Simon Rushworth
Don’t mention Paramore to fast-rising rockers VersaEmerge – or at least try to avoid it.
Our man Andy Spoors does his very best to resist the obvious questions and ignore the striking comparisons as we bring you another rushonrock exclusive.
And don’t forget you can catch the band live at Download this summer!
rushonock: So how did you find your latest trip across the Pond?
VersaEmerge: The weather was crazy, it was a little bit depressing but I think we pulled through. I like how its dark outside and it’s still the afternoon. (Sierra) It’s gothic like us! (Blake and Devin) We are not gothic. We have a lot of rain in Florida but not dark rain like here.
rushonrock: were you surprised that the fans in England knew a lot of your stuff already?
VE: Yeah, it’s cool cos we never expected anyone to come the last time we were in the UK but we have a lot of fans across there now. And with the new album out it’s kind of an official re-introduction to VersaEmerge, so we are thankful for that.
rushonrock: Were you nervous about how the album would be met by the fans?
VE: I think it’s kind of cool that alot of the fans will already have it off of the internet or whatever but it’s a chance for the general public to maybe see and think ‘I wanna check it out’.
rushonrock: You said in an interview that you call your fans ‘Vultures’ could you explain why?
VE: We were thinking of fan club names that sounded good but it became more than that. It became a sort of branding of those core fans that really go out of their way to be our fans and show us their love. And they do it very loudly, we definitely hear them! They seem to like it and it’s not diminishing by any means and people are very proud to be ‘Versa Vultures’ just like Lady Gaga has her Little Monsters. We like to think of it as a cult. It’s definitely a cult, it’s hard for us to find bands to tour with nowadays that are right in the centre of pop and heavy music. So we are just creating our own niche and core fanbase, it’s kind of cool. A new brand of people!
rushonrock: Is it hard for you to take the constant Paramore comparisons? The female lead singer, problems within the band in the past and even on the same label?
VE: But does the music sound the same?
rushonrock: No, your music definitely has more of a theatricality about it.
VE: Nice, that’s what we were kind of going for! Most of those have kind of banished now especially in the states after we toured. And that kind of established us more and let others see what we are about and what we are trying to do. It kind of just drives us on more and put ourselves out there and let people see who we are. If you come out to the show you’ll see the difference and most people soon forget about it.
rushonrock: Who are your musical influences?
VE: We all have our own different kind of music that we listen to from dance music to well anything really. As a band Bjork definitely influenced us musically. We like to put a certain spin on things that you might not think we would do, like taking something from a dance song and incorporate in some way. It’s just the little things though, we are really feel-orientated when it comes to the music and when we are writing.
rushonrock: When we interviewed Paramore they said one of the problems you find on tour is that you butt heads because of how much time you have to spend together is it the same for you?
VE: No we don’t really butt heads ever, we’re all pretty quiet but when we are at home and because we are on the road together, constantly, we do take time apart from each other. We’re always three hours apart from each other, Sierra lives on one side of Florida and we live on the other and that’s kind of crazy how we all came together.
rushonrock: Do you notice a difference in the fans across in America then in Europe?
VE: They are way more stoked when we are here, they don’t mind showing you how excited they are to see you across in the UK. They talk differently too… It’s funny how you guys are always like “you have a cool accent” and we just say “I have an accent? No – you have an accent!”
rushonrock: Was there anything you wanted to see while you were in the UK this time around?
VE: (Blake) I wanted to visit all the Harry Potter locations! I’ve been to the great hall in Oxford and Kings Cross in London.
rushonrock: Do you have any pre gig rituals?
VE: Lots of chap-stick application goes on. And pre-gig anxiety poop feelings. We always have a word or a phrase right before we go on stage and it always has something to do with the town that we are in. We either make a pun or something like that. And we sort of chant it, it’s kind of like a thing we have to do. (Sierra) We kind of have story time sometimes.
rushonrock: Really? Any examples?
VE: (Sierra) There was one called mighty ducks. (Blake and Devin) What!? We’ve never heard of this! Do we have story time?? (Sierra laughs)No, sorry, those sort of things will come with time, we will think of some!
rushonrock: So after the new album is there anything you’d like to achieve this year?
VE: Well we would like to come back to the UK. At the moment the plan is just tour tour tour – we have a lot of shows in the US but the hopefully we will do a tour across in the UK and in other European countries and maybe Australia. So it’s really exciting.
rushonrock: Are you stoked to be playing Download?
VE: We hear all the biggest bands play Download so that will be incredible and will feel great. But we want to do everything and see everything around the world!