Last month, Brooklyn based electro-rock band VHS Collection celebrated the release of their dynamic debut album, Retrofuturism, but that doesn’t mean that they’re still not hard at work. Over the last year and a half, the band spent countless hours developing their sound and carefully crafting a perfect debut release, but even with the album out now, the band is already looking toward the future. With their largest headlining tour to date coming up at the beginning of 2019 and even more new music already on the horizon, VHS Collection are showing no signs of slowing down any time soon.
Get to know a little bit more about the band and listen to Retrofuturism now below, and keep an eye out for even more exciting news from VHS Collection in 2019!
Interview by Dom Vigil
Can you tell us a little bit about VHS Collection for anyone who might be hearing you for the first time?
We are a synth rock back from nyc, formed 3 years ago by 3 friends. We specialize in up tempo, high energy, danceable tunes that are best experienced live.
You guys just released your debut album, Retrofuturism last month! What are you most excited for fans to hear on this release?
It’s been a long process to get this record made and released, so we’re excited for fans to hear it. There’s a good range of songs on the record, dance songs like ‘take my money’, ballads like ‘sign’, there’s even an acoustic song on the record called ‘the otherside’
Retrofuturism follows your recently released “One” remixes. How did the collaborations and remixes come about?
Zach Nicita is a friend and plays drums with us so he was an obvious choice. We’re big fans of Free Falk and RAC so we reached out and we’re pumped when they said yes.
How do you feel you’ve grown with the writing and recording with Retrofuturism? Did you learn any important lessons during the writing and recording process?
Definitely. As our first full length record, we were learning a lot on the fly. We had a general sense of where we wanted to go, and were shaping the sound through the writing and recording process. I think with new material we’ll be concentration on a more specifically defined sound, and limiting ourselves to certain instruments and certain pieces of gear. We’re already working on the next record and are applying everything we learned from the first round.
It being your debut full-length release, did you have any major goals in mind when you first started working on Retrofuturism?
We love the concept of an album as an artistic statement, even though people seem more focused on singles these days. We wanted to use the length to say lyrically everything we were going through at the time, touching on some big subjects. Also taking advantage of being able to explore new and different soundscapes.
Lyrically, was there anything you wanted to touch on with this release?
We were writing our experience over the past few years, and ended up touching on some big themes, coming of age, love, having an uncertain future. ‘Sign’ is about that transition phase where your trying to escape a past life into something new. It’s very autobiographical, we feel that we still have one foot in the real world and one foot on the tour bus, and not sure which world we fully live in yet.
With Retrofuturism out now, do you have any plans for shows or tour dates before the end of the year?
Yes! In 2019 We’ll be setting out on our biggest headlining tour yet, Feb 12th – March 3rd, hitting most major cities in the US. Dates and tickets are available on our website, vhs.nyc.
Do you have any other big plans coming up?
We just finished a 3 week writing trip in LA and are working on a ton of new material. We’ll be putting out a few singles in early 2019, maybe and EP, and a second album to follow.
Thanks for taking the time to chat with us! Is there anything else you’d like to add?
Hope to see everyone on tour!
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