Spread the word!

Posted on June 27, 2006 by Contributor

Artist: Viva Voce
Author: Dave Scanlon

God I"m glad I got given that interview. Viva Voce are great. Just bloody great. Sod clinical objectivity " they"re great. Any band where the drummer plays kazoo" synthesizer" drums "naturally" all at the same time" and the song"s still catchy as hell" is "say it with me"""yes" great. "The song in question is called "Alive with pleasure" and it"s on their myspace." Right" now that we"ve gotten my opinion out of the way" you"re probably asking "who the hell are they"" Righto" Viva Voce are a husband and wife duo" Kevin and Anita Robinson" who come from Alabama "no banjos though" but have set down roots in the musical Mecca that is Portland" Oregon. "Home to Elliott Smith" Pavement" The Shins" Dandy Warhols" you get the picture." Indeed" all the above bands resemble Viva Voce in some way" who are both experimental in song form and instrumentation "no small feat for a two"piece" and incessantly catchy. There"s probably a genre for it. Let"s call it New"indie"art"experimental"pop"rock for short. "NIAPR" I think it"ll catch on." Their 3rd album is out in Ireland this August" and I caught them for a wee chat in Dublin"s Crawdaddy last week.

Drop"D " So you"re just halfway through your Irish tour. Is it your first time here"
Kevin " It is.

So how have you found it"
Anita " Dublin" We"ve only just been inside the club since we got here. The club"s nice"

How"ve the other gigs gone then"
A " It"s been fun. Everyone"s been really friendly and cordial. It seems like it was a really good idea to come here.
K " All the show"s have gone really well. Everyone"s been super"nice.

Any major differences between doing shows here or back home"
A " People seem to be really well"mannered. I dunno" is that the case or I have just been lucky so far""

So you"ve got the new album" "Get Yr Blood Sucked Out" available in Europe on August 14th. How does it differ from your previous 2 albums"
A " It"s a little more"..aggressive" probably" as far as really" going for it. Y"know" I think musically" lyrically" artistically " we did everything ourselves" like we usually do.
K " I think for the last couple of albums" there"s a couple of production tricks where you cram a load of stuff in there. For this one" I think we pulled a lot of stuff away" and just let the songs be there. But yeah" they"re a lot more aggressive" lyrically and musically. It"s a real guitar driven album" and yeah" I"m super"proud of it. It"s my favourite one we"ve done.
A" Maybe a little more depth" hopefully.

There was a new track which I heard on your site earlier which had the "F"word" in the title" so that sounds a little more aggressive" sure" So both of you did pretty much everything yourselves on this album" including all the instruments. Was it a decision ye made early on to keep it to just to the two of ye" Do ye have more musicians in the live act"
A " Well we"ve always written our songs together just as two. That"s always been so natural" and satisfying and easy that we"ve never really felt the need to bring anybody else in. As far as playing live goes" sometimes we have a friend or two playing with us. Tonight we have a friend playing with us for part of the set.
K " Well when we"re recording" since the two of us have the ability to play all of the parts" it"s just a lot easier and less hassle"..
A " Well it"s just more fun" I mean" why should we let someone else do a really fun part if we can do it""
K " Plus if you have the part in your head" instead of bringing someone in and showing them" you just play it you know" Cut out the middle"man" and just do it"
A " Yeah" but it"s difficult and tempting sometimes" "cos we have so many friends where we live that are great musicians. I mean" we could have tonnes of people on all of our records.
K " We did actually open up a little bit more on this album "than on the others" and let other people in. We had trumpets" a friend helped me engineer the piano" and we had some people singing on that song with the "f"word." But we pretty much primarily have it all up here" so it"s just best if you do it that way.

Given that you both can play a number of instruments" how does the songwriting work" Do you each have a favourite instrument to write on"
A " I like writing on guitar" but I try to branch out" just to keep myself getting better at different things.
K " Yeah" I find myself doing that too. If I"ve written two songs on piano" I"ll pick a guitar up" just try not to keep too clinical about it.
A " He"s great at writing on piano" and then he"ll bring it to me and I"ll have to play it in F sharp or something like that"
K " Yeah" there are certain keys that are easier for me to play in. She"s a much better guitar player than I am" I don"t know how to make the chords.

