After 13 years out of the spotlight, The Vasco Era have released a new track – and there's more where that came from.
Since stampeding out of the gate as teenagers in the 2000s, The Vasco Era wasted no time winning over fans. They were tight, loud and unhinged. Their performances were mythologised, going down as unforgettable moments in Melbourne scene history. Then, without warning, they slipped away.
Now, The Vasco Era have music to share once more, coming in the form of their brand new single I Don’t Mind. Scorching hot, the track harkens back to the days of old school punk, with red-raw vocals soaring atop fuzzed-out power chords, crashy drums and a happy-go-lucky bass line. Menacing, untethered and full-throttle, it’s capped off with a truly unhinged guitar solo, of course.
It’s the perfect introduction to the band’s album of the same name, slated for this September. So, what can we expect from this new era of The Vasco Era? We reached out to frontman Sid O’Neil to find out.
First off, welcome back! A 13-year hiatus is no joke – can you tell us a bit about what made you step away, and what made you decide to come back?
There was a long period where I lost my marbles, and it took me quite a while to find those marbles again. When I did find them marbles again, I had a family, and I now have three beautiful children.
The other boys also had families too, so it was a bit of a time, but as soon as we decided to play again it was easy. Time doesn’t seem to be that real anyway, because it feels like we only stopped playing three weeks ago.
You’ve just dropped your new first single, I Don’t Mind, with an album of the same name dropping in September. How does it feel to put out new music after so much time away? Is it exciting, or daunting?
It doesn’t feel at all daunting because it doesn’t feel like there are any expectations really. So back in the day, when we’d release an album – I mean I think the last album kind of came out when I was in my early to mid twenties – you’d be nervous because you’d know there were lots of reviews coming.
Now I don’t think there are any expectations at all. It’s different now as well because you can control the narrative with social media, so it doesn’t really matter, but you know nothing. I’m just excited, ready for the world to hear some guitar solos and drum rolls and stuff and of course bass riffs…
View this post on Instagram
What made you choose this track as the first of the new era of The Vasco Era?
Simply because it was the most normal sounding song. I mean, there are some strange ones, some long ones and some ballad ones, so yeah – this one kind of felt like a normalish rock and roll song.
The others are way more kind of hectic as well. But I mean, we’re gonna do more singles, so the first one should be maybe kind of normal sounding? But yeah I mean it’s not that normal… and what do I mean by normal?
How do you feel like your time away from the stage has impacted your songwriting?
I mean the songs for the last album were written when I was kind of 23/24 and I’m now 39, so a lot different. I think we were trying to sound like Pavement or something on the last album (if I remember correctly), but now it’s just fucking doing whatever and trying to make it a pretty pure distillation of the feelings that you need to vent, that you can’t do in normal public life.
I’ve also learnt a lot of chords since – well that’s not true, I’ve learned a lot of lines and runs and things that make it seem like I know a lot of chords and still have to get Fitzy the drummer to tell me what chords I’m actually playing – but I don’t know, if you listen to the album, the second half is all ballads and there’s a lot of chords and I think modulation and things that happen that probably wouldn’t have happened back in the olden days when our last music came out.
View this post on Instagram
Is there a general theme or inspiration behind the album? Have you taken any new directions sonically?
The specific theme I guess, or the aim of the first side of the album was that it had to have more energy than Fun House by Iggy Pop, and the second side was supposed to sound more beautiful than Roy Orbison.
So the first side is screaming guitar solos, drum fills, bass solos or bass kind of fill-things and the energy of the world… Yeah, trying to harness the energy of the world.
The second side is all kind of crooning singing with lots of different chords and we had Michael Fitzy chart because he knows music theory. He made arrangements for the strings section and we got some members of the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra to play the strings on that side of the record.
So yeah, the first side was supposed to be as energetic and as loud as we could get it and the second side was supposed to be as beautiful and lush as we could get.
Are there any tracks from the upcoming album you have a particular soft spot for and if so, why?
I think I have a soft spot for the song called Away on the second side because I had a little bit of a tear – you know when you get a little bit of a tear but it doesn’t actually come out of your face? – I had a bit of a tear when I heard it back from the mixer, which was a visceral reaction to, I think, it sounding quite nice. So if that was the reaction that happened, I guess that means that I have a soft spot for that one?
View this post on Instagram
Has the reunion stirred up any specific feelings for you? Are there any particular memories from early on in your career that have been on your mind?
Partying the entire time back then, it [was] fun, though I couldn’t remember lots of fun things. Pushed it a bit too hard, probably, definitely.
Although now I’m older, so not so worried about how what people fucking think about the music really, because I used to really worry about that when I was younger. Just kind of ready to not really try to take on the world or anything; just play some guitar loudly, you know what I mean?
How do you feel like the world’s changed since you were last doing music, and do you feel like audiences are ready for the new Vasco Era?
Well, let’s just say last time we released music I did not have a mobile phone and now I am completely addicted to Twitter. Previously, I would go and check print magazines to see if anything about our band was in there and I don’t have to do that as much now.
The good thing is I can write stupid jokes on Instagram and kind of control the narrative that way and if you don’t follow us on Instagram, follow us now and I always follow every single person back. So if you’re looking for a free one, you just let me know.
You guys have always been lauded for your energetic, rambunctious live shows. Any word of a tour on the horizon?
Yeah, well we’re definitely gonna be playing shows but because we’re just announcing songs and albums and things like that, we’ve been told to wait a little bit to announce the shows, so I don’t know if I should, but yeah definitely stuff coming up.
To keep up with The Vasco Era, head here.
This article was made in partnership with The Vasco Era.
