Getting to know /// Miss Vincent
Inspired by Alkaline Trio, Miss Vincent will show you how to rock and roll just the right way.
– What was the beginning of Miss Vincent as a band?
– Alex and our former bassist put an ad up online and that’s how Lawrie and Alex found each other. After six months of desperately searching for a drummer, Jack replied to an ad that Lawrie put up at ACM where they were both studying. Our old bassist didn’t last very long, but we continued as a three-piece with Alex temporarily playing bass. We felt like something was missing so at the beginning of this year we started searching for a new bassist. Owain came to try out and was playing a show with us just a couple of days later!
– Your name is taken from the lyrics to Alkaline Trio’s song ‘Queen Of Pain’. Did this song play any particular role in the band’s career or did the word combination just click?
– Not really, other than the fact it’s by a band that we all love. Alex looked up ‘Miss Vincent’ after hearing the song and wondering what it was in reference to, and then came across the sad story of Joyce Vincent, which is what our first single ‘No One Knew’ is actually about. That song was originally called Miss Vincent, but we decided to adopt that as our name instead and changed the name of the single.
– You get inspired by hard-working and heavy-touring acts and take the same approach to polishing your sound. How did performing that much help Miss Vincent to develop and evolve as a band?
– The countless hours spent rehearsing and performing really helped us develop our music. The songs really changed over time and grew into what they’ve become and that’s a result of playing them day in, day out and having the chance to try out different ideas. There’s also no substitute for touring if you want to keep growing as a band. We find that playing as often as we can has kept our live show dynamic and energetic.
– What’s the main attraction of your live shows as you see it?
– We fucking go for it. Wether we’re playing to two people or two hundred we give everything we have when we play live and hopefully that comes across. We try to be direct and interact with people to really grab their attention rather than just standing on stage bashing out tunes.
– Your debut EP ‘Creepy’ is out soon. How does it feel to be releasing a debut soon?
– We’re really excited. We recorded the EP at the end of May so we’ve been sitting on it for a while now and we can’t wait to finally get it out there and see what people think of it. As it’s our debut it’s a real milestone for us and it’s amazing to see all our hard work come together. The initial reaction’s been really positive as well so hopefully it continues like that.
– How would you advertise the EP to the world?
– Catchy punk rock. There’s a real mix of aggression and melody in there and we’d like to think it’s a relatively accessible punk rock record. People that have seen us live have compared us to a lot of different bands so hopefully the EP will have a similarly broad appeal.
– What are the main sources of inspiration for your writing music?
– Coke and prostitutes. Just kidding. Aside from all the bands that influence us, which is probably the most obvious source of inspiration, the things that we write about come from a lot of personal experience. On this EP there’s a lot of frustration, and even though it’s specific things that the songs are about, the themes are quite broad.
– What’s been the highlight of your career so far?
– There’s been loads of great moments so it’s impossible to pick just one. The best thing for us is playing somewhere new and getting a great reception. When someone who didn’t know who we were 30 minutes before wants to buy a CD or a t-shirt or just come and talk to us about our music, those are the moments we really appreciate.
Rock Britain 