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A quote from Our Band Could Be Your Life

Recently, we picked up and started reading a book about the underground indie scene in America, and found a quote that resonated with us. We thought we’d share it with you, so you get an idea of our ethos.

From Our Band Could Be Your Life: Scenes from the American Indie Underground 1981-1991 by Michael Azerrad.

The indie movement was a reclamation of what rock was always about. Rock & roll hinged on strong, personal connection to favorite bands, but that connection had been stretched to the limit by pop’s lowest common denominator approach, not to mention things like impersonal stadium concerts and the unreality of MTV. Indie bands proved you didn’t need those things to make a connection with an audience. In fact, you could make a better connection with your audience without them.

Corporate rock was about living large; indie was about living realistically and being proud of it. Indie bands didn’t need million-dollar promotional budgets and multiple costume changes. All they needed was to believe in themselves and for a few other people to believe in them, too. You didn’t need some big corporation to fund you, or even verify that you were any good. It was about viewing as a virtue what most saw as a limitation.

Sullen Ray’s first foray into Europe: Inspiration and motivation for BLUE minor

Our very own Sullen Ray has just come back to the States from a European tour with Tarah Who?. From logistical considerations and musical inspiration, we had a chance to pick his ear about the whole experience, and we talk about the future of Sullen Ray as well.

His last single was “Dive”, released on the Villaintine’s 2014 compilation. Listen here!

Sullen Ray and Tarah Who? in Europe

I know originally you were planning to just do a U.S. tour. How did you and Tarah Who? decide to go International instead? Whose idea was it?

Yeah, Tarah Who? and I had planned an early spring tour from San Diego to Seattle! But the opportunity for us to go to Europe came up when Tarah was in contact with friends in Paris. Since Tarah is from Paris, she was a huge part in making that happen. She knew the places that were scheduled for us to play and obviously the area, so we jumped on board a plane and went for it!

It was literally all decided within a week. We emailed the venues we were already scheduled to play here in the US, told them what was going on, and all of them were very excited for us, and said, “No problem!”

Have you been to Europe before the tour? If so, have you played shows there before?

I had not ever been to Europe before, I always dreamed of going, so I took the opportunity!

I’m not particular when it comes to guitars! I don’t care if I have to use a pink Hello Kitty guitar. I was always taught that it’s not the guitar, it’s the player!

How did bringing gear and/or organizing to rent or borrow gear work? I know you play with a lot of pedals and own a lot of gear. What were your must-have pieces of equipment that made it across the pond?

I didn’t bring anything equipment-wise. I quickly learned that in Europe all the venues are backlined! It’s not like here in the US. Usually backlined means that you show up and there’s a crappy drumset and amps that look like they’ve been dropped off a 3 story building.

But in Europe it’s all top of the line equipment with choices: Orange amps, Fenders, Ampeg. You basically choose what you want to use. They do this because there is no room what so ever for bands to bring their own gear. Most venues are down in a basement! It’s actually a very “help the musician out” culture, unlike here, where it’s fend for yourself or die!

Pedal-wise Tarah had a basement full of pedals, and we put together a couple of pedal boards for both of us, and I just used any guitar that was available. I’m not particular when it comes to guitars! I don’t care if I have to use a pink Hello Kitty guitar. I was always taught that it’s not the guitar, it’s the player!

I know you played with various musicians from over there rather than bringing your entire U.S. lineup. How did you all prepare to play leading up to the tour? 

I sent the demos of my music over the World Wide Web to the musicians who were going to play for me! They picked it up quickly and basically the first practice was just to hear us all playing together, them knowing the songs was never an issue… They knew it!

But hearing my music with a whole new feel and intent made me really step back and say “that’s what I want!” instead of always feeling like “ok, this is sort of what I’m going for.”

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Why are we here?: A Villains mission statement.

It’s been awhile since we’ve had any updates, so I thought I could talk to you guys about our background here at Villains Records, why it was started, that sort of thing.

First and foremost, community and collaboration are the two most important things to Villains. A lot of artists and musicians create in a vacuum with no support for their art. It’s a shame, really. Music, especially, is a great way to connect with others — whether through shows, through critiques of each other’s music, or at a party listening to a playlist. When RC started Villains, he wanted to create that same atmosphere of camaraderie and friendship.

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We’re all in this together!

That’s how Villains started: as a group of friends who wanted to listen to each other’s music. We started booking shows with each other, recording our albums together, and creating and screening artwork and merchandise. We’re completely in this for the love of music and community, not for profit.

So why do we even bother if there’s no money in it? We don’t need money because we have each other. You could say that we’re more collective than record label, though all of our bands take pride in sticking the big V logo on their CDs.

As a collective, we trade services for each other. We have several friends who record and mix, we have others who can do artwork, some friends who are great at social media, etc. And we’re our each other’s street teams. We go to each other’s shows, put up posters for each other, and share our events on Facebook.

Of course, we have to pay for most of our stuff with our own hard work and free time, but it’s worth it to help each other out.

In fact, we have a super secret project in the works right now that we hope to have released by the end of the summer. It’ll take all of our collaborative effort to make it work! Stay tuned.

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