Female Fronted Vextion Brings a Powerful Sound

Photo by Lizz Codner 

Comedian Daniel Tosh once told a joke that said “Being an ugly woman is like being a man: You're going to have to work.” In certain cases, that may be true. However, regardless of looks, women more often than not have to work harder than their male counterparts. Even still, though, it can be more difficult for a woman to gain the recognition they deserve, regardless of how hard they work.

If there is one place this holds true more than any, it's in the music industry, especially in rock and roll. When most people think of women involved in music, the image of a glits and glamor pop-star comes in to mind. In the 90's, Courtney Love did help to shed that image, but her fame was mostly related to her marriage to Kurt Cobain.

Fronted by Kate Ortiz, New Jersey band Vextion is defying the odds. Coming off of their debut at this year's Seaside Music Festival in Seaside Heights, NJ, Kate and bassist Max Orozco discuss what it's like being a female-fronted band and what it's like in the music scene.

Dolla Bil Facciponte: First of all, I have to ask, how was your first performance at the Seaside Music Fest?

Kate Ortiz: It was awesome! We had a big crowd. Everyone was having a good time and really seemed to enjoy the music. I think our crowd doubled from the time we started to the middle of our set.

DB: Were you excited?

Max Orozco: Of course! Seaside is my back yard so it's always fun to play there

KO: We've been wanting to play this for like two years and we finally got on so it's awesome.

DB: Did you guys do anything different for this show than you would any other?

KO: We did a couple covers. Usually we'll only do one. Plus Seaside usually has cover bands and there's going to be a lot of drinking.

MO: It was kind of my idea. People are going to be walking by on the boardwalk and hear something they hear on the radio and they'll want to come inside.

DB: That's a very good point. I want to talk briefly about other shows you've done. You've done a lot of charity shows such as the Move for Hunger Benefit, the Telethon for Muscular Dystrophy, and a show to raise awareness for Turner's Syndrome. Why do you guys get involved in these benefit shows?

KO: We try to help people with what we do. We're not rich and famous yet, so we can't write a check, so we try to do something to help out.

MO: Yeah, we're musicians so if we can help people with our music in any way, it's a good thing.

DB: Did you guys have any personal reasons for doing these shows?

KO: We really just want to try and help.

DB: That's very commendable. Now I want to talk about your album. You released “What I Am” last summer. How was the recording process? Did you guys have a lot of fun with it?

MO: It took forever.

KO: It was a lot of fun! I actually recorded it so it was also very stressful. While we were recording it, Max had just joined the band.

MO: Yeah, I joined and they were like “You're in the band now, now let's go record all these songs you barely know.

KO: Yeah, that sounds about right. I was really happy to be done. Recording your own band is weird and stressful and you start to hate your own songs because you hear them in practice everyday, you hear them when you're recording them and then when you're mixing them and it will drive you a little insane. But, I was really happy to finally accomplish that CD.

DB: Max, how nerve racking was it for you to jump into the band and then all of a sudden you're in the studio recording?

MO: I'm pretty awesome so it wasn't that bad. But it was interesting. I've never been thrown into a situation like that. It all worked out for the best and I'm very happy with the album.

DB: Do you guys have plans to do more recording any time soon?

KO: We do. We're actually doing some scratch recording for our second CD right now. We're taking our time with this one because the last one got rushed out because we just needed something to offer so we're taking our time, getting everything perfect and then we're going to do the real recording and have an amazing sounding second CD. Hopefully we'll have another CD out by next summer. We really want to take our time with it and make it perfect because we had to rush the first one a bit more than I would have liked just so we could have something for the fans. I think we'll definitely release a single or two in the meantime, maybe in the next few months.

DB: I'm sure it helps that you guys have had some more time together to mesh as a band and figure out who plays what kind of styles and the capabilities of everyone. Now you can put a lot more collaborative effort into it.

KO: Yeah, it's going to be a lot better. When we started recording the drums, Bob was pretty new to the band. Now we know what we're playing and what everyone else [in the band] is playing so we can put it together and make it sound like one piece.

MO: Exactly. The difference between the new recordings and the ones that are out is that we wrote these songs together as opposed to just learning someone's part.

DB: Well you talk about Bob and Max being new to the band when you first recorded. All of you came from different bands and have been playing for the past five to 10 years. How did you all find each other?

KO: All different ways. I met George when we played a show together and he was with his old band and he found out we were looking for a second guitarist and a drummer. Bob actually found us on MySpace, yeah, that long ago and we also had an ad on Craigslist which he found so we tried him out and he worked really well.

MO: I found them on Craigslist.

DB: For anybody trying to come up in the music scene, it's challenging. Do you feel it's harder being a female-fronted band?

