A conversation with Modern Guilt about “We’ll Always Have Vegas”
Q: Hi! “We’ll Always Have Vegas” is described as a conceptual snapshot. Can you elaborate on the main concept behind this EP and what inspired it?
A: Jaz: The inspiration was blending a traditional Western and translating that to a modern setting, which I felt was Vegas – One man’s introspective search for what is meaningful to him, who am I, internal narratives, but through the lens of complete chaotic debauchery and how you manipulate the way you feel and think over several days in that world (Vegas).
It was sort of inspired by the constant highs and lows and volatility of existence. So much of what we make as a band is based around states of emotion, and living in London, it’s always on tap, everywhere you go there’s people at some different stage of this journey.
Q: The EP seems to explore themes of indulgence and introspection. How did these themes influence the songwriting and composition process?
A: Jaz: I think so much of the lyrics and the vocal melodies we build after we work on the arrangement, because the arrangement that we create as a collective sets the tone for what comes next.
Andreas: We didn’t set out and write the songs as if they should be one thing, but as time went on we ended up putting them in place as an answer to each other collectively.
All songwriting in one way or another is a journey. We’ve all had our own journey’s throughout writing this EP…
Jaz: Many things got scrapped along the way as well. So much of it is about states of emotional grace or collapse, that it’s almost punctuated as a chronology of that journey as we were writing it, and it ended up creating a really neat narrative of coming up on this wave of indulgence and crashing out the back of it.
Q: You’ve worked with Mikey Buckley on the production of this EP. How did his approach to production help in conveying the narrative and environment of the EP?
A: Scott: I’d say letting us explore different sounds and Mikey working with us to help find alternative and fresh sounds that we haven’t previously used. Finding space in the arrangement was a big thing too, it was often about removing elements rather than adding, and this concept became hugely important.
Jaz: That’s so bang on! We wrote this around indulgence, so it naturally bled into the songwriting. Sometimes we had so many different parts, it was quite complex, and Mikey came in as a sort of human cutting room floor, allowing us to take away.
Andreas: He’s really been a killer of darlings but a champion of all of them if you know what I mean.
Q: The track “Talking To Myself” is accompanied by a video directed by Ross Scott. What was the vision behind this video, and how does it complement the song?
A: Jaz: The song ‘Talking To Myself’ is literally that – I’ll speak from my perspective, the way in which I treat myself, the internal narratives that I’ve got and how I refer to myself internally.
When we presented the song to Ross we weren’t entirely sure how we wanted it to look visually, and a lot of the conversations we had were about how can we translate in a visual setting that concept of an internal narrative, something really external, which is where we started looking at the idea of mirrors, and that point when especially on a night out where you go into the bathroom and its this sort of peace from the chaos outside and all that internal catastrophe is unleashed at a mirror and the ultimate real loneliness comes with an internal narrative that people around you are completely unaware of.
So Ross created this vision of essentially a night out in which everything is moving and swirling around the main protagonist, and that person can’t connect because of what’s holding them back internally.
Scott: The more we started visualising how it would look and with the narrative of the song, it became more obvious that this was an internal narrative, it was like a dream, a bit Joker-esq. Things like the post-it notes on the dinner table, to me they are like in that Hook / Peter Pan film when they imagine the food, and then again the scene at the end of the video – the house party – when Andreas and I are overlayed several times to create a house party…
The funny story is that we were supposed to have some extras to create a party scene, but that fell through, so Ross suggested an overlay to create a party and it was probably more impactful to create this inner monologue, it’s the same people over and over again… And in a way, to me that shot is a point where the viewer will understand the whole thing has been in the protagonist’s head…
Jaz: Like a human soup
Scott: A ‘Heavy Soup’ … if you know you know
Q: The EP includes a mix of jagged and direct sounds, as well as warmer tones in tracks like “How To Buy Happiness.” How did you decide on the sonic direction for each track?
A: Andreas: It’s all been a journey, we didn’t really decide early on, it was more a place where we found ourselves as we progressed through writing the tracks.
We never chose it, it chose us so to speak haha…
Jaz: Yeah, I think the EP is meant to reflect quite an organic process.
Andreas: Yeah, EP’s are great for that.
Jaz: The way we write, when we get together in a room, we’re often not quite sure what we’re going to do. So we get together and we start creating sounds, and whatever that is tonally sets the mood which we then write the arrangement to.
*INTERUPTED BY RANDOM GUY ASKING FOR A LIGHTER
Random Guy: Have any of you got a lighter?
Andreas: I do… somewhere…
*ANDREAS PASSES THE LIGHTER
Random Guy: Thank you
*RANDOM GUY LIGHTS HIS CIGARETTE AND PASSES LIGHTER BACK TO ANDREAS
Andreas: Cheers mate
*INTERVIEW CONTINUES…
Andreas: It’s also the kind of thing that we were moving on from our “previous sound”, and exploring new ones, and that’s us… having more confidence to do that…
Q: With influences and praise from figures like Steve Lamacq and Jess Iszatt, how do you think their support has impacted the reception of your music?
A: Jaz: It definitely lends us some reassurance, we write what we like to listen to and the process of putting something into the world can be nerve wracking, so to have people like Steve L and Jess I play it on their shows counts for so much.
Scott: Yeah, growing up Steve Lamacq in particular has been like a pillar, always there championing new music, so to have him support us is amazing. I’d also like to quickly shout out Jim Gellately (Amazing Radio) who gave us our first ever radio play, John Kennedy on Radio X for his amazing continued support, and Rowena Alice for loads of support and being an all-round legend!
These people, amongst others, have helped our music get to new ears.
Q: You celebrating the release with a show at Sebright Arms in London. How was your live performance?
A: Jaz: Electric, nothing beats playing live, the feeling we get on stage is hunger.
Scott: Unbelievable, being able to sell out venues like that is amazing! Our fan base is growing and we hugely appreciate everyone turning out to see us at each show.
It was a really special show with such an amazing energy in the venue that night, both from the band and the audience!
Q: Finally, after the release of “We’ll Always Have Vegas,” what are the band’s main goals and plans for the rest of the year?
A: Jaz: Write. Write. Write! Start building an album, play a host of shows, ideally some festivals and get to check out all the phenomenal artists coming up.
Scott: Yeah, we’ve got quite a lot of new tracks in the pipeline which we’re going to start testing out live.
