We want to promote new up and coming artists and have affiliated with Go To Hear to be able to do that! The way we want to do that right now is by interviewing artists so new fans can learn more about them and follow them to hear their music.
This is our interview with Vampire Money who have just released their debut single. Have a read and use the links at the bottom to follow their social media pages, you can also find their single ‘Out Of Nothing’ on Go To Hear!
Hey Guys! Thanks for doing this interview. Can we start by introducing the band?
Alfie: I have a deep obsession with lyrics and how they fit into melodies as well as writing
stories. So I spend nearly all my time writing and structuring our words to tell those
stories. I also play the bass, sing, and produce all our songs. I’ve been studying music
production for 5 years now so that’s what got me to a place where I realised I wanted to
start this band. Our image and visual art are things that I pay really close attention to as
well.
Ben: I play and write our guitar parts and recently began singing backing vocals and
harmonies. I also deal with reaching out to blogs and companies as well as festivals.
Tom: I started as the lead vocalist for the band, and since, have picked up rhythm guitar
duties alongside contributing to the songwriting process. As we’re completely
self-managed, lots of my time outside of the music is spent managing performance
bookings, communicating with industry professionals and producing the bands
promotional material and online image.
Perfect, so now we know who you are, can you tell us about the band name, how did you decide on Vampire Money?
Alfie: I came up with a list of names that I had meanings for and asked a bunch of
people which one was the best. Everyone said Vampire Money which was good
because that was my favourite of the lot. It’s weird when people ask why we’re called
that because there are quite a few answers. I first saw the phrase listening to the My
Chemical Romance song of the same name. It has so much energy and an attitude that I
think represents us really well. I don’t do well in the sun and get called a vampire a lot
too, so I think that’s what triggered it as a band name for me.
Ben: I joined after it was named Vampire Money so I had no say in the matter. But it’s
f****** awesome.
Tom: The actual term means money that’s spent in vain which we thought was a cool
term. We’re uni-students so that’s a familiar concept! There’s just something about it that
sums us up and has opened up our creative process and I don’t really know why. It hints
at a lack of belonging that we’ve all experienced throughout life before finding a sense of
belonging with the band that we hope fans feel too. Then they wouldn’t be spending their
money in vain.
You debut single is ‘Out Of Nothing’, can you explain what the song is about for us?
Alfie: In the story that I wrote for our album, a character called Lost experiences a
spiralling depression that manifests as a haunting of a demon parade. He has a lot of
trouble sleeping because of this haunting, but whenever he manages to sleep, he has
the same traumatic nightmare. Out of Nothing represents that nightmare. It’s the
scattered product of his mental state.
Ben: It’s a special song too because it was the first song we wrote together, and to some
extent it symbolises the start of our journey so far as a band. When the name came up, it
perfectly described how the band came about, literally out of nothing.
Tom: Before the story came in, the song was a really informal, tongue in cheek
commentary on the current music industry. Then as the story developed, it took on a
new meaning. I think the references in the song help it blend in with the story as well as
stand out as its own piece of songwriting.
You in the process of finishing your album, can you tell us more about your songwriting process,
is it lyrics first or the music?
Alfie: This album has songs that are products of both “music first” and “lyrics first” writing.
For some of our songs, I write all of the lyrics and structure, and then start writing the
music before sending it off to Ben and Tom with notes for what the guitar and vocal vibe
would be. Other times I have full composition sketches that I write to, based on how the
song makes me feel. Writing our songs provides me with a more creative and
therapeutic way of dealing with my personal thoughts, experiences and emotions that I
like to dress up in elaborate fiction.
We have some kind of weird origins for some of the albums songs too. One was for our
song Victory Maleficent, I was sketching ideas out in a dark basement at like 1am with
the only light coming from the TV showing random Tim Burton YouTube videos. I rang
Ben and asked him for any guitar ideas he had lying around that fit the weird idea I was
trying to get out, but what he sent wasn’t anything near what I had in mind. As I nearly
gave up trying to force a song out, I put the audio files into my mixing program and then
everything clicked and the song had just exploded onto the screen. I had to call them
right after like an excited kid screaming “WE HAVE OUR FINALE SONG”.
Ben: I always have a bank of guitar ideas in the back of my head or recorded
somewhere so I usually try all of those out first, and if none of those work, I just play
around with my guitar until something clicks. This can take minutes or days but what I’m
looking for is something that adds to the songs rather than keeping them at the same
level. Sometimes this involves taking the song to a whole new place which keeps it
interesting. Near enough every song that we’ve written has ended up taking on new
forms from their demo sketches.
Tom: I began writing songs in a singer/songwriter style with an acoustic guitar before the
band existed and since have done more concentrated writing whilst developing my style
as a singer and performer.
You have a fairly unusual sound going on, some of the songs I’ve heard that haven’t been released
yet are very different so how would you describe your music to a first time listener?
Alfie: We’ve been told it’s like My Chemical Romance fused with Busted. Somebody
called us “Lively Goth Punks” once and I thought that was an amazing term.
