Vukovi: To NULA And Beyond
There’s something to be commended about artists who create imagery and stories that are set in a fantasy or futuristic place, but still discuss a lot of issues that face us all in the real world. The showcase of important issues in these settings shows that they’re still important to discuss, no matter where they are discussed. In VUKOVI, they’ve done this exact premise for their third album, NULA, to great effect, as many of the album’s songs discuss empowerment against abuse, mental health, and more. As vocalist Janine Shilstone discusses with Distorted Sound, the album was for people to feel empowered within a scary and often uncaring world we’re in.
“I honestly think the amount of people that have reached out to me and say how much they love the album and what they take from the record, they have no idea how much I need to hear that,” Janine begins. “When I was writing, I was thinking ‘is this pathetic? Am I just being really pathetic?’. But no, it wasn’t, and I’m glad these songs do exist, because I’m so surprised at the amount of people that have resonated with this album. It actually makes you feel like everything is worthwhile because we are changing people’s lives. I used to think that sounded really dramatic, but actually it’s not because if someone wakes up in the morning and doesn’t want to be here, and then they put a song like I EXIST on to go to work and that’s the thing that pulls them out of that hole in the mind and helps them to keep going, what more is our purpose in life? I feel a renewed sense of purpose now and that’s something I’ve struggled with for a long time.”
Since their last album, Fall Better, VUKOVI have had a change in lineup as well as a progression in sound, as NULA enhances on a lot of their existing pop-rock/synth-rock sound whilst adding a lot of heavy riffs, bass, and topics. “I think we just took more time over lockdown to really improve ourselves and become comfortable in our own skin.” Janine continues, when asked about the progression between the two albums. “We got to the point where I feel like we were unapologetic and proud to push our sound as far as we could. It was about not being afraid to take some risks because we like it, especially when it doesn’t sound like anything else. I think this album’s a lot more meaningful in terms of healing and it was written during a period when I was really trying to work on myself. I feel like this album’s an outlet for that and I think you can tell that we’ve grown as people since the last album and our music’s grown with us.”
“It’s hard to pick to be honest,” she remarks when asked about her favourite track from the album. “I actually really love the last single, HADES, I love SAD, and I think XX is such a good anthemic song, because it’s such a positive note to end on. I just feel really attached to the songs because it was like written through a healing process for me. It was really really as sort of in my blood, almost like the songs are just a part of me now and I’m very attached to them all. We just keep changing our favourites depending on our moods.”
At the time of this interview, VUKOVI were about to embark on their UK tour, which Janine was excited about. “I feel like it’s been ages since we last did a headline tour, so we have these like a mixture of excitement and sort of worry. But it’s selling really well, I think the fact we’re headlining Europe for the first time helps. We sold out a lot of venues, so we’re really looking forward to that because it’s like a first for us and I think that’ll be an interesting experience. I just think there’s a charm in every city you go to. like the people and the crowds are slightly different, they have different characteristics and obviously, each town and city is unique to itself. So I think that is the beauty of tour especially when you go back to a place like Paris or Manchester, etc like those parts of the place that you like about it the most.”
“I can’t tell you how much I’ve noticed a difference in the crowds since last year. The small number of shows that we have played in festivals, it’s just been absolute chaos, it’s mental it’s actually so entertaining for us to watch. It’s also entertaining for onlookers to see the size of pits that we get now, with the crowd surfers, it’s just uncontrollable, we feed off of that and the set is literally just tall of the best hits. We’re just gonna go in, no fucking about. We just want it to be a very intense and liberating journey full of high energy music. It’s gonna be fucking wild, especially we’ve sold London out and that was upgraded. I think that’s like 800 capacity, like that’s insane. It’s so hard to get your head around that.”
NULA is out now via LAB Records.
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