Last month New York City based band Vonesper released their first ever music video for new single Battle Plan along with a fundraising campaign. The 1 minute song and video was produced and filmed in the band’s own Vonesper Studios by their core members Kevin Vonesper (bass), Kris Halpern (guitar) and Jess-O-Lantern (vocals) and features Brian Viglione (Dresden Dolls, Violent Femmes) on drums and long time project collaborators Sam Oatts (Hudson Hank, Kiss Kiss) and Nina C Young on horns and violins respectively. This song kicks-off a new ongoing series of DIY singles and art to be released for free download and streaming using the funds of the Patreon.com campaign. The video shows the band performing in electric blue glow, damaged with glittery blue gore while singer Jess-O-Lantern slays the demons that have held the band back (time, love and vanity) represented by actors Kayla O’Keefe, Brendan Taylor and Jeff Grunn (both of the band Devil in the Belfry). You can watch the video for Battle Plan as well as the campaign below.
How has the release of Battle Plan gone?
It’s going great! “Battle Plan” is our newest single and music video and the first in a planned ongoing series of singles and art that we will be releasing. I think of it as a sort of re-launch of our band. As an independent/DIY band, it’s an uphill battle to be heard and noticed but that is the “battle” that we are undertaking. It’s sort of a preview of things to come and a statement to our image and sound. It features all the things that we like to define us: in-your-face punk rock attitude and guitars, pounding drums by my favorite living drummer Brian Viglione (1/2 of The Dresden Dolls), but with violins and horns (by Nina Young and Sam Oatts respectively, 2 people who have been recording with us on and off since I started the project in 2001). The video shows our new image which is a mix of high-class fashion and glam with b-horror gore. I like to call it glitter gore. All of this happens in only about 1 minute.
What is the fundraising for and is it going well?
With this single, we also launched a Patreon fundraising site. It is a slow process of convincing people that we are worth investing in (our music is all free to hear). Also, Patreon is still a new site that people may not have heard of so it’s something that has to be explained to people. I think as we release more music and art, and the site becomes more of a household name, we will slowly see an increase of patrons. We create everything completely in-house under the production company I started called Vonesper Studios. Music and videos are ultimately very expensive and we have spent basically our whole lives buying the equipment and learning the skill sets needed to do this. Any money we raise will go back into offsetting these costs of production, promotion, equipment, etc. We are all pretty poor so it’s been tough holding jobs and spending all our money on our artistic ambitions.
Was there any other suggestions for your band name?
Not really. I’ve been using the name Vonesper for 15 years already. It sort of spawned out of my high school band called Project Mayhem and then changed briefly to Putty Root in 2002-2003 when I first had a live band performing the songs and style I was developing. Putty Root was myself and Valerie Abbey (from bands like Angelspit and The Cruxshadows, now Abbey Death with her husband Abbey Nex).
What’s it like being part of an up and coming band like yourselves?
It’s really hard but equally exciting. We do this primarily just because we love making music. We have to love it for ourselves first and hope that other people like it too, not so much the other way around.
What would you say to your fans that go to gigs and listen your music?
Stay tuned! Keep listening and supporting and the best is yet to come! Really, we are working on some very exciting music with musicians and artists we love and respect. After 15 years of trial, error and learning, we are finally making the best music of our careers and at the best quality yet.
What music inspires you guys?
We take influence from lots of different kinds of music. For me personally, I like bands that shake up the formula and do weird things whether it me musically or just as a structure of a band, but still keep a certain pop appeal to them. Lots of 90’s bands were able to do this because there was a larger record industry to support that back then. Old punk bands too, like the Misfits or Dead Kennedys have parts of their songs that just don’t make any sense structurally, but that is what I love about them. In terms of band structures, I love bands like World/Inferno Friendship Society who have survived for 30 years with only one permanent member, more of a whomever is around and willing to commit at the time, people come and go and sometimes come back. That keeps their sound fresh. Also Green Jelly, a band I’ve been a part of on and off since 2008 has a similar structure. Now the founder (Bill Manspeaker) just has what he calls franchise bands all over the world to make it easier for him to tour anywhere anytime without the strain of a touring band.
Where would you like to see yourselves in 5 years time?
5 years will be our 20th anniversary technically. Hopefully we will have gained more of a following by then and are still making cool DIY rock and roll. Maybe we can have a giant show to celebrate.
Have you got any plans for a tour?
Unfortunately no. Touring is super expensive. We are not a big enough name and would certainly lose money on a tour at this point. To expand on the last question, maybe in 5 years this will change but for now we only play very rarely in our home NYC area and try to make each show a unique and awesome event which we have professionally filmed. We average playing only about 1 or 2 shows a year right now. We just played at the NYC venue Arlene’s Grocery where we premiered 5 songs that have never been played before. We will be releasing footage over time and have the entire show up now for subscribers of our Patreon.
Is there any plans for new music this year?
Absolutely! Over the Summer, I started over 40 new song demos. The goal now is to continue releasing singles over time based on these. So far we recorded 7 songs with Brian Viglione on drums so we are focusing on those. The first was the aforementioned “Battle Plan”.