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| "We hit hard, we are relentless, we are raw, and we are heavy" |
I get tons of email everyday from bands that ask me to post downloads or streams to their new releases. That's the bait. Rarely do I bite. Enter Vows, Long Island, New York. They emailed me a a new song of their and asked me to download it, give it a spin and tell you guys about it. I was in good spirits the day that email landed, so I gave the damn thing a twirl. The song in question was "Dryrot" (listen below). I didn't hate it. In fact I liked a bit. I played it again and figured I dug the hell out of it. Aside from the energy, heaviness and agression, I took a particular liking to the sneaky song structures and the subtle intricacies. Not technical by any means, but Vows eschews - to a degree and in carefully chosen places - relying on conventions and hardcore conservatism when putting their songs together. Never over doing it, but letting the songs flow, and you hardly notice those little nuances I'm talking about. It's neat, it keeps me interested and for that I'm grateful, because sometimes I'm a little too eager to write new "modern sounding" hardcore bands off as "it's over done man, I ain't got time for this shit."
So if you are a fan of the Hope Conspiracy, American Nightmare, Suicide File and the likes, but looking for an added spice and aggression, Vows could be for you. Anyway, impressed as I was, I thought it was warranted to chat these guy up and be the Bette Midler beneath their wings, as it were. I give you Vows...
Our music is pretty emotional; it's full of anger, anxiety and excitement. We write to provoke our listeners. Our songs are full of personality and they're going to affect your mood and state of mind. This wasn't necessarily the most compelling track we have ever written, but it is indicative of our style and short enough to catch your attention. It captures the essence of what we are about.
Not painting you copy cats by any means, but when I was running this song by a friend I told him that it's like a current and much heavier and crunchier American Nightmare/Panic kinda thing... Like less "dramatic" Rivalry records "style" like metallic hardcore... To get him on the scent. Am I way off?
Not way off, I believe a more appropriate description would be "Deathwish Records influenced." We all have roots in punk, hardcore and metal as do many of the Deathwish bands. It may not be groundbreaking material but we prefer our approach. We always try to think outside the box and write with what's current in our lives.
I appreciate what you are saying here. I was just referring to the intensity and "emotional anger" palpable in one listen. It's for example what drew me to AN in the beginning. It was was not groundbreaking structure or chord ideas. But in saying that, how you line up movements within each songs isn't always conventional.
That's funny you say that about how non-conventional the transitions are in our music; we were just talking about this at band practice tonight. I know that when I listen to most bands that are within our genre, I usually expect the upcoming part, the tempo, when the drum fills occur etc. Once in awhile I hear something that came out of left field, fits perfectly but it's not the norm; we try to portray that in our music writing.
We wanted this recording to sound big and raw. We started with the drums, they always make a production sound big and raw. You just have to turn the volume up that much more to hear everything that's going on in the mix.
Being a human myself (heeey!) and a writer of lyrics, not sounding corny was alway hard to pull off when it came to writing about my life, other people's lives and experiences. It was a challenge I failed many a time. What's going on with Vows lyric wise?
We all kind of contribute in writing lyrics, so I think its personal to each member. It is definitely difficult to not come off as corny with the lyrics. What I try to do when I am writing lyrics is write about something that is current, that invokes some kind of emotion in me, and go with it. Then I will go back and review it in the context of the song phonetically, rhythmically, and melodically. I also attempt to make the lyrics somewhat vague and open to interpretation so the listener can hear it as they desire; however I know that when Adam is singing it, or when I am doing back up vocals, where it stems, and that emotion will come out vocally and our playing. The only topic we strive to not get involved in lyrically is politics. Everything else is fair game.
Say, one was going though a stack of hardcore releases and this person is jaded and well-worn listener continuously reluctant to give newer bands a twirl because he/she has heard it all, cannot connect with the bands these days and somehow has figured out what everyone is going for as a band. What would you say to this person in order to spark his/her interest in Vows? What you got others don't?
I think we take inspiration from a lot of different places and incorporate a lot of different styles into our own. If I was asked to describe Vows to somebody who had never heard it, I would say we are like a shotgun blast to the chest. I think we hit hard, we are relentless, we are raw, and we are heavy. We have a passion for the music we are playing and i think its apparent on the receiving end.
I didn't see an occult symbolism and imagery in the artwork? Why not? Don't you know what's current, anymore? (This is me being a smug, ironic asshole - Ed).
Don't worry, we have a new occult related t-shirt being pressed as we speak.We try to stick with the more obscure stuff though.
Who did the cover art and talk to us about the concept…
A good friend Sal Nicosia did the photography and some of the editing for the album art. We wanted desolate, decrepit structures in our art and he hit the nail on the head. In regards to the album artwork and what it pertains to; most of the guys in this band have been in many other bands over the years which have all slowly died. When we got together on this project, most of us were not involved in any other music projects. Individually we were all in a position where we really wanted to do this, but were also of the understanding that this is probably the last music project that we could realistically put the amount of effort necessary into it in order for it to take shape and go somewhere. The artwork basically stands for the revitalisation of past endeavours with this project.
Bruins or Blackhawks? Who you got and why are they going to win?
I don't really pay attention to hockey.
That's the silliest nonsense I've ever heard. OK. Rampage vs Double Dragon?
Double Dragon all the way.
108 vs 311?
311 is a superior number, but the band sucks.
Any labels working with you on this new release? Where can people get it? Howl some show dates and up-coming happenings.
We are not signed to any labels or affiliated with any labels at this time. This EP and the following split EP we will be releasing with Tiger Flowers this summer are both DIY. The Vows EP is available via our bandcamp for download.
We have the following shows coming up.
June 21, 2013 Wildwood Bowling Alley, Riverhead New York w/ Tiger Flowers, Hush, Dickhandnasty, Chet Swezey and the Chet Swezeys, Ask The Dead, Schmuck
June 22, 2013 Knights of Columbus, Cutchogue, New York w/Old Wounds, Trenchfoot, Ice Age, Snakes, Schmuck
July 5, 2013 Even Flow Bar, Bayshore, New York w/ No Control, Heisenberg, Chet Swezey and the Chet Swezeys, Schmuck
July 25, 2013 Venue TBA w/xBishopx July 26, 2013 The Wood Shop, Copiague, New York w/ Discourse, Separated
- Birkir Fjalar
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