Ben: Catchy pop songs for the emotionally distraught.
Tom: It’s meant to be fun and catchy with a heavy attention to detail in all aspects of it as
well as no compromise to artistic integrity.
Who are your favourite artists at the minute?
Alfie: My Chemical Romance forever and always. I love Fall Out Boy and Panic! Too and
right now Sleeping With Sirens, Waterparks and nothing, nowhere. all get daily plays on
my iTunes.
Ben: The artists that have inspired me most in my career are Muse, Biffy Clyro and Bon
Jovi. But currently, the artist I’m listening to most is Jinjer, I love their instrumentation
and textures.
Tom: My biggest longtime inspirations are bands like Panic! at the Disco, Fall Out Boy
and The Killers but in terms of newly established artists, I find the musicianship and
songwriting of Waterparks fascinating.
If you had to do a cover song what would it be?
Alfie: I’m a huge Eminem fan so one of his songs would be cool to cover. Maybe The
Monster? I’d love to cover This Is Gospel by Panic! at the Disco too, that would be so fun
to play live.
Ben: Many Of Horror. No question.
Tom: I love it when bands cover popular songs in their own style, so I’d really like to
cover Bad Guy by Billie Eilish. But, I can’t think of much better than playing a cover of
something like Sugar We’re Goin’ Down.
What do you enjoy most about being a musician?
Alfie: Playing live shows with your friends is an amazing feeling. I love the freedom of
creativity as well. I’ve always wanted a way to make elaborate and detailed worlds and
stories and this band lets me do that.
Ben: Being able to express yourself in a creative way and p****** about with your
friends.
Tom: Especially with the kind of band we are, I adore the way that we can wrap our
music up in so many other aspects like image, stories, art around the music itself. And
singing is just fun.
What’s been your favourite live performance so far?
Alfie: I really enjoy playing The Fleece in Bristol. It was our first experience on an actual
stage and so many huge artists have played there so that was special.
Ben: We played a set for FrogFest at The Frog & Fiddle in Cheltenham recently and that
was when I first started to come out of my shell onstage.
Tom: The Cotswold Inn gig in June was special for us because lots of our friends were
there. We played at The Shed in Leicester where we knew nobody but had a really good
crowd reaction.
If you could collaborate with any musician who would it be?
Alfie: I’d love to sit in a room with Gerard Way of My Chemical Romance and Pete
Wentz of Fall Out Boy and write songs and stories with them. They’re the biggest
influences on my writing and seem to think about all aspects of music and art in similar
ways that I do. Outside of musicians, sketching out ideas with Tim Burton to make
visuals for our songs would be amazing.
Ben: Matt Bellamy would be my dream collaboration, but as someone who comes from
an instrumental musical background, I’d also love to collaborate with Joe Satriani.
Tom: The obvious choice to me is Brendon Urie, because he is just a g** amongst men.
Michael Stipe of R.E.M. is someone whose creative process I think would be really
interesting to get an insight into.
How do you feel about the music industry currently? If you could change anything
about it, what would it be?
Alfie: The music industry has always been something that everyone knows is difficult to
succeed in. I think a lot of that has to do with the fact that a lot of professionals lack good
communication skills which creates more barriers than there should be. So if I could
change anything I’d make communication a lot more of a focus.
Ben: I think a lot of musicians today expect to be spoon-fed everything without putting in
enough effort. Every musical style is extremely over-saturated and that’s not necessarily
a bad thing but if your goal as a musician is to become the next big star, I think you really
have to put a lot of thought into every aspect of being an artist while making yourself
stand out from the rest of the crowd.
Tom: I think it’s much more accessible than it appears, it just takes a lot more work to get
into it than many people realise, which is to say, we have a s***-tonne of work ahead of
us, but I also think there are a lot of communication issues with a lot of professionals
which makes it very difficult to build a foundation.
If you had a message for anyone wanting to become a fan, or a current fan, what would
the message be?
Alfie: If you like our stuff, I love you 3000.
Ben: We want to stay loyal and transparent to our fanbase and want to interact with them
as much as possible as their interaction means a lot to us.
Tom: There’s a lot of layers to our music and art so you only scratch the surface by
hearing our songs. We want to be around for a long time. Stream Out Of Nothing.
Finally, what’s next for Vampire Money?
Alfie: The album drops, everybody goes nuts, we hit number 1 so hard that the world
explodes, and all that is left is one last copy of the album. In short: World Domination.
Ben: We can’t wait to see what happens after our album release so we’re working hard
for it to be as effective as possible!
Tom: Headlining Reading & Leeds.
Guys, thank you so much for taking the time to answer all of these questions, it’s been awesome learning more about you
and we wish you every success moving forward.
Here are the links to follow the band!
www.facebook.com/wearevampiremoney
www.instagram.com/wearevampiremoney
https://mvp.gotohear.com/ra/vocalusmusicuk1573557851/
www.vocalusmusic.co.uk/vampire-money
If you want to be considered for an interview, submit your music to info@vocalusmusic.co.uk and have a look at
at the other ways we can help!
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