Los Angeles, CA based experimental band Orokai have just released ‘Tentacular’, their debut single about tentacle laden beasts - fucking epic.
Yali Bitan, Jason Funston, and Rhiannon Lee Ramirez make up the experimental-doom outfit Orokai. Their first single‘Tentacular’ just dropped today via LA’s Higher Vibration Recordsand it’s a dreamy teleporter to another dimension that’s sure to make you feel like your fighting the final boss battle of a really good video game. We caught up with Orokai to find out about their origins, plans for the future, and their exclusive single release party tonight in LA:
Tell me about Orokai, how did you all get together and start making music? What kind of sounds are you making?
Yali: Jason (bassist) and I have been playing bass and drums together in bands for years. I had met Rhiannon (guitarist) at Glendale community college. She and I had started jamming right around the time me and Jason’s last band ended, so I introduced them and the musical and personal chemistry is there!
Our sound is pretty eclectic. We navigate the extremes between pretty and ugly, hard and soft, dance floor and mosh pit, prog and pop. Lately we have been incorporating elements of electronic/dance music with our traditional heavy rock sound, it’s been a really fun and rewarding challenge!
What was the theme and inspiration for the new single?
Yali: One day Rhiannon just pulled out this chord progression and put this cool weird delay effect on it. It sounded like tentacles emanating out from her fingers, so I came up with this adjective Tentacular! Which I recently learned is a real word lol. From there Rhi and I came up with a fantasy story about a race of tentacle beasts, who we hear about in vague gestures from a child who was just nearly killed by them and a village elder who has encountered them many times before. The ending is an instrumental and it’s supposed to be like the epic final battle. We’re huge nerds!
What is next for Orokai?
Yali: We’re playing a show tonight at a house in Burbank to celebrate the single release (DM us @orokaila for the address!), then we’re playing a park show in the valley on August 7, and The Smell on August 28! After that, we’re gonna be on a break for a while because I’m moving to Santa Cruz to finish my degree - but not to fear! We are currently in the middle of recording our album, and we’ll be working on the production while I’m gone. We’re planning to release it later this year or early next year, so stay tuned to Orokai (IG) and our label Higher Vibration Records.
