March brings us a break from the winter weather and also brings us a new Zone @ 91-3 Band of the Month. This month the airwaves will be filled with the rock sounds of Vogue Villains.
Vogue Villains are a heavy hitting, theatrical alternative rock band based out of Campbell River (and surrounding areas). With catch melodies, tongue in cheek lyrics and energetic live performances that will have you coming back for more.
The band is made up of Lucas Antoni (Guitar/Vocals), Andrew Baskin (Bass/Vocals), Nate Cox (Drums/backing vocals) and Rob Johnston (Keys/Guitar). While their recorded work speaks for itself it’s the band’s live dynamics that put them a cut above other rock bands. Vogue Villains feels like a band of brothers getting the best out of each other while knowing how to push each others buttons for over the top stage antics. Seriously, make sure to hit one of their concerts for one of the funnest live rock shows going.
After their blacklight and UV paint fuelled photo shoot, Tyson Elder caught up with the band to chat about their upcoming album release Built on Bones, heading on tour and drinking fake blood.
Tyson Elder: Congratulations on being March’s Zone Band of the Month. I know it’s been a long time coming for Vogue Villains. Before we get too far into our conversation I feel like I can be honest with you guys (Vogue Villains). I’m doing this interview while I wait to board my flight to Mexico. Don’t hold it against me.
TE: I want to circle back to being Band of the Month. As a band that’s worked hard over the last few years to establish yourselves in the music scene, what kind of advice would you give to up and coming acts applying to be part of the program?
Lucas Antoni: If one of your goals with your music is to get radio play, you’ll definitely want to go the extra mile with production, mixing, and mastering to make sure your songs are up to par with what is currently playing. Second but equally as important is to study the songs being played on the Zone and decide if you’re fitting into the genre, everyone at the station is very open minded, but like other major stations their playlists need to be consistent.
Absolutely go to the info session The Zone hosts every year regarding the BOTM program. They cover everything you need to know about their expectations and the prerequisites for what makes your music radio ready. You also get to meet them and their guests face to face which is a good time and can go a long way in this world!
But honestly we think that being true to yourself and your music, searching for originality while learning from your inspirations is huge, stand out, be different.
TE: Do you find the distance between Victoria/Nanaimo/Vancouver while living in Campbell River makes it difficult to navigate the music scene?
Lusas: It does have its difficulties not being directly on the pulse, but I’ve gotten pretty good at creepin’ through social media and watching what goes on. It’s taken a significant amount of time to network and get a handle on how the music communities in these cities work, and I’m still learning as we go. A huge goal of ours is to network and be consistent enough to not be “out of sight, out of mind” when it comes to neighbouring music scenes, local and industry events. We’ve kind of begun to view the island and beyond as a whole as our music scene, it feels smaller and smaller the more we travel for shows. [laughs]
TE: What’s the music scene like in Campbell River these days? I know areas on the island like Port Alberni have had thriving underground punk and alternative scenes. Is that something that’s alive in Campbell River?
Andrew Baskin: As far as we know there isn’t much going on here in the way of a scene where we could thrive in our genre or for original acts. There are lots of talented players in Campbell River for sure but the current demand is aimed more towards covers and easier listening music which isn’t a goal of ours. However there is a new event here called Indie Rock In The River which is meant for showcasing local original music, we’ve played one of the three that have happened and it went really well so hopefully that helps a new music scene thrive. We hope to even be part of the catalyst that brings it back alive and kicking!
TE: Bleed, is going to be your Band of the Month single on The Zone @ 91-3. Tell me about the songwriting process on this track.
Lucas: This was an interesting song to write and demo because there are so many twists and turns that ended up fitting together with ease so we ran with it and were able to shape it into something really fun. It’s a great example of how we work, putting everyone’s ideas on the table and trying every combination. Sometimes it’s madness, sometimes it’s magic… and sometimes it’s magical madness. Lyrically, Bleed was inspired by chats we have had with people who claim to have our best interest in mind, but give us an off vibe and uneasy feelings. So we exaggerated and wrote the song from the perspective of someone trying to tempt you, use you and change you. Which a lot of people fall prey to when they’re working tirelessly at their dreams and are ready to catch a break wherever it may appear.
TE: The band has been steadily putting out singles for the last year leading up to the release of your album, Built On Bones. The music has notes of hard rock, alternative and doesn’t take itself too seriously, at least not always. It has some serious Queens of the Stone Age vibes. How did this record come about?
Andrew: The process of this album began over the start of the pandemic, all of our shows and plans were shut down overnight and we were laid off from work soon after. So in the wake of that we decided to change gears and dive right into the new music we had already been working on and finishing songs we had on the back burner for a long time. In doing so we were really able to further identify who we are as a band and what we want to achieve musically. Having Rob join the band also really helped cement this for us.
We started demoing the music at home, using that as a method to help us write and finish the songs. We had lots of help from friends of ours who we’ve done past projects with to help us up our home recording game, and we came out of it a year later with 16 full multitracked demos. It was a crazy amount of work but an amazing experience.
