This past week I had the opportunity of speaking with Val Emmich and The Veeries before their performance at North Star Bar. Although it was freezing cold, they braved the weather to step outside and speak with me about acting, social media, and what Val would do if Radiohead ever shit in a cup. Check out the interview below!
Hey guys, would you mind introducing yourselves to our readers?
- Hi, I’m Val Emmich. 5’9”. My turn ons include water skiing in the buff and I do like a little smidge of cognac when I play my Xbox 360. Thank you.
- Hey, I’m James Tan. I play guitar… I don’t know. I didn’t prepare a bio. I live in Asbury Park, NJ. I’m sure I could go on, but I’m sure you wouldn’t be interested also.
- Rob Fitzgerald, I play bass. Let’s be real, nobody cares about the bass player.
Hey, my dad plays bass!
- With a beard like that though?
Listen, I was just thinking what a great beard that is.
- It’s real. This is a real beard. Not one of those press-on things.
- I’m Kevin Walters. I play drums. I’m the new guy, I’m just gonna leave it at that.
How would you describe your genre of music to someone who had never heard it before?
- Val: I don’t know. I’ve been trying to think of this for fifteen years, like what does my music sound like. The new record, what do you think the genre is?
Oh god…
- Val: Are you familiar with the record yet?
Yeah. Yeah, I’ve listened. But… to be honest, I didn’t really categorize it.
- Val: See, it’s hard to answer questions isn’t it?
Yeah, you guys are turning it around on me!
- Veeries: Where did your name come from? How did you come up with your name?
- [Silence]
His…. birth name?
- Val: My dad put his penis in my mom’s vagina.
Listen, when a man loves a woman….
- Veeries: No, I’m just trying to get the hard questions out of the way! The ones that are difficult to answer.
You do the interview, it’s cold out here. I’m gonna go inside, okay?
- Veeries: Yeah, right!
- Val: It’s rock and roll. It’s hard because it’s drums, bass and guitars, lots of guitars. I think it’s probably under the umbrella of indie rock. I don’t know much more than that.
How did you guys get your start in music?
- Veeries: Individually, or as a band?
Well…
- Val: Let’s not go individually. We’ll be here forever. Do you wanna talk about how we put it together?
- Veeries: I think just a lot of mutual friends. Jay introduced me to you, I introduced you to Kevin. Ron introduced you to James. I think it was a lot of guys, we all kind of passed through each other’s lives and played together in various incarnations at different times. James and I, Dave as well, have all played with Val at different periods of time and I had played with Kevin so when this project came together it was kind of like finding the guys to do it. And we all had some sort of history with each other, for the most part.
- Val: The other answer is I knew I wanted to go to Omaha to make a record in a very short period of time. And to do that, to live with a bunch of guys, they better be good guys. We had a very short period of time to make a record so to make up for time you better be on the same wavelength as far as the goal and the vision. I chose people that a) I thought stylistically would work, b) that were good to hang out with and c) would be game to just fucking drop shit and go in a van on a road trip. And that’s a certain kind of person. The fact that it all worked out is the miraculous part.
It was a while ago, but in 2001 you were the first unsigned artist to be on MTV’s Total Request Live. What was that like?
- Val: A shock. At the time, I thought I was gonna be the biggest thing since Michael Jackson or Elvis Presley, if I’m being honest. No, it was back when one show or one appearance could really do something and it led directly to a bunch of record labels being interested in me, and the potential to have my music heard. So, it was great. Remember that show? What a weird show! People would just stand around, wanting to be let in…
What do you think are the benefits of going DIY or signing with an indie label as opposed to going with a major?
- Val: Those are three different things. There are plusses and minuses to all of it. Of course the big upside to being by yourself is freedom. Freedom is a great thing but you also, you need something to push you out of the crowd. The internet is a wide expanse of people just crowding up the place. How do you get heard? And more and more to get on a tour, to get a little write-up in a magazine, or even a blog, forget magazines, you need someone who knows someone who knows someone who is usually getting paid for that service. So I guess it’s a little better nowadays on an indie record label level because the majors just consolidated yet again, and I think that’s a dying industry. It feels lonely often by yourself because you’re just… everyone is an artist now. Myspace, by definition is “My Space.” Now we all know Myspace is dead but at the time it was like “Oh, we each have our own little website,” and that grew and just grew to the point where now everyone has their own TV station on YouTube and their own GarageBand on their Mac, they have their own recording studio. The tools have all been handed out equally to everyone and now there’s no one to sort through the shit so it’s kind of, as you can tell, I’m so happy about it.
You’ve done acting on shows like 30 Rock and Ugly Betty. What was that like?
- Val: Are you really an actress? [Referring to an earlier conversation in which I claimed to be an actress].
No.
- Val: Well you fooled me!
I did some musical theatre in middle and high school. I don’t want to brag or anything, but they wanted me to be an extra in High School Musical 2. I’m just saying…
- Val: Wow, nice. You’re lucky. That was great. Anytime I could do something new, it’s like exciting. More and more I just try to figure out what I’m capable of. “Wait, can I do this? Oh yeah, I can do this!” From an early age, like when my friends were waiting tables in college I was taking a train into the city to do auditions and be in commercials. So I quickly realized, “Wow, I could have a paycheck from this thing.” It was a really strange introduction into acting but it’s one that’s helped me survive and learn about myself and reach new fans.
