In Conversation: Vundabar
We spoke to the trio ahead of their show in Manchester.
Photo: Shervin Lainez
So first, we’ve got some questions about your new album, Surgery and Pleasure. How did the process for this one differ from your previous albums?
Brandon: This one was very different. The last time we were on tour over here, I broke my arm, and then the writing process started while I was recovering from that, so we couldn’t play together, and most of it started with me alone in the studio, making songs that were very deconstructed, because I couldn’t strum, so I was recording single parts and then layering them and building them up in that way. It was almost like making electronic music, but with acoustic instruments, and that's how it started. We wanted that sound and aesthetic to stay the same, because it fits thematically for what we wanted to express with it. It was a very markedly different record from how we had made things in the past.
Were any of the songs harder to write?
B: No, some took a really long time. Other than I Need You and Spades, the rest were assembled in a studio, and we wanted to have two that are organic, with just the band playing in a room. Which is more of what we’re used to, kind of ‘classic’ Vundabar. So, I Need You took the longest, just in the sense that we rehearsed it over and over again, wanted it to be perfect, but then wanted to record it in a very uncomplicated way, just hitting record and having a performance.
Have your influences changed over the years? This new one sounds quite different. Is there anyone you’re listening to at the moment that have influenced you?
B: Yeah, for me, or that record, I was kind of influenced by a lot of electronic music, mainly like Underworld and Massive Attack. The way I was building the music up felt more aligned with electronic music in a lot of ways, so it felt like it made sense to pull from that because of my injury and the way that I had to approach building a song, I guess. What about you guys?
Drew: From a drumming perspective? Yeah, electronic music was a big part of it, trying to mimic electronic drumming and acoustic drumming, while learning how to play drums around electronic beats and stacking stuff. That was part of it, and then listening to more straightforward rock stuff. I took drum lessons from a jazz guy, so I have a funk background in my drumming, and getting away from constant ghost notes was a challenge for me, and just playing straight ahead, more sampled sounding drums was a new intention going into recording, for sure.
Does it start with you [to Brandon] write the songs, and then you two [to Zack and Drew] add to them?
B: Yeah. This one was different. Typically, I would come up with a song idea, then we would play it together and figure it out. But then, this record was very different, because there were all different iterations. There were certain songs where it was basically done, then we just needed to record components of Zack and Drew, chop that up and put it together. And, yeah, it strayed the most from other records.
Zack: Yeah, more studio-focused except for a few.
Where did you get the album name from? What’s the story behind it?
B: There was a song that didn’t make the record that was called Surgery and Pleasure, and it just jumped off the page. I was kicking around names, and I think when I put that one out there, I was like, ‘Oh, yeah, that's the most exciting one’. It looked good on a page.
Z: It’s got a good ring to it.
I see… It stands out.
B: I think I just liked it, it had a sense of humour to it. Thematically, it worked.
What about the album art?
B: Oh, yeah, Drew did that.
D: I mean, I’m always just kicking around different graphics for Vundabar, whether it’s merch or posters, or anything. When we were trying to figure out, like a stark theme, I was showing Brandon some stuff I’d worked on, and that symbol stood out. We took that spiral that ended up being on the record cover and incorporated it into all kinds of things. As we were trying to figure out the actual record cover, we kept adding to that spiral and had a ton of variations of it. But, ultimately, the starkness of just the white spiral on a black background felt super engaging. It was a thing where, if I saw it in a record bin, I’d be like ‘what’s this?’ and not have to have any name on the front or anything. I’ve always wanted to do an album cover like that, so I’m hyped we were able to do it.
Did you design all of them?
D: No, I’ve done a few and I do some graphic design for some of the records, but a lot of the time we use photos, and those are from friends, then Brandon did the drawing for the Gawk record. It’s usually a pretty collaborative process.
Z: We keep it like ‘in the family’.
D: Definitely in the family, it’s either us or friends.
That’s pretty cool! You’re currently touring to support the album, are there any places that have been most memorable so far?
B: Well, we went to Mexico City for the first time, and that was pretty incredible. It's got a great music culture, and we had never been; it felt like a treat to go down there. It feels like we’ve toured the States so much, and it still feels like a privilege [to tour the UK and Europe]. We love British music so much, and it feels like it means something.
Do the crowds feel quite different from place to place?
