Interviews

The Success of Vigilance

by Marc Pilvinsky
Flagpole Magazine, January 13, 1993

Everywhere you look nowadays, Athens' Vigilantes of Love are there. 1993 should prove to be the band's most successful year to date, and if you haven't seen 'em live lately, I think you owe it to yourself to check 'em out. Killing Floor, the band's third album, goes national on Atlanta's Sky Records in a week or two, and Drivin' the Nails, VoL's second effort, is now available on Caroline Records (same label as Smashing Pumpkins and Suicidal Tendencies). Jugular, the band's rare first release will be available on CD by late March with some bonus tracks and remastering. As if all this weren't enough, the band is about to embark on a tour and is itching to jump back into the studio. Flagpole kidnapped Vigilantes conspirator Bill Mallonee, and here's what info we got out of him.

Flagpole: Tell us about the last record.

Bill Mallonee: Well, Killing Floor was recorded in January of '92. We did half of the record at Mark Maxwell's studio here in town and the other half at John Keane's. Mark Heard (who has worked with T-Bone Burnett) and Peter Buck of R.E.M. were our producers. One of the reasons I wanted to get Mark on board was that he has a love for traditional forms of music, be it traditional blues, Appalachian music, traditional folk, or country. I'm not talking "Nashville" country, I'm talking old, old stuff. He likes the sound of those records, and so do I. There's a good bit of funk on 'em, but there's also a good bit of soul. It's none of this highly-produced, digitized stuff. For the album we kept that old sound in mind and used a lot of old tube equipment to sorta capture that warm-yet-gritty sound. I call it "good trashiness".

Flagpole: How is VoL being catagorized?

Bill: We're sort of a folk-rock band with neo-traditionalist influences, because straight traditionalist influences tend to be Delta Blues and country and traditional soul. There's a punk element too- I want it to be really aggressive. I think it's the same kind of aggressiveness that you might hear in an old blues single like Blind Willie Johnson or Robert Johnson or someone like that. That's the kind of stuff that moves me- not that it came out of the punk movement, necessarily, but......

Flagpole: You played drums on the album, didn't you?

Bill: I played drums on about half the songs. Travis McNabb plays on all the good ones!!

Flagpole: How about the new Vigilantes line-up?

Bill: Well, in the past the band has been pretty much a singer/songwriter project. I've been really fortunate to work with some great musicians in this town. We've got Travis from Seven Simons on drums full time now, and Newt Carter on lead. Our newest member is David LaBruyere. The sound of the band right now is kinda like what's on Killing Floor plus a heavy Dose of Exile on Main Street by the Stones. Kinda that gritty-rockin-bluesy kind of thing, and it feels really right for us right now. Even though we're going out and promoting Killing Floor, we're already looking forward to the next record. We've already got the material for it, and have integrated about half of it into our set.

Flagpole: Do you write material as a band now?

Bill: I'm still doing it myself, pretty much. I just come in with the basic idea and the band adds to it. I don't play bass at all or lead guitar very well, so those guys definitely leave their stamp on the songs. In that sense, I think it really is a "band." It's not like I'm saying, "Play this part this way." That's not what I"m doing at all. Actually, my instrument is totally-altered tuning, so the guitar player is approximating my chords. A lot of times that makes for a really interesting wash in the mix.

Flagpole: The Vigilantes' live sound is quite a bit different from what people might expect- a lot closer to hard rock than folk.

Bill: I guess because we played the Downstairs for so many years with just a guitar and an accordion we got pigeonholed as this "nice little folky thing." If the other instruments had been there, I definitely would have taken it to an edgier Bob Dylan kind of thing.

Flagpole: Do the songs feel different live?

Bill: They do feel that way. I'll do a song in 6/8 if I'm doing it solo or with a mandolin player, but we'll strip it down to 4/4 with the whole band and play it as straightforward rock'n'roll. I don't think any song should be set in concrete - that strengthens me as a songwriter. Maybe one day we'll make a record with alternative takes of every song on it. A double CD [laughs]. Really, it keeps it fun for all of us. It's great having the musicians on board who can take the slow songs and really make 'em cook. There are a lot of subtleties going on with us live, and I don't want to lose that and become just a straight ahead in-your-face kind of band. I think we could do that, but that's not what the Vigilantes are all about.

 

 

 

 

 

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