What attracted you to the area of music you work in?
We love live guitar music, it just excites us, there’s nothing like going to see a live band play loud music. This is why we try and make our recordings sound as live as possible, we don’t care for music that is too perfect, I want to know that a human is responsible for what I’m hearing.
What led you to choosing your band name? What were some of the alternatives you had?
Vulpine Smile just seemed to fit for us, Josh has a tattoo of a fox on his leg (tattooed by Jack) and we thought it was a cool image to base artwork around; and Vulpine is such a beautiful word. We’ve had many other names, Rejectamenta was our original name but nobody could read it or say it – plus it means faeces. Other options were, Trashed Amber and Project Abandon, but Project Abandon ended up being a song and Trashed Amber felt to skater rock to us.
What is your local music scene like? How do you think you fit in?
The local scene is good, it’s quite diverse and there are some great bands around. We fit nicely into the middle as we play loud rock tunes but also pretty folk songs which usually go down well in Cambridge.
You’ve got a huge concert lined up – what would be your dream venue?
Glastonbury! I’d like to play the 100 club, it’s got a lot of history and Son House made a record there! He’s one of our favourite blues singers.
Have you all got similar tastes musically? Who has the most impressive record collection?
Yeah we have similar tastes but have introduced each other to new music. Matt has a thing for 80s rock and Josh likes to force old blues onto whoever he meets. Josh has a pretty big CD collection and the odd vinyl, but they’re too expensive to keep buying – that makes it more special when you do get one though I guess.
Tell us about how you go about creating your music, from initial idea to completion. What equipment do you use?
Josh: Most of the songs I write on my acoustic and then I take it to the boys and they add their parts. Some of our heavier songs come out of jams, we like to just start playing and see what comes out, we get some good stuff that way. I write the lyrics usually right at the last minute. Sometimes I transfer the songs onto piano because playing it on a different instrument can open up new ideas. We don’t know much about music theory and none of us can read music so we usually just Jam the new songs out and hope that everything comes together and sounds ok.
What would be your ultimate aim in the industry? Who do you see as the band you’d like Vulpine Smile to become like in terms of image and sound?
I’ve always really admired Jack White for creating his own record company ‘Third Man Records’ and for being largely responsible for the vinyl revival. I think that would be our ultimate goal, to have our own studio and put out records with all our favourite bands.
Is there anything you would like people to know about your current release?
Our current release is relatively minimal, we recorded it pretty much live as we love live music and didn’t want to overproduce our sound. We think It’s got a hard edge to it which we are really pleased about and we hope people will like it.
What can you tell us about your future plans?
We plan to play as many shows as we can in as many different places, and to put an LP out at some point as we have plenty of songs now. We also want to continue being a part of our local music scene and make it bigger and better.
Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/vulpine-smile
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/vulpinesmileband/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/vulpinesmile/