SXSW Interviews: Vision Video

Well our SXSW prep is in full force now as you may have noticed from the slew of interviews we’ve been posing over the last week or so. We don’t plan on slowing down our coverage until the very last day before the festival, so buckle in and get ready to hear about some bands that need to be on your radar (if they aren’t already). Today I am pumped to share with you some interview responses from Athens based outfit Vision Video. You’ll find the full interview with some new music after the jump. Hit it.

Responses came from front man and founding member Dusty Gannon.

ATH: What’s the name of the band/group? Where are you from?

VV: We are “Vision Video” out of the classic music city of Athens, Georgia!

ATH: Describe your groups sound.

VV: Vision Video is a band that evokes nostalgic post punk and goth pop sounds from the 80’s, but with a renewed and fresh tone. We pay homage to bands like the Cure, Joy Division and the Chameleons, while very much so maintaining our own voice and messages. You’ll catch the expectant dancey doom-and-gloom, but with sparks of light for hope for better days.

ATH: What was your most recent release? Any planned releases for 2022?

VV: In 2021 we released our debut LP Inked in Red, which was a record borne from some of the traumatic experiences I faced in Afghanistan and as a Firefighter/Paramedic now. It was something that we are so proud of as a band, and I’m really grateful for the reception it has gotten. For 2022, we’re looking to release our next record sometime in the late fall, which will be exploring a lot of concepts of mortality, governmental failure, and the effects of both intertwined as weight on the human spirit.

ATH: Everyone’s been focused on the negative aspects of the last few years? What are a few good things that came about for you as an individual or the band as a whole during the last two pandemic-stricken years?

VV: The last two years gave me a very clear VISION (ha-ha, sorry, dad-jokes are kind of my thing) to really dig my heels into my passions of music and creativity. I became a lot more active on social media which gave the band a much bigger audience, which was great. But much more importantly I was able to connect to SO many unique and creative people who commiserated over the shared experience we were all having during lockdowns / pre-vaccine times. I think artists really bonded because everyone was put into the same boat together and that was an interesting and communing experience.

ATH: Why play SXSW? What’s the draw for the band? What about this festival will bring you to Austin?

VV: I think events like SXSW are generally important because they’re a good melting pot of ideas for music and art. There is such a staggering number of bands performing, and these kinds of festivals can be incubators for ideas as you are exposed to artists and genres that you’re maybe not normally privy to. I’m excited to meet new people and connect over our shared love of the stage.

ATH: Let’s say your band has booked an official showcase at a pop up venue somewhere in the middle of 6th street. The lineup features thrash metal, hip-hop, spoken word, and you. The sound is horrible, the lineup is not your style, and the crowd is growing ancy. How would your band deal with such a situation?

VV: Playing shows to audiences out of your wheelhouse is a regular reality for any musician. Not every attendee is going to love your sound. The most important thing in this kind of situation is just to enjoy the ride, keep the levity up and just have fun. One of our greatest strengths as a band is that the 4 of us are great friends and we clearly have a blast on stage. We will play the exact same show to 200 people who aren’t necessarily into our sound that we would for 1000 rabid fans.

ATH: What has everyone in the band been listening to, or, what plays in the tour van/car/bus?

VV: Jason, our drummer, is always crushing some classic punk like the Replacements or the Ramones, but also things you wouldn’t expect from him, like Nick Drake. Emily, co-vox and keys, is typically listening to something heartbreaking and dreamy, but dancey and fun like Hop Along or Dehd. Dan is usually just absolutely blasting 80’s synthpop a la Erasure. And my mix is a combination of the Chameleons, the Cure and new post-punk like Korine, Secret Shame or House of Harm.

ATH: There’s been a lot of discussion about Spotify and streaming and all that these last few months. Where does the band stand? Whats your solution?

VV: I’ve actually been thinking about this a lot this week, funny enough. While I think their rate of payment per stream is somewhat laughable, it is also a powerful platform that can help easily share your art. Another counterpoint is that it is yet another algorithmically based app that dictates what is heard and what is not, and I think that’s a pretty inequitable system. Bottom line: there are goods and ills of it, and I don’t put all of our focus on just that one platform.

ATH: The band gets to create their own food truck to take on the road. Whats it called, and what are you serving?

VV: I have a fun (albeit absurd) character on Tiktok called “Goth Dad” and the cornerstone of him is a slew of terrible goth-dad jokes. So it would have to be some terrible goth pun, like…. “Bella Lugosi’s Bread” or “Siouxsie’s Sushi” or something delightfully awful!

Thanks again to the band for making this time for us. The aforementioned debut from Vision Video, Inked in Red, is available for stream and purchase on bandcamp. See you in March!

Here also is Vision Video’s latest single “Organized Murder”: