Music
First play: Vexxes debut new song Enemies (and it’s huge!)
Say hello to our favourite thing about Friday; a brand new track from rising alt-rockers Vexxes.
If you’ve got a penchant for British bands like Deaf Havana, You Me At Six and Lower Than Atlantis, then you’ll need to make room for this Leeds trio in your record collection.
Taken from their new Common Ground EP, Vexxes give us a taste of their energetic live show as the track builds momentum with bold lyrics and beautiful riff-work.
Check out Enemies below and scroll down for a full interview with the band…
This is the first time fans are hearing Enemies – what was the inspiration behind the song?
“It’s an anthem for perseverance, you know that feeling of self-doubt; how sometimes you might feel like you’re standing in the way of your own desires, and that more often than not, you’re your own worst enemy.
“The first line, “I should be learning how to save myself but I find self-sabotage is all that I do well” shows that battle between knowing what we should do and what we likely will do. In contrast the second verse is all about pushing on, not quitting, because the regret you’ll feel if you don’t is worse than any doubt you feel now.”
How does the new track progress from Everything I’ve Ever Known? Are both tracks a good representation of the Common Ground EP?
“Enemies definitely has more of an anthemic sound compared to Everything I’ve Ever Known. Rather than a big, energetic breakdown, there’s a quiet bridge that builds into a final epic chorus, with lots of cool counter-melody vocal layers. They both sound massive live, which is what we wanted from this EP – to get people excited for our live show.”
Have you have much opportunity to start playing the new songs live? And if so, how are they settling in?
“We’re actually in the final stages of getting everything geared up for our live shows right now. The set is sounding pretty big and is so fun to play. During writing and recording, we made a point of making sure that the tracks would be fun to play live, so obviously we’re really happy with it all!”
Do you write music with the live show in mind or does the sound on record take priority?
“Obviously it’s important to us that the EP reflects the band well, but our main focus so far has been on how the songs translate live. There’s a lot of stuff going on in the EP, but we didn’t put too much in there that we didn’t feel we’d be able to pull off live.”
Where do your main sound and songwriting influences stem from?
“In terms of what creates our sound, we all have quite a similar range of influences. We’ve all grown from our teens into young-adulthood, following bands like Deaf Havana, Lower Than Atlantis and Young Guns , admiring their progress album by album. If you drew a Venn diagram with each of our influences in, that’s where we get the most crossover, but each of us has our own influences outside of that which we draw upon, from Killswitch Engage to Bon Iver. We bloody love Venn diagrams…”
When can we catch you on tour next?
“You can see our first show on 1st May at Fibbers in York. We will be announcing a couple of tours in the next few weeks, surrounding our EP release.”
Let us know what you think of the track at @TicketmasterUK and find the band at @vexxesofficial.
