Interview With Davy Vain 

It’s a rare event when support acts make a lasting impression. 16 years on people still recall Vain giving Skid Row a lesson in R‘N’R, not any easy thing, as they were pretty good too! It echoes the generation before when Van Halen, blew Sabbath away. But when Skid Row employed Vain on their late 80’s European tour, they didn’t realise that there would only be one winner. Vain blew Skid Row off the stage. Vain went on to headline concerts in Japan and gather a relatively decent fan basis. They continued to release two more successful albums in the 90’s. Though Vain have been ‘Laying Low’ for the last decade they were back in the UK after 16 years.

Can you believe it’s been 16 years since you last came to the UK? Does it seem that long ago?

 Well I've been back myself hanging out but I mean it's been great. We did a show the other night and it was amazing you know.

Your first time in the UK was when you supported Skid Row. How was Seb Bach as a person?

 He seemed like a cool guy but it was so long ago. What was cool about him too was he was as pretty as a girl.

Why have you decided now to get the original line-up back together?

 We didn't really get the original line-up back together. It wasn't a reunion, me, Louie, Ash and Jamie have been playing together for years still doing all the work and we had another guitar player whilst Danny was doing some other stuff. So I was just producing some of his solo stuff and we were working together in the studio and we didn't have a guitar player at that time so I was doing a lot of guitar and we was working on some songs and he goes, 'Hey I'd love to come come down and jam'. So I said, 'Go ahead that sounds like fun'. So he came down and jammed and then we started jamming and I go 'Hey lets do some shows and all of a sudden the European tour came down and it was just like a complete coincidence it wasn't like we'll have a tour so lets get the original line up.  

Is it hard to put together a set list these days to accommodate old and new material whilst keeping yourself and your fans happy?

 It's almost impossible. What we do is we have everybody write down all the songs in the band and then everybody in the band gets to choose one song that they definitely don't feel like playing and that helps it. Then we just fight it out for about a week straight. then we learn the songs that everybody wants and then we narrow it down by the ones that sound the most vibrant, the most fresh.

Talking about new material, what can people expect from Vain's new album ‘On The Line’ ?

 Erm...I think it's heavier than our last album. It's real high-energy. I think it sounds a little like the connection between our debut album, 'No Respect' and where we have been going musically for the last few years.

Why is it called ‘On The Line’?

There is one song on the album called 'On The Line' and perhaps sort of like our reputation of being new vital artists is always sort of on the line so we thought it sounded cool too!

What do you think is more important these days? Keeping the old fans or trying to attract the new ones?

 I think to keep ourselves excited and just stick with the same principles that we've always had making music and I think that everybody will just like it because that is what we've always done, we've always tried to please ourselves because we are ROCK fans and it seems that people have always dug that! 

If you could put one Vain song in a vault labelled “Songs That Suck”, which song would it be?  

Oh God! That would be impossible. They all mean something different to me. I don't know if it would necessarily be you know the song or the vocal performance that I'd care about. I think it might not be a fast song. I think it would be a slow kinda more dreamy kind of Vain song I'd have to pick from. I think it would be 'Smoke In The Shadows' or 'Electric' or a song from the new record. I think it would be something really sexy, something really slow and dreamy.

 There was follow up album to ‘No Respect’ titled ‘All Those Strangers’ which was never officially released, are there any plans to have it officially released?  

We're gonna try. We're definitely gonna try and we're gonna try when we get back. I mean we have been working on it, so hopefully.

 What scares you about aging? Looking old or decreasing performance?  

R'N'R is kind of a young man's game. I sort of look at it like a sport. At least I'll always be able to play music for my whole life. It's like sports so you've gotta look at it like it could be your last season out there like in soccer 'coz the way I perform I just have to go for it. So I'm not really scared I just have to go and do it. You know everybody gets older so I just look at Lemmy and that gives me hope! He's just got a Grammy you know! 

If you could get in the ring with anyone in the music industry, who would it be and why?

Kylie Minogue but I wouldn't beat her up I'd just make out with her.  

Where do you see yourself ten years from now?

 Preparing for five years ahead to the next British tour, no I'm kidding. Still doing music, I've just been doing it my whole life and I've never stopped and it's not like Vain's having a reunion or anything. I've just never not been in a band since I was a teenager. I figure in ten years from now I'll probably be in some studio doing some music or sitting around on a holiday with an acoustic guitar and somebody'll go 'Turn that crap down' and hopefully there won't be people yelling 'you didn't play 'No Respect!' you wanker!'  

Is there a message you would like to give to your fans?

We appreciate all the love from the UK and we've always been proud of the UK fans digging us that much. I think they have a bit better taste than the American's. So the fact that they have dug us so much over the years we're really proud of, and you know like Hendrix broke here first. So our message is we hope you like what we are doing 'coz we've put a lot of work and a lot of love into it.  We don't just do it to make a quick buck or something like that. We do it 'coz it's art to us and we just want to make the best ROCK music we can.

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