Lank - I thought of the name, and Chris liked it. I really don't know where it manifested from, but I can say it sums up our band and particular sound.

Chris - I thought he said "Foot Odor".

Lank - Not anymore. The band blew apart in '96

Lank - After recently re-issuing our songs here, the amount of feedback has been tremendous. I think the internet gives us the chance to put out stuff in the timeless category.

Lank - I guess we lost the opportunity.

Lank - After My high school-era band ?The Love?... Steven Crash (now, Jupiter Crash), Jim McCrostie (former, Half the World) MikeL and JoeyZ all decided to say "Forget It!!" back in 1990 in Idaho, I was devastated. Basically, I blame myself for part of it, for I had a part in Jim (at the time my best friend) splitting his hand WIDE OPEN. 20 some stitches. I still don't think he?s forgiven me for it. although there were other circumstances, such as JoeyZ raising a family, Steven and Mike wanting to move to Boise (I was soon to follow but too late) and writing new material and getting along was difficult at that point.

So.. after 6 months or so in Boise, I had to start over somewhere else.

By Oct of 91 i was in (of all places) Cedar Rapids, Iowa. I needed to play again. I searched for a band. Found a few I and auditioned for and joined temporarily, but none were what I was looking for. Most were playing crap covers and had little or no talent. I came to wits that a cover band was all that was available to me in CR, but I wanted to play, so I pressed on. I placed an ad in CRAM a CR local Musicians Mag. UGH I found another cover band, but this time something was different. The singer. - That?s What I?d been Missing!!! Chris had the metal sound, but very akin to a Chris Cornell-y mellowness and a very avid writer. WTF, though, we were playing OZZY and Scorpion covers! I quickly convinced Chris to get the f*** out and start writing with me. We split the band (at the time called After Dark).

So Sept 92, Chris and I spent a good year trying to find the right band. We went through a few Drummers, a couple guitarists, a band name of a vegetable (SQUASH) but held onto the songs. Until finally one night hangin at a friends house we had just met, he called his cousins who were guitarists and a friend who was a drummer. They all came over...hooked up thier shit...and f***ing never left! they liked our songs, picked up on our vibe, Hell, I think we even wrote at least foundations for a few more that night. It was incredible. Given some our songs (Wild Things, Wooden Box, Don't Believe You) were pretty solid already, I couldn't believe how easily it all fell together.

So, It was:
Me (Lank) - Bass
Chris Vaage - Vocals & Lyrics
Rick Roll - Drums
Buddy - Guitar
Brett Hall - Guitar
And a guy named Ray who pretended to be our manager for a while...

Chris was pretty amazing. He became my best friend for f***ing life. I married his Cousin but we're divorced now.... Chris has a wit to him that borderlines on obsessive-annoying. I love how he can lighten up a crowd and make them go HUH? at the same time. When you dive into this guy?s head though, It?s dark, serious, matter-of-fact and a tinge disturbing. Chris and I have been through a lot together. I owe the dude my life just for being there. His lyrics are as amazing as his outlook on life and are a perfect reflection of his beliefs, disbeliefs and feelings.

Rick Roll was the ?Order? of Fluid Order - a seasoned drummer with good prior experience, VERY technically adept, and a great sense of direction. Oh - and he NEVER did anything to personally compromise any of that either. While all the rest of us found it difficult to abstain from drugs, alcohol, debauchery and the sort, Rick was planted solid. I found in Rick a common bond in technical rock & metal, such as Dream Theater & Rush, I think we were the only two in the band who liked them! I worked with Rick for a while, he helped me get a job roofing for the contractor he was working for. Rick would give the shirt off his back for a friend.

Buddy - Well he was worthless and quit the band after two weeks or so, stealing some of our equipment. Ass!

Brett - Brett was buddy?s 2nd or 3rd cousin and just starting to play. He had good dedication, and fit in personally. He quickly became an excellent writer.


So Back to after we formed... After Buddy left and we bought another PA, We recruited Matt Schaffer, a fresh from high-school amazing guitarist who had the energy we needed to get ready to play out live, and that?s just what we did. For 93-94 we played live sometimes twice a week, but mostly every weekend. We did this till we sounded the same every night, and then we knew we were ready for the studio.

