Looking back on a summer full of music, we take you back to Outbreak Festival, where The Mic's Jake Longhurst and Sam Christelow had the privilege of interviewing Code Orange's Reba Meyers.
Outbreak Festival 2023 was a special festival weekend for me in many ways, and arguably chief
amongst those was getting to see Code Orange for the very first time (and proceeding to lose my
mind, stage dive half the set, and mosh/scream the other half) and also to interview the
wonderful Reba Meyers from the band! As their new album, The Above, has been out a couple
weeks now for you to all dig your teeth into it, here’s what we talked about backstage at the
UK’s best hardcore weekend.
Sat down across a bench from Reba, myself and Sam Christelow had been looking forward to
this chat for a while, and we didn’t waste much time getting into the details. After asking about
the sonic change from monumental 2020 album Underneath to the then-most-recent singles
The Game and Grooming My Replacement, she said that the writing process for the band had
changed. Instead of the more maximalist production of Underneath, she said that she had a
‘desire to peel back the extra’ and simplify the sound somewhat. She wanted to get back to the
early song styles that were brought out of her and Jami’s playing together as just the two of
them, which having heard the album has offered up a huge variety of sounds, but most notably
has made the album still feel cohesive even throughout numerous sonic changes.
We then talked about the remix record What is Really Underneath? and why it came into
existence, with Jami and Eric being the driving forces behind it. Reba almost completely went
hands off for it and just let them play around with the stems and other elements to create a
completely new artistic statement which introduced people to different sections of the songs that
hadn’t previously been a focal point. Sam then asked about the festival itself, wondering about Reba’s
thoughts on how playing a large no-barriers show is, and predictably it was excitement and only
excitement! To quote, ‘it’s a pretty fucking crazy feeling... like I get it you just wanna let go,
people are pent up, they’re struggling and shit, they just wanna go off’ (and spoiler alert, it was
crazy). The show was a statement point for the band who cemented themselves as headliners
for the future, and showed their power as an artistic group as well as a musical one.
"The show was a statement point for the band who cemented themselves as headliners for the future, and showed their power as an artistic group as well as a musical one."
Finally, we asked about the top bands on the bill in Reba’s eyes and predictably it was a tough
one to answer, but first mentioned was a band who deserve so much credit for the sounds they
pioneer, the amazing Death Grips. There was then no shortage of compliments put their way,
and Outbreak’s way for the amazing organisation and lineups they manage year on year - if
Reba from Code Orange wants to stay for the entire weekend I’d say you’ve got a damn good
festival on your hands.
However, that was it for our time with Code Orange’s six string maestro Reba Meyers, and
whilst it was over far too quickly I’ve at least got their new album to listen to whenever I want -
The Above is available anywhere you stream your music, and physical copies are available at
most places. If you haven’t listened already, I am imploring you to change that at this moment.
Jake Longhurst
Edited by Tabitha Smith
Feature Image courtesy of Code Orange via Facebook
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