Voodoo Vegas interview

We asked British Rockers Voodoo Vegas some questions about the band and their new album….

For anyone who isn’t familiar with Voodoo Vegas, can you tell us a bit about the band?

We’ve got Nick and the lovely Meryl on guitar, Ash on bass and Matt on drums. I do the singing and I also dabble in a little bit of gob iron when the time it right!!
Nick and myself started the band, Ash joined soon after that, we spent a few years playing shows around the UK, then in 2008 we decided we wanted a bigger sound and then Meryl joined the band as our 2nd guitarist. When she first joined it was like the glue between the cracks was being filled, it made the bands sound even bigger. Finally Matt joined in October 2011 after we spent years working with many different drummers.

Your new album, The rise of Jimmy Silver is about to be released.  Can you tell us a bit about the album?

This album comes from all the years we’ve been gigging around the UK and Europe, it’s a long time in the making, Jimmy Silver is the name of the first song we ever wrote. Jimmy is a character I made up in my head about a guy who just love’s to rock in his heart and in his soul. This album is The Rise Of Jimmy Silver, from the first song we wrote, to all the gigs we’ve played, to the amazing pledgemusic campaign we ran. Its 11 songs of rock ‘n’ roll, good music, good times and stories from the years of recording.
We recorded it with Pedro Ferreira, who produced the very famous Permission To Land by The Darkness, as well as working with bands like Therapy?, Enter Skikari and Joe Strummer.
One of my favourite albums is the Tokyo Dragons album ‘Give Me The Fear’ which Pedro also produced, I loved the songs, but I also really loved the sound of it. Ever since Give Me The Fear was released I always thought I would love a Voodoo Vegas album to sound like this.
We managed to get in contact with Pedro and we met him back in March last year to talk about recording the record. He was our first choice and we were all real happy he liked the sound of the band and wanted to work with us. Pedro helped shape, I would say a more mature sound for Voodoo Vegas, cutting out some solo’s and chorus’, adding different drums beats and grooves, he has really helped change the sound of the band and its all for the better.

You recorded the album after raising money via Pledgemusic.  What made you choose to do it this way?

We’d been playing gigs around the UK and Europe for a few years always trying to grow the band and build up our fan base, and at the end of 2011 we able to get ourselves a management deal with a company from Germany, We planned with them to record a E.P but after 3 months of working with them the deal fell through.
The day the deal fell through the band met up and we talked about what our plans would be, that’s when we contacted Pedro. Once Pedro said he wanted to work with us we then had to make a plan to finance the recording and that was where Pledgemusic came in.
I think Pledge Music is fantastic, when we first started our campaign I remember talking to Meryl saying I didn’t know if we would hit our target, but amazingly we hit 100% of our target in 24 hours, by the end of the campaign we had hit an awesome 344% of our original target. It’s awesome to know the Voodoo Vegas fans have that much faith in us and I want to say a huge thank you to them.

How did you find the experience of raising funds with Pledgemusic, and would you recommend this method to other bands?

Pledge is a great way for bands to raise funds for recording and to help the future of their band, I would certainly recommend Pledgemusic to other bands, not only does it help raise funds for recording, but it also brings your fan base closer to the recording process. We posted exclusive videos and updates to all the people who pledged during the run up to recording and our time making the album at Rockfield.

What’s the song writing process in the band – is it a collaborative thing or are there one or two main song writers?

A lot of the time Nick or Ash will come up with an idea, and all the band will work on it together, then I’ll work on lyrics and vocal melodies after. But sometimes I’ll have an idea for a song in my head and I’ll take it to the guys. I don’t know any music theory at all, all I know is what sounds good in my head and what I think is a hook or something that would sound good played live to a audience.

What are your inspirations for writing the lyrics?

I write my lyrics about the experiences I have in my life, if its writing about funny things like the Ferry Song, which is about us missing our ferry home after playing a show on the Isle Of Wight, and being stuck there for 13 hours, to writing a song like Lost In Confusion, which was a letter to my ex after she left me 1 day before I was supposed to marry her.
A song like Jimmy Silver is about just good time rock ‘n’ roll, and What I Pay is about a bad management experience the band had. I could tell you a story about the lyrics on each song on the album.

Are you planning any tour dates at the moment?

We have got some good shows booked all over the UK at the moment, and we’re constantly booking more. We’ve also got some festival slots booked up including Cambridge Rock Festival. Ideally we can get onto a tour with a more established band so we can spread the word of Voodoo Vegas and Jimmy Silver even more.

What bands do you think have influenced your music?

My biggest influence is Aerosmith, I love them and I think their sound influences me a lot in my song writing. We all like the classic bands like Ac/Dc and Guns ‘n’ Roses. I also think we’ve got some modern influences like The Answer and Black Stone Cherry.

Plus like I said, the idea of writing a song that I can get the crowd singing along to or is full of hooks. That influences me a lot.

When you buy music, which do you prefer and why – Vinyl, CD or legal mp3 downloads ?

I like to get my music on CD, but its also easy downloading from Itunes as I’ve got an Iphone. If it’s an album I really like I tend to get it on both CD and digital.

Later this year we are hoping to release The Rise Of Jimmy Silver on vinyl. I think Jim Boswells fantastic artwork for the album would look great on a 12 inch vinyl.

What was the last album you bought?

Aerosmith – Music From Another Dimension. It’s a great Aerosmith album and its good to have some new music from them.