Balls out rock at 19.02

It’s tough being a guitar band in 2011. Only three guitar-based tunes were featured in the UK’s top 100 best-selling songs of 2010. It gets even more depressing when you realise that half of the top 40 songs featured were by David Guetta, Black Eyed Peas or Rihanna.

I still believe there is hope yet for rock. Even more so when I meet unsigned bands who remain optimistic about the future of independant rock. The Vetoes are that sort of band. After moving from Reading to London for their studies, The Vetoes developed their unique take on rock. Despite being pigeon-holed as indie-rock early on by critics, a much better description of their style can be found on their SoundCloud page as the intriguing “Post Indie Tech Punk”.

We spoke about the deploring state of rock, bands they dig and what they’ll bring on February 19th, when they headline Felix’s Music Night, 19.02.

What kind of music did you guys set out to make?

Tobias (guitar, vocals): Initially we were just two guitarists writing music, which turned out as guitar rock. And gradually we’ve been fighting against everything that guitar rock means.

Andy (bass, vocals): Nowadays we’re working at writing for other people to listen to our music rather than just us. You know, that’s Lead Guitarist Syndrome, you get obsessed with what you’re doing. But we’ve been so conscious for the past year about writing for other people, so we’re gradually shaping our own sound now.

James (drums): I think as a band at the moment what we’re aiming to do is just make good music, but make it quite interesting and a bit different, because I just think everything out there is so boring right now.

Tobias: People look at us and tell us “Wrong time to be a guitar band, huh?”. What that’s turned into for most people is some kind of super-duper styled guys, grinding through chords and singing songs about girls, and how much girls hurt some times. And it’s just fundamentally uninspiring. But there’s always been something about guitar music that has excited people. Whether it was Nirvana in 1994, or Radiohead in 1997...

Andy: It’s just something that people are always going to be able to relate to. The guitar’s a very human instrument. But there’s such a breadth of sounds you can make with a guitar. There’s never really going to be a limit to what you can do as a guitar band. There’s always new sounds you can create.

James: I think I’m kind of fed up with rock at the moment because it’s just so not rock. When you’re a rock drummer, you get on stage and you get topless and you smash the drums as hard as you can. So many bands now are boring. They’re not even doing anything musically interesting, and they look bored on stage.

What are some of your influences?

Tobias: It’s weird how our influences work, because I can tell you some of my favourite bands, Andy’ll tell you his, James’ll tell you his and they’ll be so different but we can have points at which the reasons why we like them are the same. One band that me and Andy really like is Radiohead, because every song is unique and exiciting in its own way. But then I like kind of hardcore punk stuff, from the schizoid stuff of Blood Brothers, to the nuts-out weird vocals of Future of the Left. And the balls that you get from that kind of rock. Mixed in with some of the intricacies, and the openness, and the textures of some of the indie bands. Wild Beasts have a really great open kind of feel to them… but with the balls. I think the balls are what people are missing. Just the cojones man. Cojones!

Andy: I guess we try and bring the fun element of bands that are gonna make you move, like Foals. On the punk scene you have Johnny Foreigner, they’re just so much fun. We’re trying to combine that fun with really intricate guitar arrangements.

Tobias: We’ve shifted our focus from “I like playing that. I’ll play my good part.” to saying just “How does this make me feel?”. And that’s what music’s about. Making people feel something. Whether it’s about making people feel scared, happy and elated or making them just want to boogie their arse off. That’s what we want to do. It’s liberating in a way because you’re not worried particularly about what you’re playing, you’re just in the moment, enjoying it. I think we’re working out if you can’t make something good with four chords, and one time signature and rhythmic feel, then you’re not going to make something good that has a million of them. We’ve learnt to restrain ourselves, and just try to make good music that’s there for itself and for people to listen to.

What will you guys bring to 19.02?

Tobias: We can bring a shitload of energy. We’ll just be nuts, and make people want to jump up and down.

Andy: We are the kind of people that you could take home to meet your grandmother. But when we get up on stage, we kind of change. So, you know, I’m looking forward to it.

James: Sex, drugs, rock n’ roll!

Tobias: Except without the sex and the drugs...

The Vetoes are having a launch party for their new EP Ritalin / Ritalout on February 7th at The Social (£5).

Hear and see more of The Vetoes along with the extended video interview at www.beholdthemachine.com.