KO: Sometimes. It depends on the crowd. More times then not, they're really accepting. As long as you play good music, they're going to listen. I think every once in a while we'll get that one jerk who discriminates against us or says inappropriate things because I'm a girl, but it's not too hard to shut them up.

Photo by Lizz Codner

DB: I just heard this the other day and I really wanted to get your input on it. Halestorm is the first female fronted band to be number one on the rock charts. do you think this is going to help you guys as far as gaining credibility and respect?

KO: First off. That's really surprising that they're the first. There have been so many great female fronted bands over the years. Great for them though! As far as respect and credibility...Maybe it'll help. But honestly we haven't ran into to many road blocks with the band being female fronted. I think maybe there might be some people who will make assumptions because I'm a girl before we play...but I think we show them what's up once we hit the stage! People seems to really respond well to our sound and our energy.

DB: What would you consider the best show you ever did?

MO: This is actually funny. A family member of mine teaches middle school in Barnegat. They just did really well on their standardized tests so they asked if we'd come play. I didn't think anything of it so I made some calls and got everyone on board. So we played in the gym of this middle school and it was ridiculous.

KO: Yeah, we got to play two sets. We did one for the sixth and eighth graders, which was probably about 300 kids. Then we played for the seventh graders and that was probably another 200 kids and they went insane for us! If you had seen that, you would've thought we were the biggest band in the world. It was awesome. I don't think we've ever had a more receptive show. One girl looked like she was going to cry when I high-fived her.

DB: Is music your number one passion and if so, has it always been?

KO: For me, yes. For as long as I can remember, I always played the cheesy, cheap musical instruments, or at least tried to, and I knew I always wanted to play music.

MO: I've always loved music. I think my first memory of music is “Achey-Breaky Heart” in the back of my moms crappy Pontiac. I've just always been a fan of music. I started off with just radio hits and then I discovered rock music and thought it was awesome. Then I discovered metal and thought it was awesome. Then I discovered hip-hop and I was opened up to a whole new world.

DB: It kind of shows in your songs. You hear all the different influences from pop to rock to heavy metal. Is that everybody's collective influences?

KO: Yeah, I don't think any of us have the same taste in music in this band. There's a few bands here and there we agree on but as a whole, our tastes are opposite sides of the spectrum.

DB: I almost hate to ask the question, but out of personal curiosity, I have to know. What's the meaning behind the name?

KO: I just kind of came up with it. I've been in other bands before and the names have been just really generic. So when you go to look them up, there's 40 other bands with the same name and I just didn't want to do that again. I wanted something interesting that no one else would have. It's like the way I come up with songs, it kind of just happened.

MO: My personal favorite thing about the name is it's not a word. So if you type “Vextion” in a search engine, we're the first thing that pops up.

KO: People pay thousands of dollars for that privilege but we got it just by being weirdo's.

DB: Do you have any advice for anyone trying to make it in the music scene?

KO: Networking is the most important thing in the entire world. You could be the best band in the world but if you don't work with other people, you're going to be stuck in the same spot forever. And don't get discouraged. I've played awful shows where people didn't like us or we played to one person who was a relative in the middle of the dance floor and that was it. You have to play those crappy shows to get to the really good ones. It's a right of passage.

DB: Very well said. Thank you very much and I wish you the best of luck!

KO: Thank you!

Photo by Lizz Codner

A Criminal Risk: Finally a Real Band

It isn’t too often that a band will stick with all original members their entire career. When that does happen, many times, it’s a short-lived career. Band members will come and go, but the will to move on is what fans often respect.

A Criminal Risk made their name as a punk rock trio from Toms River, NJ. However, as people grow, so does their style. Now working towards a four-piece band, ACR says they finally feel like a real band. They also realize that sometimes, people are just living to die and the only certainties in life, as they say, are death and Batman.

Dolla Bil Facciponte: Right off the bat, you guys are currently going through a lineup change. You’ve recently been working with a new bassist.  How’s he working out?

Tom Kunzman: Awesome. He’s doing good.  He’s actually an old friend of mine from my first band where he played bass. We kind of lost touch for a while and I realized recently he wasn’t playing with anyone so he was one of the first people I thought to call.  I didn’t know how Joe was going to feel about him but the second he came over and right off the bat it was really comfortable.

DB: Well aside from him, you’ve also added a second guitarist, right?

TK: Yeah, we’re going to add a fourth member. The three-piece thing is cool. I personally love it. The majority of all my favorite bands are three pieces and the bands we mostly agree on are three pieces. When you see a three piece band pull off such an amazing sound on stage we think if they can do that, so can we. Plus, there’s less minds clashing so it’s easier to work as a three piece.

Joe Appolonia: The night we got the guitar player, Tom texted me and asked how I felt about a fourth member. I said yes and he was shocked because I’m also into three-piece bands a lot.

