BAND INTERVIEW: The Vex – Heavy-Steady Boxing Music

BAND INTERVIEW: The Vex – Heavy-Steady Boxing Music

0 comments 📅25 May 2016, 14:32

The Vex

Rock-quartet The Vex had interesting beginnings. Formed in 2012 at a show in Moscow, the band were the second of three British bands going head-to-head against Japanese musicians at Flyjam Creative Agency’s spring battle-of-the-bands event. Consisting of lead guitarists and vocalists Josh Schwegler and Jack O’Shea, bass guitarist Andrew Atari, and drummer Joshua De Facto, the bands catchy and up-beat songs were certainly the highlight of the show and MyM Buzz had a chance to talk to the band before things kicked off.

All images of the band playing live by Chris Khin

 

Can you tell our readers a little more about the band?

Jack O’Shea: The Vex has been in operation since 2012. We actually made the decision to become the band when we were in Moscow. It’s a funny story really. We were playing in a band with a different line-up, playing completely different songs, and then we were in Moscow and did our first Vex gig as just the four of us. We were looking at maybe getting a front-man and then we decided at the show that we didn’t need to. We were more than capable enough to do it as the four of us. Josh and I do the guitars and we both do vocals, so we’ve got a dual front-man thing going on.”

The Vex 2

What kind of music did you do before?

Josh Schwegler: “I can’t remember what we did before. I can only remember what we are doing now. Now we are doing heavy-steady boxing music.”

MyM Buzz: That’s very specific

Josh Schwegler: “Yeah, it took a while to get that specific, but after a while we decided to call our style heavy-steady boxing music.”

Jack O’Shea: “It is definitely heavy rocksteady boxing music, because when ska music in Jamaica changed to reggae music there was a phase of rocksteady, which happened from 1964 to 1966. It’s not as upbeat as ska, which was very upbeat and too fast in Jamaica – it was too hot they couldn’t dance to it because they would just be passing out – so they needed to slow it down a bit and that’s when rocksteady came in. It’s mid-paced; we’ve put crazy guitars on it, and with the riffs that we’ve put on it it’s the perfect boxing music.”

Josh Schwegler: “So if any boxers out there want some music to walk into the ring to or to train to then we’ve got it.”

Joshua De Facto: “For anyone that doesn’t know, boxing music is music to box to, or to watch boxing, or pretend to box.”

Jack O’Shea: “Which is really good because if you’re getting ready for a night out guys tend look in the mirror and are on their toes, and are psyching themselves up for the night. So the music we play is like we are about to go for a night out, and it’s exciting.”

The Vex 3

Why were you in Moscow?

Jack O’Shea: “We knock about in Camden quite a lot, and it just happened through friends and contacts we made there. Someone we knew there knew about an event in Moscow that was looking for some bands, and he suggested we do it and we said absolutely, and went out to do the show. What was great was that we were supposed play as the old band but we actually became The Vex there. We played as the four of us and realised this was far better than what we had before so we decided to continue with what we had.”

How do you feel about this concert? Are you excited? It’s been advertised as a battle of the bands.

Jack O’Shea: “Yea, but I met Kenji and the others the other night and there was no battle or animosity between anyone at all – they were very friendly.”

Joshua De Facto: “I wish you’d told me that earlier because I’ve been giving the other bands the evils!”

Jack O’Shea: “I think it’s more a ‘truce of the bands’. I thought it was really cool. I don’t think we’ve ever played with many Japanese bands or Japanese acts, so I’m really looking forward to tonight. There’s going to be a lot of Japanese people here, so I’m definitely going to be talking to them. I’m looking forward to it. We are going to go to Japan at some point.”

[In the background, The Alpacas begin to play Prince’s “Purple Rain” during their soundcheck…]

Jack O’Shea: “Purple Rain! What I found very interesting with Prince was that not only did he write and produce his own music, he played everything on all his tracks. I don’t think there was an instrument he couldn’t play, and he was a phenomenal guitarist, like Jimi Hendrix. Anyone who was half decent at playing the guitar could be in a band like Led Zeppelin, but he could play the guitar like Jimi Hendrix, and then could also do hip-hop, dance, disco and soul. It’s really cool.”

The Vex 4

What are your future plans?

Josh Schwegler: “Go to Japan.”

Joshua De Facto: “I wish you would talk about me the way you talked about Prince just then.”

Jack O’Shea: “It’s true – I knew about Prince before but I’m more interested now. It’s like when Bowie died earlier this year, I was a big fan but then when he died I became an even bigger fan. Alan Rickman didn’t do his first acting role until he was around 42 you know. That’s the message that we want to send out to anyone that reads this, it’s never too late to do anything. If you would like to try something else in life you’re never too old to do it, you only get one chance in this skin encapsulated soul at this moment in time so you should go out and do whatever you want to do at any point in your life.”


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