Viva Los Villains | Matt Connarton Unleashed

0:00 Speaker 1: Oh my god, I love that the track has lived fast.

0:02 Speaker 1: The band is Viva los Villains from the album Year

0:06 Speaker 1: of the Villain. And let's see who we have with

0:08 Speaker 1: us via WhatsApp. I think we have Jonathan Ordridge with us.

0:11 Speaker 2: Hello, Yeah, hi Matt.

0:13 Speaker 3: Yeah, you got Johnny here, and I'm joined by the

0:15 Speaker 3: other boys.

0:16 Speaker 2: Oh got all three of you?

0:18 Speaker 3: Yeah.

0:19 Speaker 2: Oh wonderful, wonderful.

0:21 Speaker 1: Okay, So we got Jonathan Ordridge, Tom Marfleet and Aaron Bailey.

0:25 Speaker 1: I'm really glad you guys could join us today. I

0:27 Speaker 1: love that song. I listened to the whole album. Uh,

0:30 Speaker 1: Year of the Villain and it's so good. I love

0:32 Speaker 1: your sound. Who so, who's uh? Who's the guitar player?

0:37 Speaker 4: Well, Aaron does a lot of the lead guitar stuff.

0:40 Speaker 4: Tom does a lot of the rhythm stuff.

0:42 Speaker 1: I will pay yeah, and then uh so, okay, so

0:48 Speaker 1: Aaron does some, Tom does rhythm, and then Jonathan what

0:51 Speaker 1: do you do?

0:53 Speaker 3: So either bass or rhythm?

0:54 Speaker 5: Oh?

0:54 Speaker 2: I got you? I got you? Okay? And who's singing?

0:58 Speaker 3: I sing on that one?

1:00 Speaker 6: Johnny?

1:00 Speaker 3: Yes, so, but Tom sings on quite a few as well.

1:03 Speaker 2: Sot kind of gotcha gotcha?

1:06 Speaker 1: Yeah, that's interesting and obviously you know, for for a trio,

1:11 Speaker 1: you guys got a big sound, but it's also it's

1:14 Speaker 1: just so cool. I have not heard a lot of

1:17 Speaker 1: bands that have that kind of vibe recently that are

1:19 Speaker 1: that are you know, just doing stuff like that? And uh,

1:23 Speaker 1: I love the guitar solo at the end of that.

1:26 Speaker 1: Is it's fantastic.

1:31 Speaker 3: Yeah, well, yeah, thanks, thanks very much.

1:33 Speaker 2: Absolutely, I love that.

1:36 Speaker 3: Yeah.

1:37 Speaker 5: Yeah, so the sound is really we we love classic rock.

1:41 Speaker 5: We're all brought up on classic rock, you know, listening

1:44 Speaker 5: to our parents' records, and so that kind of big,

1:47 Speaker 5: meaty sound of the seventies and eighties is really something

1:50 Speaker 5: that we go for.

1:51 Speaker 2: Yeah.

1:52 Speaker 1: Absolutely, is that something I know, this isn't your first release.

1:56 Speaker 1: Is that something that you've kind of uh strove to

2:01 Speaker 1: sound like from the very beginning? Or has the sound

2:03 Speaker 1: change over changed over time?

2:06 Speaker 4: Sound?

2:06 Speaker 5: The first stuff that we put out was was a

2:08 Speaker 5: bit more poppy but pop orientated. But the sound particularly

2:13 Speaker 5: when Aaron joined us, because it was just me and

2:15 Speaker 5: Johnny as a duo originally and then Aaron joined us,

2:19 Speaker 5: and the sounds got heavier and heavier since then.

2:22 Speaker 1: Ye, So well, let me get the obvious question out

2:28 Speaker 1: of the way. So where does the name come from?

2:30 Speaker 1: Viva Lost Villains or is it Viva Low's Villains or

2:33 Speaker 1: doesn't matter.

2:35 Speaker 5: So we were just sort of kicking about names. In fact,

2:37 Speaker 5: the band originally was called Actung. We wanted something that

2:41 Speaker 5: was kind of really in your face, and then Johnny

2:43 Speaker 5: really fancied he wanted a band with the word villain

2:48 Speaker 5: in it. It was something that you were kind of really into,

2:50 Speaker 5: wasn't it. Yeah, And we just kind of, yeah, worked

2:53 Speaker 5: on the name for a number of weeks, and that's

2:56 Speaker 5: what we landed on.

2:57 Speaker 2: Yeah. No, I like that.