DB: Is it weird having a fourth member now?

TK: It feels better. He stopped by and jammed with us one weekend and he already knew the songs because he already had the album. So he just said tell me which ones we’re playing, I already know him.

JA: Yeah, he was already adding his own stuff to the songs. Even with past experiences I’ve had, people come over and what they write is terrible and you have a hard time saying it, but he came over and played stuff and I was blown away.

DB: It has to be cool that he just comes in and meshed with you guys so easily.

TK: Yeah, that’s the thing. He’s got a very open mind. He’s been in tons of different styles of bands, but that influence makes it more listener friendly, I think.

DB: Let’s talk about the original formation of the band. How did A Criminal Risk first come together?

TK: I was just coming out of a band with our first drummer. Our old band had more of a pop side to it. I had all these ideas that I wanted to write that I couldn’t put in those bands.  So we wanted to do something more aggressive, a little more real and not so over-polished. Then our old bassist was looking for a band so he joined with us and that was that.  We weren’t as busy then as we are now. I feel like we were waiting for the lineup we had now.

JA: Yeah, I’ve been in this band for about three years now and I haven’t had as much fun as I’m having now. We haven’t even played a show with the new guys yet and I’m already having a better time then I’ve had in a long time.

DB: You recently released your album “The Art of Dropping Names.” How was putting the album together?

TK: Awesome. It’s hard to explain how excited I was to get that CD out. A piece of it was already recorded and we weren’t happy with it at all.  So we went back and re-did some of the older ones. Then we did the rest of the songs that people had been hearing live for years that we never got to record. 

JA: Tom was so stoked to be putting the album out. At first, I didn’t really think much of it. Once it came out, I just thought this is great.

TK: Actually, we didn’t even know it came out. Someone called me and was made that we didn’t let them know our album was on iTunes. I was excited and it came out two weeks before the tour so it was perfect timing. 

DB: You guys released that album with a former lineup. Now that the lineup has changed, do you think the sound is going to change at all?

TK: Honestly, no.  The music is still the same. It’s just as busy. Guitar-wise, it’s not all my ideas. As far as the bass player goes, I like them to have their own freedom and do what they think fits. Then they’ll feel more relaxed which is exactly how they should feel. I guess our new sound isn’t what you’d expect, but it’s not the opposite of ACR.

JA: It’s also cool to have somebody else in the band that can actually sing now. He does harmonies, but it’s in a good way.

DB: So you guys are relatively young. Not many people are going to get to go on tour at a young age like you have. What kind of feeling is that?

JA: It was weird for me because I’m the youngest. The first tour was really weird because I should have been a senior in high school but I dropped out to go on tour. All my friends were graduating and wondering what they were going to do and I’m about to get in a van and go to Chicago.

TK: The last tour was kind of weird for me.

DB: Well that was also your album release tour, wasn’t it?

TK: Yeah and what was cool about it was another band was touring for their album as well. And then the headlining band, Freshman Fifteen, was touring for their single, “Anywhere but here.” Like I said though, it was a little weird only in a sense of we’re nobody at all and these guys wanted us to go on tour with them. They had another band in mind but we sent them a copy of our single “65” and when they heard that they wanted us, so that was a good feeling.

DB: You guys have been doing this music thing for a little while now. What have you learned the most?

TK: I learned how much I love the style of music I play. My first band was similar to what we do now but then I ventured out into some heavier stuff. That stuff got old quick so I got back into this style and realized this is what I love to do.

JA: I’ve learned to enjoy it all and take it all while it comes. At first all I wanted to do was just go on tour. So we got calls for tour and we were excited. Tom was the one that kept us in check and its good to have that realist in the group.

TK: Another big lesson was the cliché of when the going gets tough, the tough get going. We had $1200 worth of van troubles on tour once and we had no money. Then we had all of our regular expenses so it got tough.

DB: You guys always show your passion and how much fun you have playing music. There’s an awful scenario where bands will say this is their life plan and it doesn’t work out. What if that happens to you?

JA: Well Tom and I met at school for audio engineering while we were still in high school. After I dropped out to go on tour, I paid to go back to that class. When I got done with it I thought this was cool for a back up plan. But this is what we love, and we won’t get sick of it.

TK: That’s a tough question to answer. You never really know when it’s done. There have been times, like with our most recent situation, where I questioned if Joe and I should just start over. Even then, anything we’d ever write would be the same thing because it’s just who we are.

DB: Since you guys are living out your dream, what advice do you have for anyone else?

TK: Whatever you’re doing, just do it cause you mean it. Anything you do, say it from your heart and mind because people can tell when you’re lying, especially people who care. If you love something, you won’t get sick of it.

JA: Enjoy it. Take every day as it comes and have fun.