Owls Always Know: An Interview with Via Vengeance
Via Vengeance is not your typical band. While the sound resembles that of early Clutch and Helmet, Shane Ocell‘s methods are anything but orthodox. I recently had a chance to interview Shane: the drummer, guitarist, and singer of Via Vengeance.
Although Via Vengeance, like any band, has multiple facets to it in sound and style, the one-man-band concept is what truly sets it apart. When asked why he chose this format to perform and record, Shane responded that, “I’ve always wanted to tour, I’ve always wanted to record with specific engineers and, you know, it’s always a hassle, or an argument…” He continued, “How I came up with this – what kind of got it going, is my father had passed away in 2005, so I had tons of lyrical content, and I started writing just some basic riffs on the guitar, and put some drums to it. Then it just kind of… kind of went from there.”
Although still unsigned, Shane has experienced his fair share of success with live shows, having played with such notable acts as Jesu, Torche, Pelican, Fu Manchu, the Black Dahlia Murder, and even Mastodon:
Shane/VV: …Coincidentally enough, I own a body piercing tattoo studio called Mastodon.
Chris Homa: Oh wow.
VV: I had the name before the band. Which is kind of how everything kind of came together.
CH: Oh, really?
VV: They had seen one of my – a Mastodon Piercing shirt, that this guy designed, and my friend had introduced me to him, and so, it just was like one of those things where they wanted some of the Mastodon Piercing shirts, and then I hooked them up with a CD, and then they’re like, ‘hey, would you wanna open for us at the show tomorrow?’ ‘Yeah, of course!’
I recently had the pleasure of seeing Via Vengeance open for for Bad Brains. Having grown up listening to punk, Shane said of the concert, “I never thought in a millions years that I’d be playing with Bad Brains… …it was, like a dream come true.”
Watching Shane perform is one thing (I definitely recommend it), but listening to him is another, especially considering that everything, sans the vocals, is recorded live. Although playing both drums and guitar is not physically taxing for the musician (excluding an oddly located callus on his knuckle – permanent damage from holding the stick a certain way), it seemed to me that it would be much easier to simply record the two instruments separately:
VV: With doing this, I did not want to cheat in my eyes. That’s why I don’t, right here [gesturing to card that reads: "All live, no loops"] I’m against loops. For this, of course the music is fairly simple, because, I don’t want to record anything that I wouldn’t be able to pull off live. That’s kind of my whole reasoning for it. Yeah, I record the drums and guitar at the same time – live – and then I’ll go back and do some vocals.>But drums and guitar, the music is all live.
CH: Wow.
VV: So that when I perform, it sounds comparable to the CD.
CH: Do you feel limited at all? I mean, doing it all live? Or…
VV: Not really. At first I did. You know, in the beginning days it took a little bit for this to get going. It kind of started off as a joke, and then a joke slash challenge, and I just stuck with it, and things just started to progress, but…I think it’s limitless, you know, but I still will never, ever have loops or effects; it’s cheating in my eyes. I want to just be able to pull it off solid…
With relatively little post-production, each track is left sounding relatively raw; when asked if this was his intent, Shane simply responded that, “it’s just kind of like, my standards… I want to do it all myself.”
Shane released the self-financed Dieography in 2007, and has another record in the finishing stages. Officially named Efficient Kill, the album is slated to be heavier and fuller than its predecessor, with Shane incorporating closed hi-hats, open hi-hats, and a crash cymbal, as opposed to the lone ride cymbal as heard on Dieography. Look for another quality dose of doom metal in Efficient Kill later this year, and if you haven’t given Dieography a spin yet, I highly recommend it. Check out http://viavengeance.com for more information.
Poster artwork by Chris Homa
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