INTERVIEW: Vile Creature

Ontario’s VILE CREATURE channel hefty themes through their earth shaking take on doom metal. We took time to chat to them during their recent UK tour (their first ever) to chat about their latest record, their inspirations, and of course about maple syrup and hockey.

Can you talk us through some of the themes and inspirations behind your latest album Cast of Static and Smoke?

Vic: We released in March 2018 and before that we released Pessimistic Doomsayer which is a 17 minute long song which had a very specific subject in mind, but we wanted to get into that a little bit deeper. It’s about getting immersed in worlds that we create ourselves, whether that’s based in fantasy, fictional literature, anything that makes the world better and easier to get through. So with Cast Of Static And Smoke we decided to create our own story, which you can find online in zine form, and we created a short story that branched on that theme. We’re really into Sci Fi and fantasy so we wanted to explore what it meant to be human through understanding robot sentience as an allegory for otherness.

What other bands, art or media inspired or resonated with you during the making of the record?

KW: I listened to a lot of THE TRAGICALLY HIP and THE HOLDSTEADY, and I was reading a lot of Brandon Sanderson novels. That’s basically the only author I’ve read for about six years now and his stuff is amazing.

Vic: I’m into a lot of cyber politics so I’ve been consuming a lot of visual stuff like Westworld, Ex Machina, things that were more about cyborg existence and rising up over and resisting their overlords. Musically we didn’t really have any direct influences, we do listen to a bunch of metal and we obviously appreciate others in the same genre but we try not to let it affect our writing too much.

Your lyrical content tackles issues surrounding oppressed minorities, including LGBTQ and animals; do you think this is more important now than ever before?

KW: Just for clarification we never talk about Veganism in our music. That’s something people always add on to our stuff!

Vic: We’re both vegan it’s a big part of our lives but we’ve never really identified as a vegan band.

KW: It’s just because we are vegan and we own vegan businesses that people add it on to our music. We definitely don’t identify as a vegan doom band. We’re not EARTH CRISIS.

Vic: We’re not preaching in our lyrics. The stories we build are inherently about feeling like the other and inferior in a culture that doesn’t want you to exist and is trying to erase your identities. I think just existing as people who are different is enough to fight back against fascist ideas.

How would you say it’s different touring at home in Canada to touring in the UK?

KW: We eat a lot more beans.

Vic: We had to hire a driver, which was first. We’re a two piece band so most of the time we’re going it alone, we’ve only travelled with another band once.

KW: Even with that we’ve learned it’s more prevalent for artists in North America to own their own vehicles, where here there’s a big driving and renting culture which has been really cool as it means we’ve got to meet extra people. Everyone’s been really friendly, there’s small things you notice from being in a band. On smaller scale shows usually touring bands are in the center of the bill, whereas here they’re at the end, that speaks a lot for the culture of people over here enjoying the experience of going to a show, and I guess that’s because if you’re going to pay ten pounds to see a band you want to get every pence worth of it. So you stay and you see that last band that maybe you haven’t heard of, that’s a really cool change compared to where we’re from where it’s very ‘what’s the set time, I’m showing up for 20 minutes and then I’m leaving’. I’m sure that’s definitely a thing here, but everyone’s been really appreciative and really kind, we’re just getting fed left and right. I think the biggest difference between travelling here and back home is that I’m less worried about gun violence. Which makes life feel a lot safer.

Have you noticed any major differences between the Canadian and UK metal scenes, or do you think there are more similarities between them?

Vic: There’s a very similar cultural etiquette and sub-cultural correlations. I think when you’re in niche subcultures people internationally stick together, especially people who might be a little bit more politically oriented.

What would you say your best discovery about the UK has been?

Vic: I’m leaning towards the food aspect.

KW: We’re really food based humans.

Vic: Oh! ‘Butties’. I don’t know how I feel about them, but I respect them.

KW: What is it?

Vic: Butties. It’s anything between two pieces of bread.