2:59 Speaker 1: Are people surprise? I mean, given given where you're from, uh,

3:02 Speaker 1: to have a name like that? Well, actually, where are

3:05 Speaker 1: you guys from?

3:06 Speaker 2: Exactly? Where where are you in the UK?

3:09 Speaker 3: So like southern England?

3:11 Speaker 5: Okay, we're about hours south of London I suppose.

3:16 Speaker 1: Okay, Okay, are there other bands in that area that

3:19 Speaker 1: sound anything like you guys? Or I would imagine you

3:21 Speaker 1: really stand out?

3:23 Speaker 2: Yeah.

3:23 Speaker 5: I don't think it's heavy as us. There's a we're

3:26 Speaker 5: lucky to be in quite a musical scene down here. Yeah,

3:30 Speaker 5: but certainly, you know, I think guitar bands have been

3:33 Speaker 5: out of fashion for quite a long time and not

3:37 Speaker 5: not that that matters much to us, but certainly I

3:39 Speaker 5: think our sound is pretty heavy for the scene, right.

3:43 Speaker 2: Right, Yeah, no doubt.

3:45 Speaker 1: I mean there's something I mean, forgive me for saying this,

3:47 Speaker 1: I don't know if this is okay to say or not,

3:49 Speaker 1: but there's something very like I would not know that

3:51 Speaker 1: you were not an American band if I didn't already

3:54 Speaker 1: know that, you know, just from listening to you, there's

3:56 Speaker 1: something very sort of American Southwestern about your sound, if

4:01 Speaker 1: that makes sense.

4:02 Speaker 6: Yeah, I think this kind of a bluesy kind of

4:05 Speaker 6: vibe behind it, which we've been sort of exploring a

4:07 Speaker 6: little bit. Yeah, somewhat covered up by the sort of

4:11 Speaker 6: the heavier rock sound, but I think it's still there elements.

4:14 Speaker 3: Of country as well.

4:15 Speaker 5: We've done some kind of I wouldn't say they were

4:17 Speaker 5: country tracks, but definitely some influences of country in there

4:20 Speaker 5: as well. So we're massive bands of American music. And yeah,

4:25 Speaker 5: again it's another thing that's kind of fed the fed

4:27 Speaker 5: the sound.

4:28 Speaker 2: I suppose, Yeah, no doubt, no doubt. Are you guys

4:31 Speaker 2: playing live a lot? Are you touring?

4:35 Speaker 5: Not a huge amount, to be honest with you, We're

4:37 Speaker 5: really focusing on on the studio stuff and kind of

4:39 Speaker 5: getting out good records. But then we've got plans for

4:42 Speaker 5: digging and touring coming up hopefully soon.

4:45 Speaker 1: Part of why I wondered is I just I bet

4:47 Speaker 1: these songs sound incredible live. I can just I'm just

4:50 Speaker 1: kind of imagining it.

4:55 Speaker 3: Down pretty well, especially the heavy ones.

4:56 Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, no doubt, no doubt, And I love it. Okay,

5:00 Speaker 1: So tell me about the album artwork. And by the way,

5:02 Speaker 1: I would encourage anybody, uh to go online and and

5:06 Speaker 1: take a look at the album artwork for this again

5:07 Speaker 1: it's a Viva Loos Villain's Year of the Villain.

5:10 Speaker 2: Did one of you guys do the artwork?

5:13 Speaker 3: Yes, so we we we have.

5:15 Speaker 4: We we love the idea of this kind of smoking

5:18 Speaker 4: skull and we use it a little bit on sort

5:22 Speaker 4: of artwork and stuff around us. And I think we

5:25 Speaker 4: quite like the mascot, like Eddie to Iron Maiden. I

5:28 Speaker 4: think this may be used on like future covers for

5:32 Speaker 4: us in the in the future and in various ways.

5:36 Speaker 4: But yeah, we like kind of brought into the smoking

5:39 Speaker 4: Skull character and can just see it being rolled out.

5:43 Speaker 5: Yeah, it's very much all the stuff we do, the

5:45 Speaker 5: music that the visuals it's a team effort, and we

5:49 Speaker 5: we tend to just knock step backwards and forwards.

5:51 Speaker 3: Some have an idea, you.

5:52 Speaker 5: Know what, how's this for a for an album of

5:55 Speaker 5: an album cover or a single cover. I've got a

5:57 Speaker 5: great photo that I took. Maybe we could we could

5:59 Speaker 5: do something in that. So, you know, really a team

6:02 Speaker 5: effort and getting everything together.

