Hello Vices Inc and welcome to College Radio Charts! Now that 2024 is winding down, how has the year been for you? And can you introduce us to the band?
Hey! Thank you so much, we are so happy to be here! We’ve got our drummer Kristy, our bassist Hanna Leigh, I’m Eleanor the lead vocalist, and then there’s Jagger who does pretty much everything, if we’re being honest. Primarily guitar if you want the short answer. This year has been kind of a whirlwind! We really ramped up our live performance schedule, and have been keeping busy with a single release each month plus our debut of Alkaline Kiss!
Congratulations on the new release Alkaline Kiss! What inspired the sonic evolution from pop-punk to alternative/post-modern rock for this album?
Thank you! We are really proud of this project, and we’re just so excited for people to hear it. We have kind of always known that this is a style that we wanted to further explore, and I think this is just where we are at right now as a group. We luckily are a group of people who really enjoy a lot of different genres of music, and that’s something that we like to celebrate!
Alkaline Kiss spans 19 tracks across four sides—what drove you to create such an ambitious double album?
I think when Alkaline Kiss was first dreamt up, it was about half as long. As we worked on it, we just realized that we wanted this to be an epic project, and Jagger continued to be inspired to write more music that fit this project. A lot of our projects start out smaller and end up double in length by the end, which is definitely okay with us! The bottom line is we like to create music, and you can never have enough.
Can you share the story behind the opening track, “Bright Skies Overcast”? Itsets such a poignant tone for the album.
“Bright Skies Overcast” is a really special one for us. I think that the dark, moody atmosphere really sets the tone well for the rest of the album, and helped inspire some of the other tracks on there as well. I remember Jagger excitedly showed us this track after he had created it, and instantly I knew exactly what the vocal melody was supposed to be. Jagger had already come up with the name, which is something that I always use to help me come up with lyrics. The story behind the lyrics is that they’re actually based on the actions of someone I used to know. They were always chasing happiness and thinking that they would find it outside of themselves. Like, they knew that they were unhappy, so they moved to a new city thinking that would solve all of their problems. When they discovered that they were still unhappy, they thought that maybe it was their relationship that was the problem. After ending their relationship, they were still unhappy and they moved to a new city. I hope that eventually they were able to find happiness by looking inward, but I don’t know. The phrase “Bright Skies Overcast” reminded me of this concept– like the sun is there, it’s providing light, but you can’t reach it. It’s unattainable behind just a solid wall of clouds in every direction. I hope that makes sense.
The interplay of viola and guitar throughout the album is striking. How did that dynamic influence the songwriting and production process?
It’s kind of funny actually. So I have played viola for a long time, and it’s something that we used to incorporate into our music a little bit more in the early days. At some point, Jagger had asked me to do viola on a song and I had been hesitant to do so (I don’t even remember why). So he thought I didn’t want to play viola on our music anymore, and he stopped asking me to. I noticed that he stopped asking me to play, and I just assumed he didn’t want me to play viola on our songs anymore. So I didn’t for like a year! Flash forward to Alkaline Kiss, and Jagger kind of casually suggests that we add viola to one of the songs. All of this ends up coming up, and we realize that we had a big misunderstanding about the whole thing. Long story short, adding the viola to some of the songs was like adding the finishing touches. We didn’t necessarily plan to have it there from the beginning, but we felt like it sounded more complete with it there!
“Truculent” has quickly garnered a lot of streams on Spotify. Congrats! How did this track come to life in the studio?
Thank you so much! That’s another favorite of ours. It was the same kind of thing, Jagger was like “I wrote this song today, do you want to hear it?” Which of course we said yes to. As soon as I heard this one, it was like how I felt about “Bright Skies Overcast” – I knew what the vocal melody was going to be. There are certain songs that Jagger writes that I feel this connection to. It almost feels like I have secret intel from the future. The vocal melody just comes out of me with very little effort, and it just feels like that is what it was always meant to be. I worked really hard on the lyrics for this one too. I garnered a lot of inspiration from the definition of the word “Truculent” and decided to write a song that reflects on what it is like to be enraged as a woman. I think that the feeling of rage is the same for any person, but society reacts very differently to someone who is angry based on their social identity. This song is for anyone who has ever been justifiably enraged, and had that feeling undercut by a comment like “well, she’s probably just on her period.” I think that a lot of people can relate to that.
Eleanor, your lyrics explore themes like identity and self-doubt. How do you balance personal storytelling with broader relatability?
