Click Interview with Vogon Poetry: ‘The 80s Never Leave Your Head When You Have Lived Through It’
Vogon Poetry consists of three guys from the southern parts of Sweden although they all live in Gothenburg now. It all started out as a competition at an office party 2012 where Roger and Daniel worked. The idea was to create something that could be performed live with only an Ipad to work with. As it happened Roger and Daniel ended up in the same team and wrote the first song for what later would become Vogon Poetry. They didn’t have a singer though but new that there was this guy at the gym where they were training who had this amazing voice, John was asked to join forces on the evening of the competition. They found this collaboration so inspiring and fun that they wanted to try out another few songs and when they were at it they set up a vote on Facebook for a band name where they had a few different choices but where Vogon Poetry by far was the most popular alternative. This year Vogon Poetry unleashed their fifth full length album which sounds as pure good-old Synth-Pop. I asked a few questions to the band.
(Courtesy by Inferno Sound Diaries)
Q: Vogon Poetry is already active for a while and has released multiple albums and singles. How did you see the band evolving and what remains from the early songs and years?
VP: I think the idea of writing catchy songs is definitely still there. Also our lyrics twist and turn around science fiction as well as ordinary questions about life and existence so that part is the same. It has however definitely been a process where we have matured as a band with each album we have released and where the soundscapes have become more complex compared to where we started. That said we don’t aim for a specific direction or change of expression but grow and progress organically from experiences collected. We still enjoy some of the early works and both “In Darkness Lost Again” and “The Diceman” from our first album are frequently performed live.
Q: You in the past worked together with the Russian label ScentAir Records although you also self-released multiple works. What have been your experiences working with a label at one side and the D.I.Y. (‘do it yourself’) approach at the other side?
VP: A record label can definitely support a bands journey if they have the muscles for it but today with all possibilities to distribute music both digitally and physically yourself the gain is not as huge as it previously was.
We decided after releasing “The Prefect Stories” together with ScentAir that we as a band actually lost some of the connections with our fans and didn’t make any profit from working with the record label so we decided to continue on our own label Audite Records instead.
Q: Let’s talk about your new album “The Guide”. What is this opus all about and how did it come through?
VP: From the beginning we were not sure we wanted to release yet another album. Therefore we released a couple of singles and EPs instead of holding on to new material. After a while we felt though that we do like the album format and that we were getting close to filling an album. The main reason for releasing an album was to have all the songs collected on a physical CD. Since we started out releasing separate tracks we didn’t have a real process of building the album and there is no story flowing through the album although the soundscapes of all the songs do connect well to each other. At least we feel that it is a coherent album sound-wise. Lyrics has always been quite diverse for us so we mix adventures under atomic skies with love stories and we have always done that. As with all our albums the title “The Guide” is taken from Douglas Adams Hitchhikers guide to the galaxy.
Q: So I guess you didn’t get something like a plan and/or specific influences and/or references you wanted to accomplish for this album? How did the writing and production happened and what’s the usual procedure of working together?
VP: We didn’t really have a plan for the album. It rather consists of 9 building blocks which we wrote separately but felt worked well together. The initial track “Rocinante” was the last one to be written and was intended as an introduction to the album and is also being used as opener to our live shows.
Music and lyrics are usually written by Roger. Almost always with the lyrics as a last piece and mainly during vacations in the sun chair where the imagination and inspiration flows. When we record our vocals we work together on polishing melodies and putting down choir vocals and such.
We also collaborated with the Swedish band Social Ambitions on the two tracks “Time” and “Jag Vill” which was a fantastic experience and great fun.
It was also the first time we brought in an external person to produce and master our songs instead of doing it ourselves and it really brought the songs to a new level of soundscaping and we are incredibly happy with the result.
Q: The sound of Vogon Poetry is clearly evoking good-old 80s Synth-Pop influences and yet there also is a more contemporary and personal touch on top. Tell us a bit more about your ‘sound’ and ‘production’ and how important is the 80s influence in your music?
VP: I think that the 80s never leave your head when you have lived through it. It’s not something we think about when writing music but it’s still there and obviously influence our work.
All that is mixed up with music you are being exposed to today and for Roger, who writes the music, artists such as for example IAMX and Kite inspire to create something more than just ripping of the 80s.
Q: What are the further plans for this year considering singles/EP’s, videos, live performances, eventually new songs etc..?
VP: We are currently working on new material and also an exciting collaboration with another band which hopefully will be released early autumn. Life in general for all of us currently takes a lot of time and therefore we have unfortunately had to turn down a few live performances but we do love to perform live and hope that we can get our schedules together and also that people want to see us perform. It’s a fantastic feeling to connect and bond with the audience and share the music and moment with everyone.
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