My Vitriol – Interview

My Vitriol singer Som stops by for an interview!

How is everything?

Well this is our first time in the states so its’ been fun. We did a show at the viper room last night.

Was that your first show in the states?

No, we did a show not too long ago in Texas during the South By Southwest fest thing I guess its for music insiders.

What is like to already having the hype preceding you?

We are pretty much unaware of anything that has been happening over here, but it’s really great to have people at the shows. We have some friends that come over and tour here and they play shows with like five people in the audience.

I saw Travis at a show with about forty people once in Kansas.

That is pretty amazing considering back home they play stadiums.

What is the feeling you get when you came over here?

It’s really weird because back home we got used to playing stadiums, but it’s a challenge and we’re excited about it. Over the pond we’ve been around for a few years so we’ve got a pretty loyal fan base.

What is the writing process?

It generally starts with me. I bring something to rehearsals and together we flesh it out. The songs start out on the acoustic guitar and end up rocking out or they may start on piano. But most of the time the songs come together complete pretty quickly.

Do you work on a melody first or lyrics?

I’m never lyrics first. I tried it once and it didn’t work. I pick up the guitar and whatever comes out comes out. It’s quite cool how lyrics just come out. When something wants to come out it comes out and that is kind of how I write. But it does depend on a certain song, like “Windows & Walls” where I actually sat down and wrote out the lyrics. On all the other songs I was just playing on my guitar and they came out.

Have you ever written a song and on refection were surprised what came out, like what you might have been thinking about at the time?

The songs really depend on what mood I’m in. My view of Finelines is that it has a song for every mood and that your favorite will change on a daily basis. But also I think the lyrics can change and work at different angles too I guess.

Did you have a lot of songs for the album?

No, the way the whole band happened wasn’t your usual thing where you play for two or three years and get signed, we did the complete opposite and as a result we only had about seven songs when we went in. So we were really inspired by the moment of recording a debut album. We tried to ignore the fact that we’d never been in the studio as a four piece and there we were in the studio recording our international debut.

It seems like there is no filler.

It’s about quality not quantity. Not to sound anal, but a song wouldn’t get past the four of us if it weren’t great because one of us would shoot it down. Also people continually comment on our B-sides and how much they love them. I guess maybe we are lucky. There really has been a demand for the B-sides and the demand has been so great that there has been talk about doing an album called Between The Lines.

What surprised you once you were signed by the record label?

It’s never really what you expect. In your naive little bubble you think it’s all about writing music, but it never really is. There is a ton of crap that you have to do, and that can wear you down. You can get obsessed with all that other stuff you have to do and it can distract you. I thought everything would be great and I’d get paid for writing songs all day long. But that hasn’t happened.

One thing I wanted to mention was that as I listened to the album I realized that I couldn’t shoehorn you with other bands.

That is a really good sign and a huge compliment. If you have some standard rock sound you will sound like something, it’s so hard to be original. It’s a massive compliment to say we sound original.

When I mentioned you guys to a friend they inevitably ask ‘what do they sound like?’

I understand that people do this, and it might sound arrogant, but I want to be the first band that sounds like My Vitriol not the new whatever. We don’t want to be the new Pumpkins or whatever. That doesn’t appeal to us.

I just tell people you have to just hear them.

I understand it because the world is so chaotic that people need to put the pigeons in their holes.

Were you always into playing music?

Yeah, well for me since I was fifteen and Carolyn since she was eleven. All of us have been doing it for at least ten years, even if it was just in our bedrooms.

Did you just pick up the guitar and play?

Yeah, I mean I had the three obligatory lessons that your mother kind of forces you to play piano, and I failed miserably. When they kind of left me alone I’d go and play the piano and hope they didn’t catch me and interfere. But basically we’ve almost all learned ourselves out of pure enjoyment. We just wanted to recreate the music that made us feel good growing up.

What did you grow up listening to?

Various stuff. I grew up in Sri Lanka and the first song that moved me was “Eleanor Rigby”, when I was seven, by The Beatles. I was surrounded by all sorts of music from Indian music to The Beatles. But that song really moved me when I was living in my kiddie bubble and it burst that. I’ve never forgotten how I felt when I heard that song and that proves the power of a great song. And then from then on I knew I loved music and that was it. It took me about eight years for me to get around to writing my own stuff. That is after I had picked up the guitar thanks to Nevermind and then I began to write songs.

Is there anything you listen to that might be a guilty pleasure?

A guilty pleasure? You mean like Britney Spears? (We both laugh) No. We actually all listen to lots of things. I think that some artists call themselves purests and are really narrow minded and listen to only their genre of music but I think they are hypocrites. We listen to loads of stuff outside of rock. Gram Parsons man. (Laughs)

What does it take to be an artist?

Well I’ve focused all my abilities to be just that. But I think we were lucky enough and talented enough. But we took the bull by the horns and thankfully we got signed.

Do you hate that people attribute a lot to luck in the music industry?

You can’t deny that luck plays a huge roll in this. You can’t make yourself crazy over how much was luck and how much was talent. You just have to get on with it. I’d like to believe that the more you put into it, the more time and effort, that the less luck plays in the whole thing.

+ charlie craine