For you, what’s the biggest difference between giving a performance on camera and performing on a stage live as a musician?
- Val: The most obvious one is the audience. You can tell when someone is paying attention, like you’re doing right now [as I look at my phone].
I’m looking at questions, I promise!
- Val: No, I’m kidding. It’s, as you can imagine, we’re five people here together and we’re doing things in real time. When I lift out my hand, Rob presumably shakes it. And on a TV show they’ll get Rob walking away first and then my hand will go out. It’s not real life, so it takes a willing suspension of disbelief and that’s fun. It’s like make believe! It’s like when you were a kid and your GI Joes were beating the shit out of each other. But there’s something really authentic about this. They have their plusses and minuses. You can reach a lot more people on TV than you can with music.
You’re very active on your social media sites like Twitter, Tumblr and Facebook. How do you think that benefits an artist?
- Val: I’ll tell you. I do this because I have the time to currently. Who am I to say the time that Lady Gaga has to… although is she pretty involved in her social media? Who knows… that woman is so famous right now and so killing it. So I don’t know what this comment is, I hear it a lot, “Oh, a lot of bands or acts don’t get on social media.” The truth is, I wouldn’t either if I didn’t have to. I think I have to nurture the fan base I have because unlike Radiohead’s fanbase I can’t shit in a cup and they’ll come and grab the shit cup and… lick it. Which I would do too. I love that band.
You would lick Radiohead’s shit cup, is what you’re telling me?
- Val: I wouldn’t lick it but I would certainly take it and do some DNA testing to see if there’s anything they’ve got in their… [phone ringing] Sorry, this is Dave! This is our guitarist. I Just want to qualify, lest someone give me shit about that social media thing. Social media is to me, someone who was born just slightly before the internet, is an invasion to me. I feel like, I don’t want to share the details all the time, but I feel like I have to balance that line so that people will pay attention.
You used Kickstarter to fund your last album. What was that like and what are the benefits of sites such as that?
- Val: What do you guys think about this?
- Veeries: Kickstarter? I think it’s really great. I think everybody is a little wary about it to begin with because maybe for us, I mean I think we maybe think a little older. It seems a bit desperate at first thought, here you can’t do it yourself so your hands are out. But after having been a part of it I think it’s a great thing and I think people responded much more positively than I first thought. In the way that they were happy and proud to be a part of something that maybe they don’t get a chance to do very often. Something they really want to support, but they don’t know how; Kickstarter gives them a chance to do that. It doesn’t come off as desperate, once they show their gratification. It’s not just financial, at least for us. The support has been overwhelming in that arena.
- It can be a very romantic thing but it’s also the harsh reality is you find out quickly how much people care because you can start a Kickstarter campaign and set a goal of $1,000 and someone sends $20 in. I think we were very fortunate to set such a great bar, be able to meet it, and then beat it which allowed us to do more things for the fans that were contributing to the music.
- Val: I think that we all realized there was an audience waiting for it. That does something to your mindset when you’re going out, like people paid for this! It just adds a little pep to your step. That rhymes.
- Veeries: I think especially on this particular Kickstarter, since we determined the release date with the Kickstarter. This is when we’re going into the studio and this is when you’re going to get the record. I’ve seen a lot of them that they get their goal and then the product is delivered so many months down the road. I think by setting the goal we had a little bit of nerves going on because for us a lot of times the first time we heard the finished record was when it was put out. We didn’t sit there and mix the record, well we mixed the record obviously but we weren’t there doing part by part kind of building it right in front of us. We played it, there were some songs on the record… I think we played “Wooly Mammoths” twice. “Sour” we played three times, just to get the takes and that was the only times we played them. So for us there was a, hearing the record… it was probably as exciting to us as it may have been to someone getting it and that was kind of a kick in the butt to really step up the game and go in focused. I sound like a baseball player now…. we went out there, left everything in the studio and we’ll get them tomorrow! But I think Kickstarter was really positive in that sense, like we went in with a certain amount of moral support, so to speak. We were like, “Okay we have people who are counting on us.” There was almost a sense of responsibility, not just for ourselves. Because we set a certain goal and met that goal within a day and then ended up at nearly 200% of the actual goal. So that was an inspiration, is the best word. It was like, “Okay, people want this. People are excited about this. People want to back this.” So now it’s up to us to deliver on it, which is cool because if that doesn’t light a fire under your ass, I don’t know what would.
What’s your favorite YouTube video?
- Veeries: I like ‘Where the Streets Have No Names.’ Oh, I thought you said U2… my bad.
- We watched a YouTube video while we were in Nebraska of the guy teasing the dog. It’s super funny.
- I can pretty much hop between videos. I’m also a fan of the “Wooly Mammoths” video on Youtube.
- Val: Wink Wink! Can you do an audio wink?
What’s next for you?
- Coffee…
- Val: Here’s our pre-ordained answer. This is a live record so we want to promote it as such. We think the real way to get the word out is to take what we did in the studio, which is just five dudes playing, and just play it for people. I think you’ll see it sounds different tonight than it does on the record. Even though we did it live, just by nature. So we’re gonna do some more shows.
For more information or to book an interview, contact Haley Holmes.
@CallMeHaley
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flamingo-trigger reblogged this from valemmichfans and added:
Well I just choked on my calzone while reading through this. Finish your dinner before reading interviews.
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