Our first studio for our EP ?Skree? was horrible. 18 year old Matt had been a sudden no-show for all the practices and studio time, so we fired him, and left it up to Brett to handle all of the guitar work. Live and learn; this so-called producer used ungodly amounts of compression, had all of us track out sh*** with click tracks with little or no feed from other tracks, and the mix-down had synths on it. We crapped our pants and said "were NOT releasing this!"

Rick knew a former bandmate of his who had built a professional studio, Ken Heaton - Trilogy Studios. This guy is f***ing amazing. If you are in the midwest - I URGE you to go to him. We were the first to record there - EVER, and I will never record professionally with anyone else.

So we played it all live. Dubbed in Vocals, Harmonies, Layers and Solos. Got our "2nd studio take" of ?Skree? done in 2 days with 2 days of mastering, and a professional studio video of the song Crazy Horse. We were in heaven. Here was us, just as we sounded live.

After a few months of writing new material; songs such as (a)way, Roman, Stone (some of the best songs we never got the chance to record) things were starting to get a little crazy. We were playing a lot more shows, traveling to different cites in our very own self-converted '77 school bus, Drinking and smoking was at a all time high between all of us ('cept Rick) but Brett really started to show signs that he was losing his self-control. We tried to have him take a hiatus for a while, but found our decision was overshadowed by our need to have our brother back; so we basically ignored it and hoped it was just a phase or something. We pressed on and looked into getting back into the studio to start recording material for the new album. We were starting to get some contacts from producer/management-types; Meanwhile, I started getting serious with Chris' Cousin, Pam, so I asked her to marry me ...and the day before our wedding: I had asked all my bandmates to stand with me. Chris was my best man, fittilngly so, and the others were there too. Rehearsals went real well. My family came from Ohio and Idaho, My aunt Judy would help me get dressed and ready the next morning. But the next week we decided we had to fire Brett for a mishap during the wedding looking back I shouldn't go into any details. Its all done and over with now, but we thought we had lost a brother that day, and I remained bitter for many years. The band was basically done at that point.

We held out another year hiring a replacement guitarist that doesn't really deserve mention; we stopped gigging, writing decent songs and started to look towards building individual lives of our own.

the Ex and I eventually moved out of CR, to MN to start our family. Chris joined the air force: they all called him an old man because he had about 10 years on the other new enlistees, he put in his 4 years and got his college money and met his wife Toni while stationed in Mtn. Home, Idaho (my home town, of all places!) They had their first child in '06. Rick stayed in Iowa, started a construction business, married, and started a family too.

After 15 years now, and I?m still a little bitter about how it ended. We actually had labels interested in us! Most of all, Brett was our Brother, but he let us down. Just when we could have made it, all our hard work and good songs - it all would have been actually worth something other than a f***ed up good time. Chris, Rick and I were ready for this next phase we worked so f***ing hard to get as far as we did. We just had to say we didn't have a band anymore. What Fluid Order turned into was a complete f***ing train wreck.

I guess it was fun while it lasted?!?

Lank - at the time everything from Soundgarden to Pantera. Most of us had influences from 80's rock and mainstream metal, heavier underground punk, thrash and roots of death metal, and of course since it was the 90's the whole grunge thing.

UPDATE APRIL 2010 - It's been a few years since the interview was filled out and I wish to clarify some things. FluidOrder does not exist now, and I highly doubt it ever will, but if all of us got together again, even for just one show, I'd be there in a heartbeat. I put my equipment away after FO dis-banded. All of us did, It was completely devastating; the events that caused our demise, however to live with contempt for years or put all the blame one one is wrong, and If I give off that impression, then it's me who is wrong. I just want to say that I am extremely proud of what we accomplished in such a short time, and that is why I want to share these songs with all of you. Since writing this I have been in contact with Brett, and we are all starting to repair some of the broken sh*** in our brotherhood. Brett has even offered to send me some songs/riffs he's recorded over the years. Now that's cool...