The Vasco Era - about

Biography Part 1

Biography 2010      "LUCILLE"                           

The Vasco Era have been very busy in the studio recording their next album with the 'infamous' (in our circle...) producer Scott Horcroft (Presets, Silverchair, Sleepy Jackson, etc). We recorded and mixed some great tracks at his BigJesusBurger Studios in Sydney and are proud and excited about the songs due out early next year. In the meantime-we will drop a single or two....play some shows...get ready for Summer and test ride some songs and videos for you...so stay tuned! 

Writer Clem Bastow on The Vasco Era's new album...a taste to come in 2010: 

Someone wise once said you get your whole life to write your debut album and a couple of months to write your second. Second albums are often rush-released, written on beer coasters in the back of touring vans, and pushed forward, blinking, into the spotlight before the time is right.

And then there are the second albums that offer something special; that rare and exhilarating sense that you are listening to a band's evolution - a record that, upon its completion, leaves you with the sense that you could say "I was there when" as though you'd been there, alongside the artists, to witness the birth of something special.

Lucille is one of those records.

The Vasco Era burst onto the Australian music scene some five years ago in an arrival that was difficult to ignore. The noisy Apollo Bay natives presented a range of musical conundrums: a surf coast band fuelled by a furious racket; a three-piece that made as much noise as a whole festival; a band that seemingly ran alongside the other entrants in the new rock race and yet outran them all. The country sat up and took notice, and their 2006 debut, Oh We Do Like To Be Beside The Seaside, chronicled their journey to that point.

The band - vocalist and guitarist Sid O'Neil, brother and bassist Ted, and drummer Michael Fitzgerald - had a year or so to write the songs that would eventually form their second album's innards, though it was no working holiday. After an extended period of determined demoing, the band prepared to start recording the album. "We worked for eighteen months," Ted explains, "just going over our demos until we had the songs we wanted; we'd throw out the bits we didn't like and start again."

By the time they were ready to record, the songs had been put through the creative wringer by the band - as Michael notes, "They’ve changed that much that you wouldn't be able to tell what they used to be!"

Working closely with producer Scott Horscroft (Silverchair, The Presets, Sleepy Jackson), the band entered an intensive three-week recording session that would prove to test their collective mettle and expand their musical horizons.

"We only had three weeks to record. It was really full on," recalls Ted with a knowing laugh, "so we worked fairly fast. Our ideas for the album were shaped by the time we got into the studio. We knew what we wanted it to sound like but we just didn't know how to do it, and that's where Scott came in."

The band took a determined step forward from the bare-bones raggedness of their debut and one way this expressed itself was through the (relatively) simple decision to increase the musical breadth of the arrangements. "This album has so many more instruments than the last album," Michael says with a hint of quiet amusement. As Ted wittily reminds us, the first record featured little more than "bass, guitar, drums, and screaming."

The result is a record that is rich in atmosphere and depth of feeling; a true "headphones album" that takes the listener on a journey from its beginning (the plangent, yearning Not Stuck Here) to its conclusion (the triumphantly bittersweet Already Won). Lucille's lifeblood pulses through the freewheeling Be There Tonight and the energetic reflection of Rest My Head, with its pealing guitar solo and cathartic key shift.

There are moments of rolling thunder, memories of standing on the corner with a suitcase in your hand; of Chelsea girls and sweet slow sliders and even the occasional moonlight sonata. But throughout it all beats the heart of a band not content to take the easy route; in challenging themselves - whether through listening, writing or performing - The Vasco Era in turn challenge the listener. The rewards for those who allow themselves to submit to the test are rich.

What the band set out to achieve - a record rich with narrative scope - is what they've ended up with. "We were hoping it would be an album that people would listen to the whole way through rather than just pluck songs from it," Ted says. "The whole album is a story."

Now it's your turn to sit down and be told it.

 

 

Biography 2006                                         

"Oh We Do Like To Be Beside The Seaside".                            

