He enjoys music more than he likes Cocoa Pebbles, and he really loves Cocoa Pebbles, he tells me. His name is Andy Orge and he is yet another prime example of talent at Florida Atlantic University. He digs the music and the music lives in his heart and camps out and makes ‘smores and feeds his other internal organs.

“Me and my good friend Jared have been writing lyrics and music that have a fast hardcore vibe to them,” said Orge, co-founder of American Gladiator. “The name of the band was chosen as almost a joke,” he added, “with a temptation to place a picture of Russell Crowe on the cover of the album.”

They don’t care too much about taking themselves too seriously, which is very cool. “Who cares?” Orge said, “make good music and the world will bend with you. They will allow you to grow and field in life.” In Orge’s and Jared’s life, their experiences are what drive them. There songs, however loud or grinding, are soft with a certain caliber of honesty.

“They are all pretty much things that (we’ve) dealt with in life,” said Orge and that quote should not be taken for granted. It is the character of art that drives this world. Imagine a world without the Mona Lisa, the Taj Mahal or Gary Coleman. Art people. Art.

American Gladiator is not the first band that Orge and company has been a part of. Andy tells me that the first band, On Our Own, was the launching point in music. This was where rock ‘n’ roll developed in their lives.

They played a house show in the middle of a farm in Northern California. Now if that’s not old school, I’ll eat my own head. He says there were about 30 kids in a cramped room but it seemed like 100. Large crowds were ripping off shower heads and raising all sorts of heck. This is music. This is what Orge got into music for. Not for the acclaim, not for the name, just for the music.