Interview by Carlo Gironi | carlo@staff.TRUEPUNK.com | with bass player RyderGared.

During the EVR tour we got the chance to interview VAUX. The band just released their new disc, an EP entitled “Plague Music”, on said label Equal Vision Records. We talked to Ryder, the bass player, about the band, their history, their love for rock’n'roll, and their future plans: a new record in 2005 on major label Atlantic Records. It is going to be the best album ever according to Vaux, and I actually trust these lads probably more than I should.

Hi there! How are you doing?

Pretty good, a little tired but that comes with the territory. We’re
in Orangevale, CA currently.

Can you introduce yourself and the members of VAUX and a story
of how you got together?

I’m Ryder, I play bass for Vaux. Then there’s Adam, Chris, Greg, Joe
and the infamous Q. They all play the other instruments. Trombone
included.

I find your band name very original and a bit strange. What does
Vaux mean? Did you know there is a band called Faux?

I didn’t know there was a band called Faux. We don’t pronounce our
name like faux though. We pronounce it like vawks, or box, or cocks.
Something to that effect. The name stems from a Morrissey record entitled
‘Vauxhall and I’. We needed a strong name and something that didn’t
have any kind of immediate association with it, so we have Vaux now.

Your new record “Plague Music” just came out a few weeks
ago on Equal Vision. How would you introduce it to someone that has
never heard of it?

You mean if i was a radio announcer? or a movie narrator kind of guy?
I’d probably introduce it with a lot of exclamation points and fancy
words that most pre-graduates don’t quite comprehend so it makes it
sound like it’s something they have to own.

Where do you come from? How is the music scene over there? How
do you judge your place from this point of view and do you have any
particular friends (bands, labels…) in your town?

Vaux is based out of Denver, CO. Unfortunately we haven’t been home
in some time due to our touring and writing schedules that we keep.
But Denver is fantastic city with a lot to offer. The music scene
there has more than quadrupled in quality and authenticity if you
ask me in the past few years. There are a lot of great bands from
there such as planes mistaken for stars, the swayback, nightingale,
blackblackocean, fear before the march of flames (whom we are on tour
with currently) and some others that i’m forgetting that have since
disbanded or are currently ripping it up back home.

I know you have signed with Atlantic, a major label. Why did you
release this EP on Equal Vision then? What are the main reasons that
made you decide to sign to a major? I know you released previous stuff
on “indie” label Volcom, too.

Yes we did sign with Atlantic in January of this year. We released
this EP on EVR due to us having a large amount of friends in bands
that are on EVR and we’ve heard nothing but positive feedback regarding
the label. We had talked with them in the past about doing something
together and once we signed with Atlantic we were presented the opportunity
to work with EVR as a one off to get some new material into a wider
variety of people. So far it’s been great working with them.

“There Must Be Some Way To Stop Them” was one of the
best records released in 2003, according to me.

You’re very kind…

Unluckily, I heard you had some distribution problems and people
could not find it in stores. Did this distribution problem contribute
to your signing to Atlantic and is there a chance you will re-release
it for people who missed it the first time around?

It was certainly a huge factor in our decision to switch labels. I
don’t know if the record will be re-released by Volcom in the future,
but I’m hoping with us having a record on Atlantic that people will
want to look further into our catalogue of music and possibly search
for the album. Who knows right?

How do you judge the new EP, what do you think of it (is it your
best record ever?), how is it musically and lyrically and will your
old fans be happy with the new stuff?

This EP was another step in the ever evolving process that is our
band. We hadn’t written any material as a group in quite some time
when we wrote the songs on the EP, and they were the first batch of
songs we came up with. I think we’re all happy with the outcome. we
learned a lot and how we recorded it, doing the lot of simply live
in solid takes, was a great experience. Quentin’s lyrics are always
phenomenal if you ask me. He sings from personal experience and writes
his lyrics in such a fashion that they don’t seem typical. It’s another
part of the art, and he’s an insane artist.

Do you consider yourself an indie or hardcore band at all? What
do you think of the emo and hardcore scenes nowadays?

Strangely I consider myself to be just a musician now. I don’t feel
that I belong to any particular scene, especially what’s considered
the scene nowadays. I grew up, in fact
we all did, in the hardcore scene and it’s certainly changed over
time. It seems that the Emo hardcore scene you’re talking about seems
to be a lot more fashion oriented than what I used to be in, I guess.
I mean I got tattoos and everything so I suppose I might fit in for
a minute or two, but the kids would probably boot me out and call
me a creep if I were to try and hang out and put my white belt on
crooked and everything.

You have been together since the first 90′s so you saw the underground/independent
music scene in its most recent evolution; do you think it changed
a lot in the last few of those years?

Well we started playing together in 1997. Each of us had seperate
bands previous to Vaux.. and yea. The underground scene has changed
dramatically over time. It’s cool and different to see how something
that’s shunned becomes marketable. But then it gives good artists
the opportunity to make some money and have a life they never thought
imaginable. It also gives a lot of poor knockoffs the opportunity
to write terrible music and get away with it.