There is a small town in the Australian State of Victoria called Apollo Bay. It is on the ocean, and is warm in summer, and terribly cold in winter. In this town grew up three boys. Two were brothers. One ended up like a brother. During their school years, the older of the brothers and the like-a-brother were in a band together. They played a few shows, then the band finished. Then, the younger brother and the older brother played in a different band. Then that band finished. By this time the older brother and the like-a-brother were out of school, the older brother away at university in Ballarat, the like-a-brother doing the same in Melbourne. But they always came back to Apollo Bay. Here the three of them started mucking around, playing in another band. They rehearsed and finally got a gig. They needed a name, so the younger brother and other school friends (who were meant to be doing school work) came up with The Vasco Era, partly from a cartoon in a newspaper.

They moved to Melbourne, played shows, met a man who ran a festival and helped them, then signed to a very nice label, who sent them to foggy old London Town and to the Big Apple and to La La Land to play shows. They were joined on this trip by their new American friends who were helping the man who ran a festival and the brother's dad at running the show away from Australia.They were also joined by their friend who was in one of the other bands, the brother's mum and auntie and lots and lots of friends from Apollo Bay (Its seems all Apollo Bay people moved to either Melbourne or Foggy old London Town). They returned to the US of A about a month later, to record the long awaited album with a big, but nice producer, Jeff. They did this in San Francisco with some nice Americans who taught them all about America. In return, they taught the nice Americans how to say G'day mate properly.

The Album will be out on May 5th, 2006 and they are excited to release it then make lots and lots of new friends.

Michael Fitzgerald (drums) and brothers Sid O'Neil (vocals, guitar, percussion) and Ted O'Neil (bass, backing vocals) were still in their teens when they formed The Vasco Era in the (otherwise) quiet coastal town of Apollo Bay. The trio felt an instant musical and live chemistry spurring exciting local performances that were soon packed houses with the crowd feeling the dynamic intensity of their live shows. From these humble beginnings, the band have gone on to much bigger things, most recently culminating in large outdoor performances at The Falls Festival, Southbound, East and West Coast Blues & Roots Festivals, Apollo Bay Music Festival and The Great Escape. In addition to the ever growing list of festivals, the band has an impressive resume of supports, having toured with The Black Keys, Gomez, The Violent Femmes, You Am I, and even opening for Wolfmother in London last year. The Vasco Era have toured extensively throughout Australia on their own as well and last year won fans further afield with shows in LA, New York and London.

May 5th will see the release of their debut album, "Oh We Do Like To Be Beside The Seaside". The album was recorded last year in San Francisco with renowned producer Jeff Saltzman (The Killers "Hot Fuss") and the first two singles, "When It First Showed Up" and "When We All Lost It" are currently being featured on radio and up on www.myspace.com/thevascoera. www.facebook.com/thevascoera

Live Reviews - "Oh We Do Like To Be Beside The Seaside":

"The pure unadulterated joy inherent in Vasco Era stems from the sweetly frenetic stomping blues-rock howl of pure pent up malevolent passion...complete and utter brilliance. They are, in one word, perfection." Beat Magazine, Melbourne (J Clements)

"Blazing onto the scene in the wake of Wolfmother and the John Butler Trio, they solidify Oz as the home of blues rock updated. Their set was a glory of no-holds barred thunder from down under. Rarely do I see a band throw themselves so wholly into a set…" American Chronicle, Los Angeles, USA (J Caldwell)

"... their surprisingly fresh take on the quiet/loud dynamic will both make you weep then build into a guitar thrash dervish that will strip the paint off the walls in any club they get a chance to play in … look out for a debut album in 2007 which, if it can successfully capture the live shows, will be a proper hot piece of plastic." UP Music Magazine

"The Vasco Era have … built together a very tight set, switching effortlessly from delta blues-esque grooves to explosive balls-out rock in a matter of seconds … the percussion jams, the guitar solos all fit naturally" www.soulshine.com (S Jones)

Worldwide Management:

Catherine Enny/John O'Malley


Guerrilla Management


2180 Bryant St #206

San Francisco, CA 94110 USA

T: +1 415 865 2170 
F: +1 415 865 2180


E: TheVascoEra@GuerrillaMgmt.com

 

Australia Co-Management : Bonnie Dalton

MINNOW & CO

 PO BOX 1339, Nth Fitzroy, VIC, AUS 3068 E: bonnie@minnow.net.au