Once we were confident on the songs, we began thinking about who we wanted to approach to make the record with. Malcolm Owen-Flood came up in conversation a lot over the year so we pitched him the music, he and his cat sat and listened to all of the songs, and not long after we went into preproduction!
TE: Friend of the family, Malcolm Owen-Flood produced and engineered the record. What was it like working and collaborating with him for Built On Bones?
Andrew: Working with Malcom for this record was an absolute blast, our workflow was really smooth and he made some great calls. He originally had planned for us to track drums in a couple different studios for some of the songs that differed quite a bit from each other in their vibe; but that plan quickly changed as we discussed the possibility of saving the extra money going from studio to studio and instead spending it on making our home space into a legitimate place for us to record the album and once he got a look at the space we had available at home… we pretty much switched focus into getting the home studio ready and preparing to rock!
He coached us through building sound treatment panels to line the walls of our jam space which became the drum tracking room. We cut a hole in the wall leading to the next garage over, ran our cables through it and that became his control room. A couple makeshift panels on either side, a tiny wooden desk, a stack of old wood to set each of the monitors on, and Malcom was all set! He stayed with us for two sessions of five days to track this thing, we lived off of Thai food and unhealthy beverages for most of it, stayed up past our bedtimes every night, and Andrew poisoned Malcolm with his obsession of the show “I Think You Should Leave with Tim Robinson.” The result was beautiful. Malcolm totally outdid himself mixing and mastering, we became lifelong friends in the process, and we are all incredibly proud of how the record turned out.
TE: There is a depth to the record, not only lyrically but sonically. There are lots of layers to be unearthed. How did you achieve this?
Andrew: The four of us have some pretty vibrant visions for our songs; most of the time we end up gushing over ideas for sounds and atmospheric layers before we even know how to play the songs poorly! We approach the music with open minds which really helps and makes for lots of happy accidents…but our not so secret weapon is our boy Rob, he has a real knack for creating sounds and building atmospheres in the music, an element that’s very important to us.
TE: Along with the new record you’ve been putting together several music videos to accompany the singles. I particularly loved the Wrong Side of Midnight video. How much fake blood did Andrew have to drink during the making of the video? Any future plans for music videos?
Andrew: I’m so glad you liked them! That’s something that we’re very passionate about in this band, I’ve been making videos since high school and has the band started to make music videos I had to re-train myself to be able to do them at an appropriate level again, as we keep getting better and coming up with bigger ideas I’ve also had to work to be a better videographer. Generally I write an outline, come together with an awesome production company called Keywork Productions on how to make it work and then we direct it together and I head everything after that. We definitely have more in the works that we are just so excited about. I personally write songs with the visual story already together in my head so as long as money and time allow we would honestly like to have a video for every song that we do if possible.
We’ll have to see how it goes though! The next video we’ll be filming is for our latest single A Slow Ride (At The Speed Of Light) and it should be kickass and fun like the other ones. As for how much blood I had to drink during the shoot, it was more than I wanted to, haha, but maybe not as bad as how much raw steak I had to shove in my face over and over again! We highly encourage people to check those out and get involved in the comments because as I said it’s something we’re very passionate about as well as our music.
TE: Vogue Villains is hitting the road this month in support of the “Built On Bones” release, with a stop at Victoria’s Rebel Garage with Carmine and former Zone Band of the Month The Poubelles. I bet that show is already close to selling out.
What can people expect from a Vogue Villains live performance? I know when I’ve seen you there has been some blood… want to share that story?
Andrew: I’d like to start off by saying that we play a lot of shows on a lot of small stages but regardless of that we spend a lot of time getting really close to each other and wild on stage, we try to be as careful as possible but I think Rob’s been hit by my bass the most because of his large setup and the fact that I’m closest to him. But nothing that I’ve done to him compares to the show you’re talking about where we played the Victoria Event Centre and the energy was through the roof. We were doing the last trash can of the night, kicking each other and beating one another down as much as possible before I stood up to hit that final note that ended the show. Unbeknownst to me as I did that and swung my bass backwards, I smoked Lucas in the side of his head as the lights went down… I don’t think that anybody realized what had happened, including us until we were thanking everybody and saying our goodbyes on stage and Lucas walked up to the mic to ask the crowd if he was bleeding. Well, it turns out he was definitely bleeding from his head and it was pouring all down his face, whoops! It was so perfectly timed, it felt like we had done it on purpose. So many people after the show were even asking if we had done it with a blood pack because it worked out so perfectly! But the truth is we had no idea, and we had to have our concussed guitarist sit down in the green room while we had somebody keeping him awake as we packed gear. Luckily we got some really great pictures from you guys, and that moment will live on in VV history!
TE: Well guys, it’s been a pleasure chatting but they are calling my flight to start boarding. Congratulations again on the much deserved Band of the Month. Enjoy it and I look forward to hearing you on The Zone @ 91-3 all month long.
March 2024’s Band of the Month, Vogue Villains, will have The Zone @ 91-3 rocking out with their single, Bleed, all month long. The song is available for download along with two more tracks on their Band of the Month microsite. There you can also find out more about the band and more photos from their UV lit Rocktographers photo session.
Rocktographers is a proud supporting sponsor of The Zone’s Band of the Month program.