On March 18th, The Vindicators made their 7eventytwo debut and they really blew us away. We caught up with them later to ask a few questions and get to know them a little better. We'll have our eyes on these guys going forward, we suggest you do too.
First of all, some basics: What are your names? How old are you? What school do you go to?
Our names are Alec and Chris we are both 14 and Alec goes to Bard and Chris goes to Laguardia.
How long have you been playing with each other? How’d you meet?
We’ve been playing with each other since we were about 11, and we met through our mutual friend, Charlie.
Cool. Besides your two full members, you guys have a third member, he’s a part time drummer/full time manager, is that right? Can you explain more about what that role consists of?
His name is Isaac. We just recently got him into music and we wanted him in the band somehow but he can’t play any instruments. So we just got him to manage our band and now he comes to every practice and books us gigs. His role is to not only to book us gigs but also he keeps everything organized and helps us with equipment, he also helps out in practices and jam sessions, giving advice and recording.
That’s really awesome. So at the show you guys were both playing Dan Electros, It was a cool look and had a distinct sound. Whats the story with those guitars?
They sound great and they look badass.
On some songs one of you switches back and forth from drums to guitar. What's the rule of thumb for switching between one or the other? Are you going to add another member sometime?
What instruments we play on which song really depend on what vibe we want. We are not going to add another member because another member just adds more stress and just makes practicing and creative vision in general much more complicated.
Who are your biggest influences?
Our biggest influences are Brian Eno, Gram Parsons, Iggy Pop, The Kinks, and definitely the Velvet Underground.
I thought you guys had a real Jonathan Richman sound and you guys responded that he still sounds like he's a teenager. I thought that was on point, especially coming from you guys. Are you more into the Modern Lovers or his solo career?
Although we love Jonathan Richman’s solo stuff, we think the Modern Lovers debut album is the best album he ever released. Of course, “Roadrunner” is a great song, but “Hospital” is strikingly beautiful and actually one of the songs that got Isaac into music.
What do you think about Blackstar by Bowie?
We think it’s a really intense album but a good way to go out. The way in which it explores death in such a clear and intense way is unbelievably powerful and a great seal on Bowie’s illustrious career.
Well put. Do you guys have any recordings of your own or any in the works?
We have some recordings but they’re all on our phones. There are no future plans so far as we are really waiting until we are completely confident and want to record something professionally.
In the meantime, where else besides 7eventytwo have you played shows and what's your experience been like trying to find venues?
We played one show at this place called the Rock n’ Shop. It was this flea market in the middle of the day, no one really came but it was fun. Our experience has been really hard finding venues, most of the time venues don’t even respond to us.
With that in mind, what are your feelings about your 7eventytwo debut?
It was really fun. We had never performed in an environment like that, everything was much more personal. It was also far more legitimate as a show compared to what we had done before, it felt like we were playing something real.
Well it was a pleasure to have you. Before you go, what's the best way to discover new music? Asking for a friend...
Research artists that you’re interested in and see what projects they were involved in. You can find really interesting stuff that way. Another great way is through word of mouth if a friend is really into a song and they get you into it, that’s wonderful.
One final question. What scares you most about your future?
That music will be taken over by robots and that music will become nothing but a formula to achieve maximum commercial success, but will involve no artistry.