VERA CRUZ INTERVIEW
Monday, July 12th, 2010
Vera Cruz hail from Paris, France and play a lethal mix or face-melting, melodic, high-energy, fun yet ballsy hardcore. They’ve just come off of a 20-date tour of USA and will be touring with Terror and Everyime I Die on the next European Hell on Earth tour. These guys have big dreams and it looks like nothings gonna stop them from taking Vera Cruz to the ends of the earth. We spoke to guitarist Florian about the bands beginnings and their hopes for the future…
Have the members of Vera Cruz been in any other bands before?
Yes we have. Flavien (the singer) and I (Florian, guitarist) come from two different bands that have followed a similar path. It was something like 10 years ago. Greg (bass) and Deedoo (drums) were actually in the same band when they were asked to join forces in Vera Cruz. We won’t mention the names of the bands on purpose ‘cos we feel like what really matters now is Vera Cruz, but we do realise that it might be important for people that don’t know us to get an idea of where we come from so let’s say that we come from various horizons that cover music styles from punk rock to metalcore.
What bands are you guys into?
Well, like I said before, we have heterogeneous tastes so if you were to take a road trip with us, you could hear our stereo blast stuff like Every Time I Die, Norma Jean, Cancer Bats, Lamb Of God, Terror, Hatebreed, Mastodon, The Chariot, Underoath, Deftones and when everyone is asleep, I would sneak in some MXPX and some Guttermouth or even better, some Hank Williams III, haha.
What inspired you to start Vera Cruz?
Everything that happened in our former bands, whether it was good or very bad, made us stronger but didn’t fulfill our craving for action and we felt like we wanted more. More concerts, more sweat, more traveling, more back pains from sleeping in trucks, more broken voices, more calluses and more people to touch. Thus, we decided to take it up a notch and form Vera Cruz, a band that would only contain über-motivated members, ready to give everything they have for the sake of good music. We also didn’t want to repeat the same mistakes, and wanted to explore paths we’ve never taken before.
What is it like being a hardcore punk band in Paris? What’s the “scene” like there at the moment?
Paris is a big city so the scene is pretty good in any kind of genre! Speaking for the hardcore scene it’s very lively and the bands are damn good and really serious. It’s also very competitive so it can be a little tough sometimes but the message we want to spread is that we really wish our peers the best and we mean it! More and more very talented bands are bringing the spotlight to France so it’s getting easier to get noticed, it’s just too bad that our beloved country is just the worst to be a hardcore musician in and that’s why we have to leave it every time we need to tour.
How long has Vera Cruz been a band and how is it going so far? You’ve got some seriously awesome tours lined up so you must be pretty excited?
Vera Cruz has been Vera Cruz for something like not even two years and I know it seems like a very short time considering the incredible tours we are bound to attend but we have worked our butts off for this and sometimes that pays off. We still have everything to prove and we want to show that we’re worthy of what’s happening to us, we will never take it for granted and on behalf of all the talented bands that could have been in our shoes, we will give everything we have and we’ll rock our hearts out proving we deserve to be where we are. Tour wise, we have the US Tour on one hand and on the other we have the Hell On Earth Tour: 24 gigs with our favorite bands Terror and Every Time I Die all across Europe! Seven bands on the bill and yours truly as the opening act, it’s gonna be legen… wait for it: dary! We still can’t believe it. When our management told us that we would do this tour, we almost cried and we asked to see the emails to get some written proof that all of this was true then a couple of days later we saw our logo was already on the poster of the tour so there was no turning back, haha!
Vera Cruz “The Game” from mcfarlandandpecci.com on Vimeo.
What brands and companies have you guys teamed up with and how important is it for you guys to have these people supporting you?
The first companies we have teamed with were Schecter Guitars and Killer. All a musician can need: gear and clothes! It is very important for us to feel supported and working with the brands we love is a blessing but it’s also very important that we have a good feeling about the people working in these companies and we like to keep good relationships with them. I must say, we work with fantastic people and we will never thank them enough for the help they’ve all provided. I don’t want it to sound like a commercial but these companies are worth the little promo we can provide here in this interview and you should all check out Schecter guitars, Ernie Ball strings, ProMark drum sticks and Dunlop for the gear and of course Killer for the threads! We work with Trashmark for our merchandising and they’ve been the kindest and über-professional.
Do you guys have any particular philosophy or mission as a band? What do you think is the most important thing to remember when you’re in a punk rock hardcore band touring the world?
If we had any mission, I think it would be to make people happy and to make them feel good feelings. As a kid, I’ve always wanted a band to entertain me and to bring me somewhere safe and away from all the dirt of this world so I think we expect to do that with Vera Cruz. Our philosophy is not to take anything for granted and to always work harder and harder to provide the best music we can.
Check out Vera Cruz and their first EP “Surviving Farrah Fawcett“ over here:
