Bless Scottish act Viva Stereo (although members do now live as far afield as Lecicester!) for this extensive and rather interesting interview!
Questions for Viva Stereo
Q1, Who are Viva Stereo & where are you from?
Viva Stereo are a four piece electro rock band originally from Glasgow. Although we all now live in different cities throughout the UK. One in Aberdeen, One in Edinburgh, One in Manchester and one in Leicester.
Q2, You are just about to release ‘Roar Lion Roar’ the third and final album in a trilogy, tell us about the new album and tell us how it fits as the final piece of the three piece jigsaw?
Stuart: Despite the distance between us, this record is probably our most cohesive and direct to date. Musically it’s the sound of a band who have learned from past experience but are still trying new directions and ideas. Lyrically it picks up from the previous albums with tales of drunkenness, regret and good times…..we’re still enjoy life, love and nights out… although we are all that wee bit older so its not as easy to get up in the morning!
Rob: We certainly drew on all our previous experience and pulled out all the stops for this one. Having been around for awhile now we’ve met a fair few folk and seen a lot of different ways of doing things. With us not being young whipper snappers anymore and not feeling the need to prove ourselves, we had the confidence to do things exactly how we wanted.
Q3, How can we get hold of ‘Roar Lion Roar’? Can you still get hold of the first two albums?
Stuart: The new album will be available from our online shop(check the website/myspace) from Nov 10th. It will also be available on itunes and from some selected record shops.
Doug: The first two albums can also still be purchased from iTunes or our online shop, or in bargain bins of selected record shops…
Q4, If you had to pick a musical genre in which to pigeon hole yourself which one would you go for?
Tim: Pretty difficult as we try to do a bit of indie, electro, electronica and even some folk….so somewhere in the middle of all that…but if we had to pick one it would be good old ‘indie’.
Q5, Who are the Fence Collective? And how do they fit into Viva Stereo or how do Viva Stereo fit into the Fence Collective?
Tim: Fence Records is a small record label based in Anstruther, a small fishing village on the East Coast of Scotland. The label has been running for roughly 10 years and has released literally hundreds of records during that time. The label is not like a conventional record label. Bands aren’t signed, they become part of ‘The Fence Collective’. The Collective’s main acts could be seen as folk artists, although the label doesn’t focus solely on folk, also taking in indie rock and electronica. The most widely know acts in the Fence Collective are King Creosote, James Yorkston, The Pictish Trail and UNPOC….but there are hundreds of others as well as many collaborations between Fence Collective acts. We became part of it a few years back and have done a few collaborations in that time.
Doug: An off shoot from the Fence Collective record label is De-Fence Records (run by King Creosote/Fence/Viva Stereo drummer and all round fab musician and great guy… OntheFly) which caters more for the not so folky side of things and this is where Viva Stereo is more aligned at the minute.
Rob: It seems like every year we ask ourselves that same question! Fence fits into Viva Stereo in the way that it has been, and still is, a huge influence on what we do and how we do it. If you have an idea, give it a try. If it doesn’t work then try another one. If it does work we tend to find the results are even better than we thought.
Q6, None of Viva Stereo actually live in the same place, how did this come about and how does it effect the band?
Tim: Women and work! We’d previously spent the first four years of Viva Stereo living in Glasgow..in fact we all used to live literally round the corner from each other. So maybe we got fed up seeing each others faces! Seriously though, Doug met a girl and moved to Manchester first. As we are that wee bit older than a lot of bands we didn’t see the point in disbanding Viva Stereo and go our separate ways as we are all mates and knew with a bit organisation of we could still keep playing gigs and releasing records. We were probably at that stage where playing three band bill every other week in Glasgow was beginning to lose its appeal anyway so it worked out well. Stuart was next to go when he met a girl from Leicester. I moved to Edinburgh for work and Rob also moved to Aberdeen through work. It makes things very difficult to function as ‘normal’ band. So we don’t. Gigs are carefully chosen and made into ‘events’ rather than just another Tuesday night three band bill. Recording is trickier but with a lot of emailing ideas and getting together once a month, we pull it altogether. Its not ideal but its made things interesting for us to say the least.
Doug: yeah, we definitely have to plan things with a bit more thought than we used to. It’s so easy to do things when you have a lot of time, but when you have one weekend to record an entire tune with 10 musicians the logistics all have to be sorted out well before hand.
Rob: Every band practice now feels like a party with the playing of instruments getting in the way of the pub! It does mean though that we are more creatively diverse than ever before. We all go off on our little musical journeys and tend to bring these ideas back to the band that are stronger and more realized than before.
Q7, What is you favourite song you’ve written & why? What song would you have loved to have written?
Stuart: My fave two Viva Stereo songs are probably ‘Tourniquet’ and ‘Last Living Hope’. A lot of work went into those songs and they are very ambitious. We used to(and still do sometimes) get called Primal Scream/Kasabian wannabes but I don’t think either of those bands could have written a song like those. Song that I would love to have written…very tricky…maybe ‘Sympathy For The Devil’ by The Stones as its such a powerful song and would have been good to be able perform as one of your own it live night after night. Either that maybe something that provided a continuous flow of royalty cheques!
Rob: I couldn’t say I love one child more than any other but I do have a soft spot for ‘This is Not an Exit’ and ‘Gone’. Songs I would have loved to have written… The Grave – Don McLean, The Four Horsemen –Aphrodite’s Child, Papa Was a Rolling Stone – The Temptations.
Tim: ‘Last living hope’ - my ideas are typically bigger than my abilities as a musician so a lot of them just remain tangled sounds in my head. We had done some more orchestrated songs in the past (‘Tourniquet’ from Optimism Is Not a Curse) and I really wanted to write something in that vain again. The rest of the guys gave me that push needed to round up the musicians necessary to get these sounds on record. Initially it was an instrumental and later Chris Deveney from My Latest Novel came in and sang some of the most amazing melodies and lyrics I’ve heard.
The collaborative element that can be found on a lot of our songs makes things exciting for us as a band. We write the core of the song and then let it loose for someone else to add their interpretation. What we get back is never what we expect and is always much better than we could have hoped for.
Doug: Err… I have a very special writing relationship with VS… my input tends to be around small repeating guitar hooks and as a result usually sits on top of the structure laid out by Rob. Yes.. I am always on top of Rob [grins]… A lot of what I do is apparently counter melody (according to our engineer Marcus)… which works very well live, but can cause problems recording…lol. My most inspired input is the 3/4 note frenzied mayhem of Jesus Son, or possibly the start of Copper wire, which on record is actually wrong…eek!
Q8, Who would you say are the biggest influences musical or otherwise on Viva Stereo?
Rob: Musically its very hard to say. We are four very different people in VS..we both have the same common vein running through the music we make and enjoy. We all love Primal Scream, the Mary Chain, Joy Division, Velvets, Stone Roses, Beta Band, and anything released through Fence Records but we all have our own areas we like. I like a lot of electronica, Four Tet, Warp Records and folkie stuff like Bonnie Prince Billy etc Tims very much into 60’s/70’s Funk music like Curtis Mayfield and James Brown and also his post rock like Mogwai, Godspeed and Papa M, US Indie rock like Sonic Youth, Mercury Rev and Interpol. Doug likes his epic UK indie rock, Spiritualized, Elbow, Puressence. Stuart likes his sixties stuff from Northern Soul to psyche but also loves anything with a good melody from Girls Aloud to The Modern Lovers. Stuart runs his own club night in Leicester called Biff Bang Pow (myspace.com/biffbangpowleicester)
Stuart: Outside of music we are influenced by friends and experiences. A lot of my lyrics come from particular incidents that I try to make a bit more accessible by not getting too specific. I think most people can relate to the stuff I’m singing about, going out at weekends and waking up with that feeling that you need to apologise to someone but you can’t actually put your finger on who or what for! I went through a stage in my life of continually making mistakes and f*cking up but also at the same time having a great time in terms of going out and having fun and I draw from those experiences.
Tim: Mogwai, Godspeed You Black Emperor, Tortoise which may sound an odd list on a cursory first listen of our albums.
But I love the intensity of these bands songs and i hope that come across particularly in our more orchestrated songs like tourniquet/wake/last living hope.
Q9, Can you list your five favourite songs of all time and if so what are they?
Stuart: I couldn’t even list my five favourite songs of last week, it changes so much! Ok here goes
2) Joy Division – Atmosphere
3) The Ronettes – Be My Baby
4) Jesus and Mary Chain –Darklands
5) Irma Thomas - Anyone(Who Knows What love is Will Understand)
Tim:
2) Mogwai – Helicon 1
3) Arab Strap –Trippy
4) The Aliens –Robot Man
5) Add N to (X) – Robot New York
Yep i love them robots!
Doug (cheating by putting albums)
1)King Creosote – Kenny & Beths Musical boat rides
2)Spiritualized – Pure Phase
3)Puressence – Only Forever
4)Aerosmith – Pump or Draw the Line
5)Billy Idol – Whiplash Smile
Rob – At this particular time
2) No More Mosquitoes – Four Tet
3) Quarantine – Witness
4) The House Song – Beta band
5) hey porter – Johnny Cash
Q10, How would you describe a Viva Stereo gig?
Doug: We are bit different live than we are on record. Live is kinda full on electro mayhem, loud guitars, synths and banging beats. We like to try and make our songs sound different live than they are on record by making it all a bit more intense. Some of our favourite bands have been the ones that suck you into a live performance. The phrase ‘lost in music’ comes to mind!
Rob: Frantic, tense, joyous, destructive and loud.
Q11,What is you favourite Viva Stereo gig and is there any you’d like to forget?
Stuart: We’ve had a few favourites. One that sticks out was one in a wee Scottish Borders town called Langholm. We played as part of a three band bill of unsigned Glasgow bands who travelled down to perform. I think the previous live acts to play the town had seen were Status Quo in 1974! So it was a really busy gig with young kids upto to old folk in attendance. Really great atmosphere and they really got into the bands and were very appreciative…that always helps make a good gig.
Doug: As for ones we’d like to forget…theres been a few of them as well. Mostly through either technical difficulties or the crowd just not being interested. We played one gig in Oldham where the crowd were just ignorant. They had turned up to see their friends band who we were supporting(a Travis/Coldplay monstrosity) so didn’t want to listen to us….to the point a lot of them had their backs to us. Quite off putting so they got a mouthful of abuse about “going back to their fucking Hard-Fi records” from Stuart.
Rob: There was a gig at Night & Day in Manchester in 2004 I think, just before the first album came out. The place was mobbed, it was a four band bill and the first couple of bands had been pretty good. We were on third and the stars aligned for us. There was a projector screen in front of the stage and as it went up for the start of the gig we just hit the ground running. We’d played about 20 gigs in the 3 months up to the gig and we were tight and it was thr first time that we played to a full crowd who were right behind us from the start. Think I was buzzing for days after that one. Just as well cause we had a 300 mile drive up to Fife for the Homegame the next day! Ones I’d like to forget, none of them. There is a few I wish hadn’t turned out the way they did, Stuart I’m looking at you here and the day you smashed my guitar, but hey. There was always time for a pint or three afterwards.
Q12, What is the most embarrassing song in your collection and why did you buy / download it … please be very honest!
Stuart: For nostalgic reasons I’ve started to download a lot of stuff I listened to as a kid, when I used to tape things off the radio. This is usually done at 2am when I’m drunk as it seems like a good idea at the time. I think the last one was ‘Live It Up’ by Mental as Anything….its funny for about 5 minutes and then I wonder why I bother.
Rob: Not sure I want to go there. My collection has been whittled of the real embarrassing vinyl from when I was 12 so I no longer own any Def Leppard or Level 42. Kinda wished I still had my California Raisins tapes though!
Tim: I also went through a dodgy Metal stage.. I’m not naming any names though!
Doug: Belinda Carlisle – an album (dunno which one): Ermmm… it was really good at helping me study. Where the Stone Roses had me singing along and smoking joints… there was something about Belinda that made Inorganic Chemistry really exciting.
Q13, Where’s you favourite place in the world and what does it say about you?
Stuart: My bed…I’m a lazy bastard.
Tim: Under my duvet on the sofa - comfort zone!
Doug: Glasgow/Scotland… Fish out of water!
Rob: My sons bedroom. Proud father.
Q14, What song gets you dancing every time & why
Stuart: Any good Northern Soul track does it for me. It’s the best dancing music.
Doug: Crikey… I remember being in a club in Edinburgh with Stuart. We’d just played a gig at the backpackers, it was after curfew and we were pissed… so we pretended to be from Manchester and in a touring band so the bouncers would make allowances for us and let us in. Obviously we ended up looking like a pair of twats (but we got in!). Anyway… I had a bottle of poppers and on came the Modest Mouse song, ‘Float On’, that was good… queue me tearing up the dance floor before noticing that I was doing a solo show up there. So aye, that’s a catchy tune.
Tim: Fools Gold - Stone Roses they may have "stolen" the sound from the Happy Mondays but i don’t care! Trying to put a reason into words would be like dancing about architecture. But this one always gets the Tim Troup booty shakin, ooh yeah!
Rob: Yeah, Yeah – LCD soundsystem. Gotta love the cowbell
Q15, In ten words write your own press release (swearing is definitely allowed!)…
Viva Stereo; the Soundtrack of Saturday night and Sunday Morning
PUBLISHED - OCTOBER 2008