Wirral indie-rockers Vynce are making waves in the indie pop scene. Since forming in 2013, their minimalist-influenced indie rock has helped them build up a solid fanbase around Merseyside. These include ex-The Verve bassist Simon Jones and Nick Kilroe from Echo and the Bunnymen, both praising their contagious live shows. One of these was at Close Up Festival in Winchester and before their set, The Indiependent caught up with them to discuss their influences and their approach to songwriting.
The Indiependent: Hi, so if you could introduce yourselves?
Tom Davis (drums): I’m Tom. I play the drums.
Alex Whittaker (bass): I’m Alex. I play bass.
Pete Pegasiou (vocals and guitar): I’m Pete and I play guitar and sing.
The Indiependent: Alright, cool. So my first question to you guys is: Have you been to Winchester before?
Tom + Alex: No.
Pete: No we haven’t. We went to Slough last week, we’ve been to London, and we’ve been to Bristol. Is that anywhere near here?
The Indiependent: It’s about two hours away from here, yeah. How are you feeling ahead of your set tonight and have you got any pre-gig rituals?
Pete: I’m quite excited to be fair.
Alex: Yeah, yeah we’re looking forward to this one.
Pete: It should be good, we’ve never played down here as you know, and it seems to be a good festival and there’s some great bands playing. As far as pre-gig rituals go, probably having a few beers.
Alex: Yeah, pretty much.
Pete: We usually catch the bands, just watch the bands before us, and then get ready and play. And we’ve got a lot of post-gig rituals.
The Indiependent: Oh yeah? What are they?
Pete: More drinking! (laughs)
The Indiependent: Cool! How would you describe your sound to someone who hasn’t heard your music before?
Pete: Erm (long pause) we’re like… argh, I don’t know, it’s like indie pop…
Alex: Indie.
Tom: Rock.
Pete: It’s kind of… it’s dancey but not dance music, I don’t know. We’re kind of a bit like… we’re a mixture of Bombay Bicycle Club, Peace, Foals, and I dunno.
Tom: All those sort of things.
Pete: You’ve gotta hear it to be honest.
The Indiependent: Well I’m looking forward to your set so I’ll check it out later. Alright, so what’s your approach to songwriting and who are your influences both musically and lyrically?
Pete: Well I usually write the tunes, so I just… sometimes it’ll just be a melody in my head, sometimes I’ll just sit down, write a song, and I’ll be able to write it sometimes. It’ll be at practice and someone will just inspire us all and we’ll start jamming and I’ll create the songs and melodies. In terms of inspiration and melodies I liked Noel Gallagher a lot when I was younger, I think he’s an unbelievable songwriter; it’s hard to deny that to be fair.
Lyrically I like a lot of The Cure’s stuff. They’re not really bothered about what they sing about, and there’s quite a lot of pressure in a lot of indie songs. They want you to sing about really obscure things and they don’t want you to be honest and they want you to use all these dodgy metaphors that mean nothing to anyone. But that’s deep apparently, so I just write it how I want it really.
The Indiependent: With the festival season in full swing, which bands would headline your dream festival, and why?
Pete: I’d have the Cure headlining.
Alex: Queens of the Stone Age.
The Indiependent: I saw Queens of the Stone Age at Download, they were really good.
Tom: Linkin Park!
https://soundcloud.com/vyncemusic/not-my-girlfriend-radio-edit
The Indiependent: Who else are you guys excited to see at Close Up?
Pete: I’m looking forward to seeing Youth Club and Lisbon as well.
Alex: I’m looking forward to seeing Lost Caves. We caught them last time they played in Liverpool and they were really good.
Pete: Oh yeah I’ve not seen them yet either. There’s loads of good bands playing though. Sahara, we actually met them earlier and they were really nice lads, they’re a good band.
The Indiependent: I actually saw Pleasure House, I’ve just come from there, they were really good.
Pete: We’re actually doing another gig with Pleasure House at the Camden Barfly on the 20th November with The Hyve (Gig promoter). They’re supporting us, so I’m looking forward to seeing them. I forgot about them, they’ve only just been added haven’t they?
The Indiependent: Yeah.
Pete: Yeah I forgot they were playing; I’m really looking forward to them as well.
The Indiependent: What is your favourite record of all time?
Pete: Aha Shake Heartbreak by Kings of Leon.
The Indiependent: Good album.
Pete: It’s a great album.
Tom: Homesick by A Day to Remember.
The Indiependent: Nice, good choices.
Alex: I’ll probably go for Queens of the Stone Age by Queens of the Stone Age.
The Indiependent: Finally, who have you guys been listening to at the minute?
Tom: Bring Me the Horizon.
Pete: I’ve been listening to Nickelback.
Alex: I’ve been listening to this band called Turbowolf.
Pete: All the things that we’ve said are nothing like we sound at all!
The Indiependent: That’s good though, shows variety.
Alex: Our influences just come from the furthest places imaginable.
Pete: I was saying to one of our producers the other day. Like, when I’m listening to music, say if I bought the new Tame Impala album or whatever, as much as I love them, I’d listen to it so much and go away and write a tune that sounds like Tame Impala, that’s not what I wanna do. So I try and stay away from overdosing on music similar to our kind of genre.
The Indiependent: Alright cool, that’s all my questions. Thanks for letting me interview you.
All: No worries.
Pete: Thanks for interviewing us mate.
Words by Ermis Madikopoulos