6:04 Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, no, I really I really like the artwork

6:06 Speaker 1: and I like the mascot idea. That makes sense. How

6:10 Speaker 1: long have you guys been around? I mean it, it

6:12 Speaker 1: hasn't been too too long, right.

6:15 Speaker 5: No, Well, so Johnny and I, Johnny and I have

6:17 Speaker 5: known each other for nearly twenty years, oh wow. And

6:20 Speaker 5: Aaron's been part of our friendship group for a long

6:23 Speaker 5: time as well.

6:24 Speaker 3: But so, Johnny and I wrote a lot of stuff,

6:28 Speaker 3: you know, way back in the day, and.

6:31 Speaker 5: But only in the last couple of years kind of

6:32 Speaker 5: got together and started doing stuff a bit more seriously.

6:35 Speaker 5: So we did have kind of a kind of back

6:38 Speaker 5: catalog of stuff we'd written over the years that really

6:41 Speaker 5: helped us kind of drive the early stuff. But you know,

6:45 Speaker 5: we meet up, you know, a few times a month

6:49 Speaker 5: generally writing and recording and rehearsing stuff.

6:53 Speaker 2: So yeah, no, that's great. And then what are your

6:58 Speaker 2: plans after this album?

7:00 Speaker 1: I mean, obviously, right now you're focused on promoting this,

7:02 Speaker 1: but I assume because it sounds like you've got a

7:04 Speaker 1: lot of things in the pipeline that you probably you know,

7:06 Speaker 1: a lot of music written that you haven't necessarily recorded yet.

7:09 Speaker 1: It sounds like you guys are always writing.

7:13 Speaker 5: We've got the label, so they records would would be

7:17 Speaker 5: really angry with us if we didn't mention it. We

7:18 Speaker 5: had single out yesterday called the Devil in Me, which

7:23 Speaker 5: that came out literally yesterday, so listeners are interested, they

7:26 Speaker 5: can look that up and they can find us on

7:28 Speaker 5: all popular streaming platforms.

7:31 Speaker 2: Oh is that not on You're of the Villain?

7:34 Speaker 3: No, this is a standalone single that we released literally yesterday.

7:39 Speaker 2: Oh, very interesting.

7:40 Speaker 1: Well, because we're going to play something obviously at the

7:43 Speaker 1: end of our conversation as well to bookend the segment,

7:46 Speaker 1: and maybe I will play that.

7:50 Speaker 3: Nice. That'd be greatly cool.

7:52 Speaker 2: Oh, it looks like you have a video for it too, good.

7:55 Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, yeah, so that was us. Yes, we filmed

7:58 Speaker 4: that down at You're near us in Portsmouth.

8:03 Speaker 2: Oh outstanding?

8:04 Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, it's so important, you know, and it's funny

8:07 Speaker 1: in America. I don't know if if you guys run

8:09 Speaker 1: into this over there at all, but there are some

8:11 Speaker 1: people in America who think. Usually it's people not active

8:14 Speaker 1: in the music industry in any way who are under

8:16 Speaker 1: this impression that because you know, MTV has gone away,

8:19 Speaker 1: and people think that there's no more music videos and

8:22 Speaker 1: they don't realize that actually, if you just go on YouTube,

8:24 Speaker 1: there's more music videos than ever.

8:26 Speaker 2: Everybody makes music videos now.

8:27 Speaker 1: It's really become such an essential thing in terms of

8:30 Speaker 1: promoting your music, especially when you have a new single

8:33 Speaker 1: and sharing that out on social media and all of that.

8:37 Speaker 5: Yeah, totally, And you know, I think the trend is

8:41 Speaker 5: actually people more people watching the music videos than streaming

8:45 Speaker 5: the music. You know, people want to they've got their

8:47 Speaker 5: phone in their hands and they're finding new music.

8:51 Speaker 3: It really helps to have a visual with it.

8:53 Speaker 2: Yeah. Absolutely.

8:54 Speaker 1: Now, what went into the decision to release a single

8:57 Speaker 1: outside of that's not on the album? Is there is

8:59 Speaker 1: there any particular strategy about it or was it just

9:01 Speaker 1: something you guys felt like doing.

9:04 Speaker 3: We'll have to talk to the label about that.

9:07 Speaker 2: Interesting, damn.

9:10 Speaker 5: He runs the label as I said, it's Soday Records,

9:12 Speaker 5: and he gives us a schedule.

9:16 Speaker 3: You know, he's very.