What is the meaning of Plague Music”?

Quentin wrote the lyrics to the song ‘Plague Music’ and titled it
as such to the idea of a new plague consuming the country and the
world possibly and all the population drops
dead.

Some guys in the band are graphic designers and even engineers.
Why did you decide to leave your day jobs to focus on a rock band?

Plain and simple: being in this band kicks the shit out of working
for some asshole that doesn’t give a fuck about you in any way shape
or form. Money isn’t everything my friend.

Was the 2004 Vans Warped Tour a good experience? How was that?

It was awesome actually. We shared a bus with our dudes in Vendetta
Red and just ripped it up each night with them. We played our asses
off and so did they. We met a lot of great people and saw some of
the hottest days I’ve ever experienced. Our ac broke down on the bus
in the middle of the day in Arizona where the temperature got up to
115 degrees. Agh!!

In 2003 you also toured Europe with Thrice. Did you have fun? I
know some people in Italy came to see you but you had some strange
sounds coming out of the speakers they said. What about that? I know
you use Orange amps and stuff like that? Are you old school rock’n'roll?

Actually it was early 2004 that we hopped the band with Thrice. I
loved everything about Europe. It was great because we were playing
to people that had never heard of our band, with the exception of
a select few each night, and all the kids just danced and loved hearing
music. It was very rewarding. As for the old school rock ‘n roll thing,
I wouldn’t describe us as such, but we do love the old tones you can
get from more vintage gear like that. Each of us are gear heads in
our own ways, just nerding out on
pedals and guitars and drums and keys…

How would you describe VAUX and your music to a person that never
heard of you?

I would tell them to ask their friends about us and see what they
say, or tell them to go to our site ( http://www.vauxrock.com
) and download some stuff and try it, see if it fits…

“There Must Be Some Way To Stop Them” had awesome artwork.
I had the impression it was a concept album. Who had the idea behind
the artwork?

Quentin heads up all our design efforts. We had some different ideas
visually at first for the record, but soon before the release date
Q decided to go with this brainstorm he
had. It started with the album title and it grew from there. The record
certainly wasn’t a concept record. It was simple notation of the material
we had been experimenting with at a certain time frame in our career.
And it came out damn good.

I think some of your songs are very original in the sense they
they buck against some of the current trends and styles…to me it
seems you try to “invent” and “create” new sounds.
Can you tell us what your songs deal with in general, and what are
the tunes you like the most to play live?

Well it’s difficult to try and re-invent the wheel ya ‘ know? And
that’s exactly what we’re not going to do. But what we can do is take
six different grown men and put them in a room together, each having
a million different influences a piece and seeing what kind of chemistry
they have together and that’s what we did. We’re playing the music
we want to hear that no one else has written exactly, just yet. As
for live stuff, my favorites songs are the newest ones that haven’t
even been recorded yet. There’s so much raw power and emotion in those
songs I honestly get goose bumps when I play them each night. So looks
like you’ve got something to look forward to with this new record
next year!

What are your main influences (cringe cringe)? I thought
of bands like Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin and other 70′s and 80′s
bands. Am I wrong? What are the bands you like to listen to?

Those are bands that we do like for sure. Q doesn’t really like Zeppelin
all that much though. But collectively we listen to a wide variety
that ranges from the Beatles to
Dizzee Rascal to Kent to Radiohead and Snow Patrol and Isis… you
should see our iPod’s… they’re ridiculous how eclectic they are.

Have you already toured to support the new EP?

That’s what we’re
doing right now actually. The EVR tour! So far the response to the
new material has been very positive. New York and Denver I think were
my two personal favorite shows…

What is you opinion on downloading music from the internet?

It depends… it’s good to pre-view records to see if you want to
buy it or not. But as long as the people still come see us play live,
that’s what we’re really hoping for. Personally, I like having the
album artwork and I believe that the art that accompanies our material
is worth owning. But it’s up to the individual.

What are some of the bands that you appreciate in today’s music
scene?

There are a lot of great bands the world doesn’t know about just yet..Arkham,
Christiansen, The Swayback, Codeseven, Ram it Home… just to name
a few

Can you give us any news on the new record? All we know is that
it will be out sometime in 2005 on Atlantic.

By far I feel it’s the best material we’ve ever composed as band.
Garret (Jacknife) Lee will be producing the record which is very exciting.
The potential he brings to
the table is simply unreal. I believe our new record is going to bury
the world. in a very good way.

Have you already written a lot of songs?

We begin tracking October 25th 2004 and continue thru November 29th
2004 in England at Jacob’s studio just outside of London with Mr.
Garrett Lee. We have all the songs written and plan to write more
while in the studio. We’re all very excited about the project…

Have you got any major plans for the winter?

As of right now the plan is to simply record the best record we’ve
done yet.