Below you are about to read a very interesting interview that Will Wallner & Vivien Vain gave to Heavy Paradise and talked about their debut album, their future plans and other things! Enjoy!
VV: Thanks for having us!
Heavy Paradise : So, you are about to release your first album. Can you tell our readers some things about Will Wallner / Vivien Vain collaboration?
VV: We started working on this project in March 2010 when we met Carmine and Vinny Appice so this whole project is based on working with our idols and making the same style of music we grew up listening.
WW: That’s what this album is: Two young musicians who got the chance to play with their idols. It’s been a dream come true but we have further plans beyond this first album.
Heavy Paradise : From the two songs that I've heard, the album is about to rock our world. It's a really solid hard rock stuff! Can you give us a taste of how the whole album will sound like?
VV: Well the rest of the album is definitely heavier. Since we used some of my old songs, some of Will's old songs and then also the new songs we just wrote together - the album is really diverse. We also have a song with both Carmine and Vinny!
WW: That’s right, the first batch of songs we recorded that you can hear on our website (http://www.wallnervain.com/ ) are songs we had written before this project, just songs we had in the bank. The rest of the album is a real collaboration between me and Viv, we wrote the songs with the guest musicians in mind. For example there’s two songs with Vinny that we made really heavy because that fits his style.
VV: Yes, we can say so. With us as the only exception!
WW: Every song has an outstanding bassist, drummer and sometimes keys. All of the musicians you mentioned and more. But I do all the guitars and Viv does the vocals, there are no guest musicians for those because we don’t want the album to be about other people, ultimately it’s our project. What our guest musicians bring is their excellent musicianship and as an added bonus their name helps to establish the project. Add credibility. Without them we wouldn’t be getting anywhere near as much attention.
VV: It depends really. Sometimes I write the whole thing, sometime Will does. Lately Will would write the music and I would take care of the vocals only. But this album is definitely 50/50 - whichever way you look at it.
WW: Yeah we experiment with different song writing methods and every song evolves differently.
Heavy Paradise : So, is the album ready to be released or do you have some unfinished things yet?
VV: We still have many things to do before we can release it. We are just finishing up the last songs, it has to be mastered, We have to do the artwork for the album and most importantly, promotion. So it will take a while before we can say it's ready.
WW: Yeah, we’re definitely trying to cover all areas. Our goal right now is to make the best music possible. We worked really hard to get the production as high quality as possible and the best musicians to play with us.
We want to package the album with excellent artwork from a real artist and really make a good product. That will be done early this year but then comes the music business. That’s when the real work begins. We don’t want to put all the effort/money into the album and then rush the release.
Heavy Paradise : Did you find a record company for the release? I'm asking that 'cause nowadays it's a bit difficult for a band to get a good record deal.
VV: We have not. We are planning on releasing this first album ourselves and see how we do. We'll take it from there.
WW: It’s very complicated. The music business is so different today and constantly evolving. The majority of labels that would sign us would really only offer us distribution. I don’t think record deals that most people think about exist in 2011. We’re going to have to do a lot of work ourselves before a real label wants to get involved.
WW: That comes back to business. Ultimately music is a business, we view ourselves as artists and the music we create is art but ultimately it comes down business aka money. Hard rock doesn’t sell in the US or the UK. We’re making a style of music that’s outdated, noncommercial, in an industry where album sales are diminished by downloading.
Then on top of that the general US economy is on its knees. It’s not the ideal situation to make a hard rock album but we will push as much as we can. From a business view we’re dead in the water. All we can hope is that we can spread the word and reach the people who love this style of music. There’s more than enough of them to give us a decent shot.
VV: I agree completely. Their might be a scene for us perhaps in Europe, South America and Japan.
Heavy paradise : What are your influences?
VV: The music of the musicians we play (and want to play) with: Rainbow, DIO, Black Sabbath, Blue Murder, John Sykes, Whitesnake, Deep Purple, Iron Maiden, Thin Lizzy, etc...
WW: Yeah all of the above. I also like some Jazz Fashion like Frank Gambale, Al Di Miola and Allan Holdsworth. I listen to a lot of movie soundtracks. This might sound funny but I love the soundtrack to ‘Transformers’ the original animated movie. It is by a composer called Vince DiCola – I love it.
Heavy Paradise : Not funny at all!! I also like this album! So, are you going to perform live in order to promote the album?
VV: Yes, we are hoping to start playing live as often as we can.
WW: Again its business but we will definitely play live.
VV: Maybe. You'll have to buy the album to find out!
WW: I think the music on our site is just the first step. The rest of the album is more focused and dramatically different. Eddie Trunk took a listen to our stuff and basically told us we need better songs – that’s what we hope you’ll hear on the rest of the album.
Heavy Paradise : I know it's a bit early to ask this but are we going to have more music in the near future or we are talkin' about a one record project?
VV: Will and I love working together simply because of our taste in music. So yes, we are planning on making more albums. For the next album we are hoping to have one line up and make up for the few things this project is lacking - a band.
WW: Exactly! We are musicians and this is something we want build beyond one album. We’re in this for life!
Heavy Paradise : Any message to your fans?
VV: I want to thank our fans for loving our music and appreciating us making old school rock/metal music even though it's not popular. It's what we love to do and we hope that they will enjoy listening to this album as much as we enjoyed making it!
WW: We have a small fanbase but ever since we announced the project we’ve had so many emails from people telling us they love what we’re doing and that’s something that I wasn’t expecting. It’s been good for my ego! Seriously though all I can say is thanks for being strong-minded enough to think independently without liking what the big corporations tell you you should. Thanks for being a real individual who chooses to like our music because you genuinely do.
Heavy Paradise : Thanx a lot for sharing these things with Heavy Paradise.
VV: Thank you Heavy Paradise! We are wishing you the best of luck in 2011!
Hell yeah thats awesome!
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