9:17 Speaker 5: Good to say, you know, he doesn't put too much

9:19 Speaker 5: pressure on us. He lets us release what we want,

9:21 Speaker 5: but he'll say we're going to have something coming out

9:25 Speaker 5: on the eighth of May, and then the next months

9:27 Speaker 5: on such and such a date.

9:28 Speaker 3: And we kind of worked towards that. Really, I think

9:31 Speaker 3: there was more an element that we were so excited

9:33 Speaker 3: about this particular track.

9:34 Speaker 6: Yeah, we've been very passionate about since we since we

9:39 Speaker 6: sort of created about six months ago, that we were

9:42 Speaker 6: just keen to get it out as soon as we could.

9:44 Speaker 3: Yeah, even just as a free standing single.

9:47 Speaker 1: No, that makes sense. That makes sense in terms of

9:49 Speaker 1: being on a label. Do you guys find it's uh?

9:53 Speaker 2: Is it easier?

9:54 Speaker 1: Does it kind of take that off of your plate?

9:56 Speaker 1: Because I know a lot of artists who don't want

9:58 Speaker 1: to be like some artists and function on a label

10:01 Speaker 1: because they have to be in control of every little thing.

10:04 Speaker 1: I talked to a lot of guests on the show

10:06 Speaker 1: who it's like they're so dialed into every little aspect

10:11 Speaker 1: of what they do that the idea of being on

10:13 Speaker 1: a label, you know, unless it was a major label

10:15 Speaker 1: that offered them a million dollar advance or something, which

10:17 Speaker 1: doesn't even happen anymore. But the idea of being on

10:19 Speaker 1: a label is so anathema to how they operate. But

10:22 Speaker 1: it sounds like for you guys, it's working really well.

10:26 Speaker 3: Yeah, I'd say so.

10:27 Speaker 5: I think it's really nice for us to be able

10:31 Speaker 5: to focus on the music and sounds very good at

10:33 Speaker 5: kind of holding our hand and particularly on the promotional

10:36 Speaker 5: side of stuff, just kind of leading us in the

10:38 Speaker 5: right direction. I think being an artist these days, you

10:43 Speaker 5: have to be everything you have to you know, be

10:45 Speaker 5: able to play the music, write the music, record the music,

10:48 Speaker 5: produce the music, produce content for the music, and it's

10:51 Speaker 5: it's a lot to kind of to handle. So for

10:55 Speaker 5: us it's nice to have some holding our hand on

10:58 Speaker 5: certain aspects of it.

11:00 Speaker 6: I think we have a lot of autonomy as well

11:02 Speaker 6: in terms of being able to produce the kind of

11:04 Speaker 6: music that we want to make.

11:06 Speaker 3: Yeah, for surely.

11:07 Speaker 2: Yeah.

11:08 Speaker 1: So he's obviously not trying to micromanage what your output is,

11:11 Speaker 1: just more what what happens to it when it's out right,

11:15 Speaker 1: And like.

11:16 Speaker 5: We come from a really a diy music background, you know,

11:19 Speaker 5: we are doing, you know, pretty much everything ourselves, which

11:23 Speaker 5: you know a lot of people are doing these days,

11:27 Speaker 5: and Sam just kind of gives us the freedom to

11:29 Speaker 5: be able to do that. I mean, he's never once

11:31 Speaker 5: said I'm not releasing that.

11:35 Speaker 2: That's excellent. That's excellent. By the way.

11:37 Speaker 1: So for the for the album You're of the Villain,

11:41 Speaker 1: I'm curious, is it you have physical Do you have

11:43 Speaker 1: physical copies of it as well?

11:46 Speaker 5: At the moment though, just just just just the digital

11:50 Speaker 5: you know, it's it's it's one of it's a difficult

11:52 Speaker 5: one because you know the cost of getting getting vinyl

11:56 Speaker 5: or CDs out there is pretty high. You know, it

11:59 Speaker 5: can be a high.

12:00 Speaker 3: Risk strategy for.

12:02 Speaker 5: Sorry, it's a pretty high risk strategy for kind of investment.

12:09 Speaker 3: Investment wise.

12:10 Speaker 5: We're kind of happy building our you know, our following

12:13 Speaker 5: and presence online, but definitely be interested in doing some

12:16 Speaker 5: some physical releases in the future.

12:18 Speaker 2: It would be wonderful to see that. You guys have

12:20 Speaker 2: probably thought of this too.

