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INTERVIEW: VINCENT BUCHANON-SIMPSON, Terrible Signal/Hideous Sun Demon

| 20 July 2018 | Reply

INTERVIEW: VINCENT BUCHANON-SIMPSON, Terrible Signal/Hideous Sun Demon
By Tim Gallagher with a little help from Brian Dunne

Immediately after walking off stage at the recent In The Pines festival gig, Tim Gallagher interviewed Vincent Buchanon-Simpson from Terrible Signal/Hideous Sun Demon. Here’s what they said…

Tim: What’s your thesis statement for Terrible Signal?

Vincent: Haha! I don’t know really. It’s very, very honest, I guess that’s what I am trying to go for. Something that is unashamedly a lot more raw and emotive than shit I probably would have done three years ago. I just came to the conclusion that I don’t really care if it sounds cheesy or whatever because at the very least it is genuine, know what I mean – oh, and also just something melodic because I play in a lot of punk bands where there is melody and stuff but also a lot of dissonance. This is definitely more focused on pretty harmonious sounds.

Tim: Well it definitely is pretty.

Vincent: Thank you.

Tim: How do you feel playing live with Terrible Signal as opposed to a Hideous Sun Demon gig?

Vincent: It is really different. Hideous is just like, well, it’s kinda like a train wrrrrrr[eck?]… well, you know, we try and play it tight but we’re kinda doing a billion things, running around everywhere doing stupid shit that doesn’t really suit the kind of music we do in Terrible Signal, so obviously I don’t try to do that. I don’t know, I try to deliver it with some kind of intensity but I am aware that the music is much more tempered and a bit more reserved – but there are ways around it. At first I was uncomfortable, I’m not going to lie, but I think it’s like anything, I’ve been doing it a while now so I have kind of got my head around it. I have a lot better control of my voice now than I did when I started, I used to just stare at the floor and not look at anybody but I have gone a bit beyond that now, I actually look into the audience.

Tim: What are your influences?

Vincent: Well I guess that a lot of the stuff I am playing at the moment is very 1980s southern hemisphere inspired, like Flying Nun sort of stuff and Australiana but I have said that before, people already know that. That’s where the sound mainly comes from but yeah I guess it is pretty honest but Hideous is honest as well though, so it’s weird. I don’t know man, I don’t know how I would summarise it.

Tim: Do you have an aesthetic concept for the band?

Vincent: Well with this one I was really trying to draw together different kinds of older pop music to show how it has manifested itself over the last fifty years or so, and that’s going back to like Phil Spector-style production, like the Ronnettes, that sort of thing, like Brian Wilson obviously, through to power pop. Brian Wilson has had a huge influence on power pop, I guess its a stream of punk in the way that those genres connect and how it also connects to Velvet Underground, and how that connects to the whole Flying Nun sort of thing. In terms of influences it’s that sort of stuff. That’s the aesthetic I am going for, an exploration of crossovers and why they work, or something like that. It’s much easier to map out album art and track listing and stuff because it’s just me. I can start pondering the visuals from the get go without having to run it past anyone, so I already have an idea of what its going to look like.

Tim: When is a Terrible Signal album due out?

Vincent: Pretty much every song we played today minus the first one is from an album I put out a couple of months ago: it’s coming out on vinyl in June. I am recording a second one in July in Melbourne through Susky Tracks, so we will see how that goes. I think it is a much more dynamic album than the first one, but I would like to really polish it a bit before release so maybe at the earliest will be out by the start of next year. Who knows?

Tim: Well man, that should about cover it, cheers for the interview. Do you have a closing statement?

Vincent: No.

Category: Interviews

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