Having been on the road with BISMUTH, what would you say are their best qualities as touring partners?

KW: Both Tanya [Byrne, bass/vocals] and Joe [Rawlings, Drums] are wonderful humans. Tanya, without knowing us, booked the entire tour. Which is a huge undertaking, there’s a lot of labour both emotional and visceral. We came over, were met at the airport with love. The nice thing about going on tour is that when you’re jumping in the van with someone, whether it’s three days or twenty days or something in between, if it works right you skip the awkward period of getting to know someone. You go right into being really close with one another, and I really like that because personally I am not a person who accrues a lot of friends, so coming into this situation has been so easy because Tanya and Joe are so fucking wonderful.

Are there any bands from Canada and North America that fans over this side of the pond might not have heard of but need to check out? 

KW: BODY VOID, who had a release on Dry Cough, the same label that put out ourselves and BISMUTH. They’ve got another release coming out next year I believe, I also think they might be coming over here at some point. They’re thoroughly worth checking out. SUN ROT’s a great band from New Jersey who play the perfect mixture of doom and noise. FORMER WORLD’s are a great band from Minneapolis, sci-fi engrossing doom metal. I’m trying to think of bands from Canada but I can’t because I don’t do a ton other than work and pet animals.

What would you say the most common misconception about Canadians is?

Vic: That we’re pushovers.

KW: That we’re too friendly to have a back bone. Which is not true, my back is fucked and I know that! Everyone seems to think I love hockey …

Vic: He does, he loves hockey,

KW: It’s my favourite thing in the world!

Vic: He definitely reinforces that stereotype. And he’s proud of it!

KW: Canada’s cold, don’t get me wrong, but there’s this misconception that we all live in arctic spaces. You have ‘grey’, we have ‘a bit cold’, it happens.

Vic: Another misconception that is real is that we have shit load of maple syrup. We own a bakery and I get fifty kilos shipped to us and I go through that in a month.

KW: Maple syrup is super expensive in Canada because everyone fuckin’ buys it from us and we don’t get any for our goddamn selves. People seem to think everything is great in the country, that we’re a bunch of socialists, and this might be more of a North American misconception that it is English, that we’ve got national healthcare, which we do, and that there’s not a lot of strife, which is not true. We’ve got a lot of really huge struggles and our government’s just as fucked as everyone else’s. Whereas the US gets a lot of focus because it’s so racist from the basement to the ceiling, people forget that Canada has a history of racism and oppression, especially when it comes to people from our First Nations. The sunny, cheery, everything’s good with Canada thing, even though it’s a positive thought it’s not a positive thing to get out there because it mutes the struggles that people have.

In the grand scheme of things VILE CREATURE is quite a ‘young’ band, but you’ve been prolific – how have you managed to churn out two full lengths in just four years?

Vic: Mostly because we’re a two piece and the creative process doesn’t require a lot of scheduling, which is helpful. And we play at our house so there aren’t a lot of obstacles with people in larger cities trying to get a bunch of band members together.

KW: Yeah, the band started as a means for Vic to learn an instrument and I hadn’t played music in a really long time. It’s been four and half years since we first started, and our band started with our first full length, which was the culmination of us learning how to play music together. Then a year later there was the EP which we naturally worked on for a while, then we took around a year and a half to write Cast Of Static and Smoke. Living together, we also work together, so we communicate super easily and we practice where we live.

What are VILE CREATURE’s plans for the immediate future? Will you be playing any shows back home, or working on new material?

KW: 2019’s gonna be fairly quiet for us. We own two businesses in our home town and we both work around 18 hours a day, every day. This year’s been the busiest year we’ve ever had as a band. We’re doing a festival in January in New York, with a couple of dates around it. We’re coming to Europe, we’re doing some shows in April in Europe around doing Roadburn which we’re very excited about. And then our plan is to record at the end of 2019, so the next full year is going to be spent working, petting animals and playing the guitar. That’s about it!

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