Jay Gordon
| Jay Gordon | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Background information | |
| Also known as | Killowatt |
| Born |
January 30, 1967 San Francisco, California |
| Genres | Electropunk, nu metal, alternative metal, industrial rock, dubstep |
| Occupation(s) | Singer, producer |
| Years active | 1993–present |
| Associated acts | Orgy, Machine Gun Orchestra, Korn, Deadsy, Crazy Town, Coal Chamber, Trick Factory, Linkin Park, Kill-o-Watt, Escape The Fate theATTITUDE, limbogott, H-Vice, The Wondergirls |
Jay Gordon (born January 30, 1967) is a singer, producer, journalist and video editor of Video Ask Vic. He is best known as the lead singer and original member of the alternative metal and electropunk band Orgy which he founded in 1994.
Early life and career
Originally from the Excelsior District of San Francisco, California, Gordon is the vocalist of the alternative metal band Orgy, which rose to prominence through their signing to Korn's fledgling label, Elementree Records. Their appearance on the first Family Values Tour as well as mainstream reaction to their cover of New Order's signature song, Blue Monday, contributed to their popularity in addition to his enigmatic, glam-styled appearance and energetic stage presence.
Previous and outside projects
He previously worked as a musician with the bands Lit and Deadsy, and had collaborated with a few other popular rock musicians on a project called The Wondergirls. He has collaborated with several musicians during his musical career such as Jonathan Davis of Korn and the bands Crazy Town, Coal Chamber, and Linkin Park. Gordon has also worked extensively with Coal Chamber as the producer of their first self-titled album. Gordon and Coal Chamber's Meegs used to share an apartment before their respective bands grew in popularity. He is also the producer for the bands Hello Machine and Eye Candy, and is one of the vocalists in the band Trick Factory. All three bands are based out of Los Angeles.
1994–2000
Orgy's first release, 1998's Candyass, would prove to be a huge success, primarily fueled by the popularity of Blue Monday, as well as that of their first single, Stitches. The band would release singles of both during this period, which would contain numerous remixes of the songs, some of which were created by Gordon himself, a trend which would continue to occur throughout all of Orgy's subsequent single releases.
In 2000, Orgy released their second full-length album, Vapor Transmission, which, despite gaining a quite respectable sales performance, did not repeat the wild success of its predecessor.
2000–2004
The period following the release of Vapor Transmission proved to be a tumultuous period for the band. Orgy left Elementree and Reprise Records. Drummer Bobby Hewitt left the band in order to join his brother Fab Fernandez in the group Snake River Conspiracy, although he would eventually return. It would be four years between the release of Vapor Transmission and Orgy's third album, 2004's Punk Statik Paranoia.
In 2002, he performed the song Slept So Long for the Queen of the Damned soundtrack, due to contractual limitations which restricted composer Jonathan Davis from performing the vocals to his composed songs as they appeared upon the actual soundtrack (although Davis did, in fact, perform all musical tracks within the movie itself). Gordon has also appeared with his band Orgy on other soundtracks such as Zoolander, which featured the previously unreleased song Faces. Jay also remixed "Points of Authority", a song by Linkin Park from their album Hybrid Theory, for the latter's remix album Reanimation. This was entitled "Pts.OF.Athrty", which was released as the first and only single of Reanimation, and has achieved moderate success at the Billboard charts. He also voiced J. Jonah Jameson in Spider-Man and Spider-Man 2.
In 2004, he voiced several characters for the PC game Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines.
Present
He currently owns and runs the record label D-1 Music with his father Lou Gordon, from which he produced and released Punk Statik Paranoia, as well as releasing their DVD, Trans Global Spectacle DVD. In March 2009, Gordon produced a five song E.P. with the band Settings from Buffalo, NY.
Jay is the producer of the group Trick Factory.
Gordon provided composition assistance to the band Escape the Fate's third album.
In October 2010, after six years of silence about Orgy, the news suddenly hit. All members of Orgy (save Jay Gordon) collectively brought accusations against Gordon of having "fired the band." In response, Jay released this statement to the public:
"This has NOT been about breaking up the original band ORGY.
"I owned the name ORGY and licensed it to the band at the beginning.
"Although Ryan [Shuck, guitar], Amir [Derakh, guitar], and I had been talking about ORGY touring this summer (which now has come and gone), it didn't feel to me that was going to happen. JULIEN-K [which features Ryan and Amir] had decided to go on tour to Europe instead.
"Now that everyone is working on different projects (some have SEVERAL), I needed to be able to move forward to revive the ORGY brand. In order to make that happen, for legal reasons, I had to send them a letter to inform them that as of October 26, 2010 the partnership would be terminated. In the letter I stated that if we were to tour, that everyone would still be paid equally, with no changes. So honestly, I can't see how they would arrive at what they wrote.
"Everyone has been so busy with their different projects I figured this was the only way for me to continue on with the name. I started this band, and I don't want to let it fall to the wayside completely.
"They mentioned being my brothers, so I am a little confused on why they did not call me about the situation before putting out a press release, implying things based on speculation that simply aren't true."[1]
Orgy started touring the US again in February 2012.[2]
Orgy launched a crowdfunding campaign in August 2013 via Indiegogo.com with a $100,000 goal. Two months later, at the conclusion of the campaign, the band had only raised $8,739, falling short of their goal by over $91,000.[3]
Orgy released a new single titled "Wide Awake and Dead" on March 18, 2014 & shot a video for "Wide Awake and Dead" on April 22.
Orgy released the first of two EP's in 2015 - Talk Sick, and an unnamed EP scheduled to be released in 2016. [4]
On a personal note, Jay Gordon recently welcomed daughter London Presley into the world in June 2013. He also has a son named Jax, born March 2005. Both children are from different mothers each of whom at different times have been serious girlfriends of Jay's.
Jay Gordon is related to Ledus creator Harrison Dale.
Discography
Orgy
References
- ↑ "ORGY Frontman Says He Terminated Partnership For 'Legal Reasons'". Roadrunnerrecords.com. Retrieved 2012-03-04.
- ↑ "Orgy End Seven-Year Hiatus, Announce 2012 Tour Dates". Guitar World. 2012-02-16. Retrieved 2012-03-04.
- ↑ https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/orgy-music
- ↑ http://www.amazon.com/Talk-Sick-EP-Orgy/dp/B012G4GE8Y
External links
- D1 Music, Jay Gordon's record label
- Official Orgy website
- Jay Gordon at the Internet Movie Database
- Jay Gordon official website website not up as of 08/01/14
- Jay Gordon's MySpace profile
- Jay Gordon's full discography