12:21 Speaker 1: It would be wonderful to see that artwork, which I

12:24 Speaker 1: just love so much from here The Villain on a

12:26 Speaker 1: on a big vinyl record, you know what I mean.

12:30 Speaker 2: But but it is very expensive to do that absolutely,

12:34 Speaker 2: absolutely great.

12:36 Speaker 1: Well, so, what uh, what should people know about where

12:39 Speaker 1: to find you guys online for people who want to

12:40 Speaker 1: keep up with everything that you're doing with all things

12:43 Speaker 1: Vivolos Villains.

12:45 Speaker 3: Yeah, so we're pretty.

12:46 Speaker 5: Busy on on Instagram and on on Facebook, Sam and

12:51 Speaker 5: the record label product of pushing it on TikTok YouTube.

12:58 Speaker 5: So yeah, mostly social media channels. You search for Villains

13:01 Speaker 5: on Google, you'll probably find us.

13:03 Speaker 1: Yeah, you're very googleable, certainly a word that I like

13:06 Speaker 1: to use, which is extremely important in the times that

13:11 Speaker 1: we live in. So very easy to find you. So

13:13 Speaker 1: I love it. I love the album again. I encourage

13:15 Speaker 1: everybody please go check out the album Viva Last Villain's

13:18 Speaker 1: Year of the Villain, And we are about to play

13:20 Speaker 1: the new single Devil and Me. We'll give that a

13:22 Speaker 1: spin as soon as we wrap up with you guys.

13:25 Speaker 1: Anything else we should know about this track Devil and Me?

13:28 Speaker 1: Is it kind of the same I mean, we'll hear

13:29 Speaker 1: it in a moment, but is it kind of the

13:31 Speaker 1: same vibe as the album or is this truly a

13:33 Speaker 1: separate piece.

13:35 Speaker 4: Yes, so it is a separate piece, but I think

13:39 Speaker 4: it's you know, it's pretty slightly more.

13:42 Speaker 3: I think it would fit a dance floor more than

13:44 Speaker 3: the album would.

13:45 Speaker 2: Interesting.

13:47 Speaker 4: Yeah, it's it's a bit more funky, but it's still rocking,

13:51 Speaker 4: still catchy.

13:52 Speaker 3: We were writing, we wrote it back in November.

13:54 Speaker 5: We had a kind of band away weekend writing weekend,

13:57 Speaker 5: and we started writing.

13:58 Speaker 3: Some came up with the chords and then.

14:01 Speaker 5: Someone said, do you know what this will sound amazing

14:03 Speaker 5: with a just go kind of on the floor beat

14:06 Speaker 5: on it, and we put it on the We all

14:07 Speaker 5: just went, yeah, that's it.

14:08 Speaker 3: That's fantastic.

14:09 Speaker 5: So yeah, it's it's it's kind of upbeat but still

14:12 Speaker 5: heavy and yeah, I hope you and your listeners like him.

14:16 Speaker 2: Matt Oh, very cool. I cannot wait to listen to this. Okay. So,

14:20 Speaker 2: by the way, has this been played anywhere on the radio?

14:23 Speaker 3: No?

14:24 Speaker 5: Literally, come out literally yesterday, so I'd be surprised.

14:27 Speaker 3: I think it's exclusive.

14:29 Speaker 1: So this is a world we love the World radio

14:31 Speaker 1: premieres here, so I get to use the world premiere bumper.

14:35 Speaker 2: So that's great. I love it.

14:38 Speaker 1: I love it well, guys, thank you all three of

14:41 Speaker 1: you for joining us here today, Johnny, Tom and Aaron.

14:44 Speaker 2: Wonderful to speak with you.

14:46 Speaker 1: We'll definitely do it again in the future, especially as

14:48 Speaker 1: you're releasing new music, because it sounds like you've got

14:49 Speaker 1: a lot of stuff coming up.

14:50 Speaker 2: So but yeah, like I said, I love the album.

14:54 Speaker 2: I encourage everyone to check it out.

14:56 Speaker 1: So we will let you guys go and we will

14:58 Speaker 1: hit this track, brand new Devil in Me, and guys,

15:02 Speaker 1: thank you again so much, thanks my pleasure.

15:06 Speaker 2: You got it, Take care, bye bye, cheers.

15:09 Speaker 1: All right, that is the guys from Viva Los Villains

15:12 Speaker 1: and right now this is spontaneous, but we're gonna do

15:17 Speaker 1: the world radio premiere of the brand new single from

15:19 Speaker 1: Viva Los Villains, Devil in Me.