in 2013 but we will have to wait and see.
Maya: Is there something in the Pacific NW music scene that keeps feeding your band’s spirit?
Leif: The lack of sun. It inspires you to keep working and creating. It keeps you very busy without distraction. Also, I don’t know if it helps to feed the spirit, but when you are single in the NW and it’s rainy and cold, you seriously feel like the loneliest person in the world. You start to imagine yourself somewhere else or doing something else. You’re pretty much creating a fantasy world without trying half the time while living here. Music seems pretty easy to focus on after that.
Maya: What is the story from one of your tours that you remember the most?
Leif: There were plenty of fights and laughable moments on lots of tours but right now the tours that stick with me the most were in New York City and Panama Beach during our US Summer Tour in 2011.
Jessica and I had never been to NYC and before our show that day, we just went all over Manhattan. I can’t really explain how things happened that day but they did. We had brunch and then went shopping for belts. I was tired and somewhat surly. Jessica was polite and jovial. She spent some time at MOMA while I found shelter from the rain in FAO Schwartz. We met up in Central Park and took the subway back to our car and drove to The Cake Shop. The show went over well and when it was over we met up with our friends Cheryl and Tynan. We rode the subway and rode the Staten Island Ferry to get a view of the entire city. We barely slept and had to leave the city in a rush because of flood warnings and because we had to drive to Cleveland. It was a treasured day and night. It usually is when Jessica and I team up together.
Another more somber story took place in Panama City, FL. We were supposed to play two shows in one day; one at a record store in Santa Rosa, FL in the early evening and one at a house in Panama City at night. While at the early evening show, we were told that the house show was canceled. We didn’t mind either way and made our way to Panama City to have pizza and ride go-carts.
After we ate, Dwayne and I were really excited about racing go-carts but Jessica only wanted to play arcade games. We parked at one amusement center, but the outdoor activities were closed. Dwayne, Joanna (Dwayne’s girlfriend at the time) and I just decided to walk down the street to the next place because it was open later. Jessica stayed behind to play video games at the first spot.
Once Dwayne and I were finished racing, we walked back to the car to find Jessica looking very frantic and sad. Apparently as soon as Jessica had walked into the video game room, a rude clerk had told her that the space was closed and she needed to leave. By the time she got outside, we were gone and she was alone. We assured her that it was a coincidence and we would have never ditched her on purpose. She cried a little bit but we did our best to cheer her up.
We spent the next hour on the white sands of the Panama City Beach. The moon was full and as bright as the sun. Dwayne took off all his clothes and went swimming. Jessica and I just buried one another in the sand and took pictures of it.
I’m sure she would kill me if she knew I wrote about this story.