But both of you contribute to the songwriting"
K " Yeah.

So this can be a very short answer if you like" but which came first: your band or your relationship"
A " We were just talking about this" It kind of all happened together" over the course of one Summer.

That"s a pretty productive Summer"
A " Well we were both playing music when we met.
K " We were both in bands in our hometown. We started dating" and while we were dating we started to four"track songs and stuff. It just all kind of happened together.

So you both come from Alabama originally. A few years after forming the band you moved to Portland" Oregon" Any particular reason you moved there"
A " have you ever been there"

I"ve heard of its reputation with people like Elliott Smith etc.
K " It"s a beautiful beautiful place. When we were on tour that was one of those cities. Everytime we went through there" the air got crisper and the lights shone down.
A " Yeah" the wilderness is just really wild. It just feels great there. The ocean is there" and there"s this really rough majestic Pacific surf with big huge rock formations and redwood forests.
K " We didn"t really move there for musical reasons" we just wanted to put down roots. And once we moved to Portland we discovered that it had an amazing musical scene.
A " It was just the icing on the cake. I wasn"t even really aware of that.

Well it has enough of a name for itself that even I"ve heard of it over here. It"s meant to be like the new Seattle.
A " Yeah" people keep saying that"
K " We were completely oblivious to that. We just knew that it wasn"t our small hometown" and it"s just a beautiful place to be.

Well I"ll make a note to pass by Portland next time I"m over that direction.
K " You should" you really should.

So which aspect appeals to you most about what you do" Writing" gigging or recording"
A " I love travelling.
K " I love travelling too. It"s funny" we were just talking to Guy "their tour manager" about this. I love being in the studio" so if I had to choose then that"s probably my favourite. But I wouldn"t trade it in for this. This is the pay"off for all the hard work in the studio. So a little of both"
A " Yeah" I don"t think I could choose just one part. It"s the whole process really.

What"s the single oddest thing you"ve come across when on tour"
"Long pause" with the occasional chuckle."

Something that the public can read about"
A " There are so many things to choose from.
K " Yeah" and none of them are really appropriate" Long story short" there"s some really strange people in the world" and we seem to meet all of them on tour.
A " Yeah" we seem to attract them.
K " Okay" here"s one example. We were on tour in Kansas in the states" and this guy dragged in two giant drawings of our faces. One said "Viva" the other said "Voce". One was my face with the moon and stars.
A " And I was the sun"
K " So you can imagine how awkward it would be if someone dragged in giant portraits into a pub like this"
A " We get a lot of drawings" that happens to us a lot. Which is great" they"re much appreciated"

That portrait thing sounds simultaneously complimentary and creepy.
K " It"s extremely creepy" I"m looking at it and all the detail in my face going" thinking this guy sat and looked at my face for hours and hours.

While doing some research for this interview I came across an interview you did "Kevin" on Starwars.com. Is that just a random weird interview thing you had to do" or are you a big star wars fan"
K " Well there"s this girl who maintains the Star Wars website" and she works on the Lucas ranch. "That"d be George Lucas" he of star wars creator fame." Well she"s a huge fan of our band" and came to a bunch of our shows in San Francisco. I almost didn"t believe her" but she wanted me to do an interview for her website. So I said fine" I love Star Wars" I grew up in the late 70"s and early 80"s" and I did the interview. And it got 1000"s of hits" I had no idea that that website was so popular.

Yeah" I put in "Viva Voce" and Robinson into Google" and it"s like the 4th highest article"
"Much incredulous laughter"

Are ye listening to anything particularly interesting at the moment"
A " Well I"m already getting kinda tired of my i"pod" and we"re not even that far into the tour"
K " I"ve found myself listening to a lot of old stuff" like Lee Hazlewood.
A " I like the new Black Heart Procession album.

I"ve never heard of them.
A " They"re a great band. And they have 3 or 4 records and they"re all really good. You should check "em out. Deerhoof"s new record is great.
K " Yeah" they"re a great band. There"s a lot of great music out there.

www.myspace.com/vivavoce

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