B: Definitely.
Some more rowdy than others?
D: Yes, yeah, definitely.
B: Some of our crowds are so crazy, it really is dependent on the city and the group of people that are there, because some of our shows are so insane, and then some are more just like—
D: Observing and enjoying?
B: We kind of like all of it.
D: I like both.
I think Glasgow is meant to be quite a rowdy crowd.
B: Yeah, it was different from a regular show, I’d say, because it was like a festival. And it was kind of early [in the day].
D: And we didn’t promote it too much on our end, so… We kind of just showed up and played.
B: They were more of a head nod crowd.
This year is the 10th anniversary of Gawk. Do you still enjoy playing those songs?
B: I think we do like playing that one still.
D: Definitely. Chop is always fun. Think we’ve played that at almost every show we’ve ever played and never really gotten sick of it.
B: I think if it was our first record, we might be over it, but there’s just enough happening – musically – that we can have a good time with it. We improvise a lot, too; we’re always changing things a little bit in the moment.
D: Those are songs we know so well that we can throw almost anything at each other, and we can still know where we’re at in the song.
B: Yeah, we can definitely keep it interesting.
Alien Blues went viral on TikTok, so that must have gained you quite a lot of popularity. Was that noticeable with the shows you played after?
B: Yes and no. The main thing it did that was helpful was that it was when we were coming out of COVID, which was a very hard time for any musician to get through. It was very helpful timing because COVID happened, and it was hard for bands to survive that time and maintain their momentum. A career is built on ‘you do that, then you do this’, and you have all this forward push behind you, then it was two years of dead air. As we were coming out of it, we were like, ‘Do we have what we had before? Does anyone give a shit?’ and then that happened as we were coming out of that. It was that moment of us asking that question, and then this thing happened to introduce the band to a new generation of fans. It gave us some wind in the sails. It sort of died down, but in a nice way, we’ve been left with people who are actually fans of the band. The moments passed, and we’re kind of okay with that.
I think it was good to get people into it. That’s how I found you. But then I listened to your other stuff and I was like ‘I actually like all of this’.
B: We feel fortunate in that way, too. It’s been great for introducing people to us. We’d been a band for a long time before that and were like ‘let’s take this for what it is’, which was a helpful thing you can’t predict, and an opportunity, in a way. We were like five records in when that happened, so we wanted to stay focused on the bigger picture: what this band is.
Do you use TikTok yourselves? Did you see the videos?
B: Yeah. We made the band one, and we did our due diligence of ‘this is where this is all going’. There’s a certain level of reality, technology keeps changing, and you need to be like, ‘this is how we let people know we’re a thing, we’re going on tour, we have a new record out’. We’ve always been practical – we want this to work. We’re comfortable with the fact that we’re not influencers. If we had that bone in us, that would be great.
What’s in store for the rest of the year?
B: We’re doing this [tour], we have a couple of festivals over the summer, then we’re going to start recording more music in between. We’ll probably do a bigger support tour in the Fall – that’s to be determined.
Do you get a bit of a break after this?
B: Yeah, we’ll have the summer to just work on music and hang out with our dogs.
D: It’s a dog summer, for sure.
You must miss them when you’re over here.
D: Oh yeah, big time.
Time for some quick, fun questions. If someone hadn’t heard your music before, what song would you play them?
B: Well, my favourite is Feels Like Forever or I Need You. Or Beta Fish.
Z: Beta Fish or I Need You. My favourite is Let Me Bleed on this record.
D: On the new record or just in general? Nosferatu is my favourite at the moment — to play and to listen to.
If you could collaborate with anyone, who would it be?
B: David Bowie. Damon Albarn — he’s a collaborator.
D: Martin Newell. Very funny and strange.
Z: Burial.
If you weren’t in a band, what would you be doing?
B: That’s a great question. I wonder myself a lot of the time. Probably a therapist or something. That’s the only idea I’ve had in my head. We’ll see. It’s brave work.
Z: Mailman. Seems like a good gig. Just walking around the neighbourhood all day? That would be good.
B: It’s one of the last jobs in the States with a union and pension, so you can retire with good money.
D: I’d be an electrician or something.
Surgery and Pleasure is out now via Loma Vista Recordings.
Read the interview in our first print issue, out now, and available to order here.
