Illinois Entertainer April 2023 | Page 10

interested . That was the reason to put out the EP . I really dug the songs and we just independently put it out . I was the guy who pushed the button when it uploaded into CD Baby or whatever . It was do-ityourself , which I really enjoyed . I thought it was only fair – I don ' t like it when musicians do that sort of car salesmanship . When you go into meetings and tell them I havethis album inmethat ' sgonnabloweverybody ' s minds before you ' ve actually done anything .

So , I thought the fair way was to get something out , see how people reacted , and I wasn ' t completely bonkers . People did like it and a few record companies got really interested . Me and my manager Antti [ Eriksson ] planned all this stuff together . It took a long time to get music to a record company , especially during the pandemic because nobody would meet face to face . It ' s hard to forge a working relationship when youcan ' treallysitdownovera cupofcoffee . That ' san important part . Miraculously , I was able to pull it off .

IE : Once the EP was out there and people responded to it really well , when did you start working on the record ? VV : I got the album done about a year ago . It was mastered , and then I worked on the cover art and started rehearsing with the band . We had to do it like that partially because of the pandemic . The ever-growing need for vinyl meant production days were weird where you had to book a vinyl plant eight months in advance to be able to get your album out . I didn ’ t want to go out and tour if I ' m only ones and zeros . The album is the thing ; that ' s the real proof . Everything

else is like vaporware . Like Tears on Tape , it vanished from all streaming media maybe half a year ago due to some licensing things . Nothing to do with the band . It was weird for me because it ' s an important album and a big part of my life and all of a sudden , it ' s just gone . I tried to get it back . I was trying to figure out who to talk to . It ' s more complicated than that . In that sense , I think physical albums , like physical books , are important . Something to hold on to on a bad day .

IE : Definitely . This is why I advocate for physical media all the time because while streaming is convenient you never know when your favorite album is going to disappear for whatever reason , but if you own it on CD or vinyl , no one can take that away from you . VV : If you don ' t scratch it and if you have a CD player , yeah . It ’ s quite interesting because I ' m a firm believer that one of these days the internet will go down , full stop . When I was working on something I sent stuff to be mixed by Tim Palmer , an Englishman who lives in Austin , Texas . He mixed Neon Noir and Love Metal for HIM . Ever since then , he ' s produced a few things along the way , and we ’ ve become friends . I was sending material to be mixed , and that was on the day when the UK government system went down which surprisingly meant that file-sharing platforms , like WeTransfer went down . It was quite weird because all of a sudden you couldn ' t do anything . I didn ' t lose anything , but you lose time . There ' s so many things we take for granted , especially these days with the internet . We swear and curse like sailors when it doesn ' t work in that very instant . So , it ' s a

newreleases April 7

Ellie Goulding Higher Than Heaven Mudhoney Plastic Eternity Ruston Kelly The Weakness

April 14

Ann-Margret Born To Be Wild Fruit Bats A River Running To Your Heart Kid Koala Creatures Of The Late Afternoon Metallica 72 Seasons Temples Exotico

April 21

Alfa Mist Variables Baba Ali Laugh Like A Bomb Esther Rose Safe To Run Everything But The Girl Fuse Lael Neale Star Eaters Delight Rodrigo y Gabriela In Between Thoughts ... The Smashing Pumpkins Atum Act 3

April 28

Baby Rose Through And Through Braids Euphoric Recall Country Westerns Forgive The City Matt Maltese Driving Just To Drive Neil Gaiman Signs of Life Silver Moth Black Bay

Mudhoney

Smashing Pumpkins

Continued on page 24

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