Honestly, I try not to think about it! I love storytelling in general, and I infuse a lot of my actor training into my lyric writing. I try to write stories that are compelling, either true or from the perspective of a character that I have imagined, and I hope that people can connect with the material that I am putting out there. I remember I did this writing workshop once where we talked about how people have an easier time relating to things that are highly specific, which is counter intuitive. For example, the track “Imposter Syndrome” was written like a therapeutic writing exercise. My whole life, I have struggled doing anything that I wasn’t naturally good at in the first place. Like it’s really difficult for me to practice something that I’m bad at. I didn’t realize that this is literally a specific type of imposter syndrome. It felt really vulnerable to put these thoughts and feelings out in the open, but I think that even if people have never felt this way, they will still be able to connect with the overall vulnerability of the song.
Jagger, as the producer and primary composer, how do you ensure the band’s evolving sound still feels cohesive and authentic?
With every project we’re involved in, I try to set a foundation for the band to build off of. Usually I write a few songs that have a common theme not in the sense of a storyline but more in the lines of being symmetric with how the tone of each song connects to one and another. Once we get going in the project, which usually starts with Kristy, most songs start with her drum lines, we then build the layers that we feel would compliment the song.
I don’t pay attention to anything trendy, that’s not how this band was built. But we do pay close attention to production of our music so we can make sure the listener is getting the best experience we can offer them. We’re growing as artists with every project we start, so it makes easier for us to change with it but sound authentic cause it was a natural progression for us.
With Alkaline Kiss being mastered at Abbey Road Studios for vinyl, what does thisformat mean to you as a band?
Hanna Leigh and Jagger specifically are OBSESSED with vinyl. They are constantly browsing thrift shops and record stores in an effort to expand their collections. If we go to a show together, there is a 100% chance that they will purchase a vinyl record if it is available at the merch table. We’re really happy to finally have something out there using this medium!
Who inspires you? Who are some of your influences?
Such a tough question! I think we are learning that we tend to be easily inspired. I know that for this album specifically, Jagger was thinking along the lines of bands like Brand New and Radiohead. Personally, I draw a lot of inspiration from Badflower, Paramore, and Demi Lovato, both in terms of lyric writing and vocal performance. Hanna Leigh leans more towards progressive rock bands like Rush and Styx while Kristy leans more towards metal bands like Lacuna Coil and Motörhead.
What’s your approach to arranging such diverse tracks? Is there a method to how songs like “Cinnamon” and “Selective Memory” fit into the album’s flow?
Usually what we end up doing is kind of playing around with the tracklist to find the best flow possible. Like we’ll create a playlist with all of the songs (in various degrees of completion) and try them in different orders until we find out what works. We try to pay close attention to how a song sounds when it’s ending and leading into the next song’s beginning. It’s really important to us to create something cohesive that takes the listener on a journey.
Vices Inc has released nine albums since 2019. What has been the key to maintaining such prolific output without losing creative energy?
The key is really Jagger. He won’t say it because he’s modest, but I can. He is truly gifted when it comes to creating new music. We’ll show up for practice sometimes and he’ll be like, “oh, by the way, I wrote four new songs today.” And they’re all amazing! It just comes so easily to him. It definitely inspires me when I’m working on the vocal melody and the lyrics, and having such a strong foundation to begin with helps the other pieces fall into place.
How has your move to Portland, Maine, and the establishment of your own studio influenced the band’s artistry?
I think that having our own studio is another key component to maintaining our high output. We have the ability to record whenever we want and without time constraints. It is so freeing to not have to worry about wasting valuable studio time, because we are not feeling any sort of scarcity with this resource. It’s really amazing.
Reflecting on your roots as a pop-punk band, how do you view your earlier work in the context of where you are now?
We are definitely proud of what we’ve done in the past, but we just feel like we’re in a different place with our music right now. Everyone in the band is really happy with where our sound is going, and it’s constantly evolving which keeps us on our toes and makes creating music a lot more fun!
With a Northeast tour on the horizon, how do you approach translating the depth and intricacy of Alkaline Kiss into a live setting?
The cool thing about Alkaline Kiss is there are a few songs on this album that we were playing live before we ever recorded them. I think that’s a common thing for most bands, but for us we usually record first and then tweak the arrangement for a live performance. So songs like “Like Cyanide” and “Selective Memory” were live before we committed them to a track. We’ve been having a lot of fun over the last few months arranging some of the other songs for live performance. I think this album was different from previous albums because a lot of it was recorded with the specific intention of eventually being performed live. Some of our other projects we knew were going to just be recording projects, but Alkaline Kiss is one that we have always wanted to really showcase. We’re working on “Bright Skies Overcast” right now, which is one of our favorite songs as a band, and we are so excited for the live debut!
Thanks so much for spending some time with us today! Where can people go to find out more about Vices Inc?
Thank you so much for having us! We are everywhere! Definitely check out our website (www.vicesinc.com) to stay up to date with the latest shows and take a peek at our new merch, and follow us on all of the streaming platforms and socials (Facebook: “Vices Inc” + Instagram: @vices
.inc.band + TikTok: @vices.inc) so you can hear our new releases as soon as they drop!
