Vega

Rocking with VEGA

Anarchy and Unity In These Pandemic Days

Interview by Ken Morton

Vega from the UK has been busy in the midst of these pandemnic days. First releasing Grit Your Teeth at the very onset of the Covid-19 era when touring would not be possible, the lads in Vega decided to keep recording and creating, with the results being the amazing songs found within Anarchy and Unity. Now available worldwide via Frontiers Music Srl, Anarchy and Unity presents Vega in their finest hour, unveiling melodic rock tapestries to keep us all company as the Covid variants rage on. Highwire Daze recently interviewed lead vocalist Nick Workman to find out more about how Vega is rocking our world in these turbulant times!

First of all, congratulations for having not one, but two albums out in the middle of a crazy pandemic. That’s awesome.

Right. Yeah, a bit cocky, isn’t it? But it wasn’t intended that way.

So let’s talk about the new one first. Is there any overall story or concept behind that title, Anarchy and unity?

Yeah, it’s kind of ironic, really, because lyrically, the album isn’t really COVID-related whatsoever. Because it was obviously written and compiled during COVID times, it just made sense. Originally, I had the idea of calling it Anarchy. Because literally not even because of COVID but because I had this idea of the Vega logo with the anarchy “A” at the end of it. Yeah, it was like a great idea. Literally the idea of recording the album there. But then obviously, COVID got worse and worse, really, didn’t it? But then there were certain things that sort of unified people together. And the album concept and the cover concept came together with the hand. Well, it was going to come together and we

couldn’t really get it to look any good just as Anarchy. We couldn’t find a cover that we’re happy with. And that’s why I said, “Well, look, I googled symbols for unity.”

And originally I wanted the album cover not even to have Anarchy and Unity written on it. So the clenched fist is a sign, is the symbol for unity. So with the Anarchy “A” and just the Unity clenched fist, that was the album title for me. But obviously, some people say, “Yeah, you got to have it written down there as well. Most people won’t put two and two together.” So that was it. It wasn’t really about the COVID thing although it came together with the positive side of things where people became more unified about how to behave, and what to do.

What was it like to record this album in the middle of a pandemic, and all the social unrest in the world? And thought I would throw social unrest there...

Yeah, you know what? I think with the social unrest, if you went looking for it, you’d find it. But for the most part, especially here in the UK, people would stuck to it, they wore the masks when they’re supposed to be. You had the odd dickhead who didn’t, but you’re always going to come across that. But with recording the album, we all kind of recorded our own bits in our own studios. But when it came to the vocals, having previously recorded vocals myself on the Only Human album, it was the most painful experience of my life to do it on your own, because you’re so anal about every single word, syllable, everything like that. So I did my vocals for the most part at Pete’s studio. And that was a lot of sort of a bear experience, because you’ve got someone else saying, “No, mate. Seriously, that’s absolutely fine. You don’t need to do it three more times!”

So the recording of the album and it was kind of easy. We just did it at home in our pants, basically. And that’s the English grammar where pants are underpants, not the American for pants, which would be normal.

Let’s talk about a few of the songs on the album. And I’m probably going to stick with the singles. First of all, Beautiful Lie. Tell me about that song and the inspiration behind it.

It’s about just being honest with yourself, where you’re going and where you want to go. And there’s a line in verse one “where you land this where you stand when you take a leap of faith.” And I think that’s one of Jim’s favorite lines on the album. And that literally is just about… look, “whatever you do, wherever you are, you’re the only one to blame. Don’t blame anyone else for things that you don’t do, or things that you do. You’ve got to take responsibility for the own risks that you take and the risks that you don’t take,” really. And that kind of formed the basis of the song and Beautiful Lie.

I’m very much one of those not having any regrets. But I’m also sensible with what I do. I’m realistic with what I do. But you can have dreams, can’t you? Without feeling like you’ve missed out on something. Because yeah, as a kid growing up when I first discovered rock music, obviously, I had dreams of being a millionaire and all this sort of materialistic side of things. But then you start to realize as you grow up, those would be awesome. But having done music as a job, before it’s no fun when you’re depending on music to pay your mortgage because suddenly it’s not fun anymore. Suddenly it’s a necessity.

Sooner or Later, let’s talk about that song. We all come across idiots in our lives. They talk the talk, but don’t walk the walk. And it is really is about how karma will catch up with you at some point. I mean, there’s a couple on the album that have that kind of theme running through it. Because I think if you look COVID wise, whichever political standpoint you come from, I don’t think any particular country could say that their world leader has represented themselves or their country particularly well.

And really, Karma is a bitch, and it will catch up with people in the end. And that’s essentially Sooner or Later. But the problem is when you write lyrics. Well, for

me, when I write lyrics, I kind of have this mini-movie in my head. So although, I can say that about the song, there’s also a positive theme running through it. Once again, “Sooner or later, we all back down, we all realized sooner or later, lovers and haters will sacrifice”. It’s still about taking a risk, it’s still about the fact that you never get something for nothing. There’s always something has to be done to get somewhere. There are the lucky people who seem to get good fortune handed to them on a silver platter. And that pisses us all off, doesn’t it? Let’s face it.

But it’s kind of like that. So the problem is, yeah, sometimes I have multiple themes running through my head when I write a song. So there might be the odd sort of an album where you might pinpoint it out and say, “What’s that about?” I say, “I have no idea, mate.” It just sounded good at the time. (Much laughter)

The previous Vega album Grit Your Teeth was released in 2020 the pandemic. How did it feel to have new music out to the fans during that particular time?

You know what? It would have hurt a lot more had we not done the new album Anarchy and Unity, because if Grit Your Teeth had been the album that we’re about to go and promote. It’d be like, “Oh, man, that album is so old now to us.” So it was frustrating, obviously, at the time, because like everybody else, we had to cancel everything. Because we were all in the same position, it was an even playing field. So it’s not like someone was getting a foothold over us or anything like that. It was kind of one of those things that you just had to shrug your shoulders and just accept it for what it is. And it’s a moment in history, it’s a moment in time. And when you have people dropping dead around you from all these diseases from COVID especially, you can’t really bitch and moan about it in all fairness. So we got over it very quickly.

Has Vega ever played here in the States? Or would you like to in future days?

No. We would love to. Absolutely love to. I guess the biggest problem is, though, is no one can afford to sort of lose money. But for us to be able to play at the States, we need a promoter to say, “Your expenses are covered. Here’s your plane ticket. we’ve got hotel. You’ve got food, and you booked.” Because that’s essentially, if we do a gig in Europe, depending on the size of the festival, sometimes you get all your flights or your travel covered, you get your hotel, etc. And here’s your fee. But then somewhere where we haven’t played before, like the States, it’s not like we’d be chasing a big fee. We’d be saying, “Look, we obviously want to break new territory. As long as we don’t come away having to sort of like make the family not eat for a month.” Because this is the other thing, we’re all at an age where we’ve all got family and kids. As a young band in their late teens, early 20s probably still live at home with mom and dad. They don’t care really. They can take as many risks as they like, but we’ve kind of passed that stage, unfortunately.

What’s the best and worst part about playing in a band with two brothers? And you’ve been doing that for like, 10 years now.

Yeah, well, the thing is before Vega, I was also in a band called Kick. And there were two brothers in that band as well. So I’m very used to working with brothers, but twins are a different scenario. Because yeah, I’ll be honest with you, the first 5 years of Vega, excuse my French but they were a fucking nightmare. They really were. Oh my god. We used to have this joke, because I would sometimes say to like them, “God, you guys just made me want to find God.” Because I’ll just be looking for an answer for their behavior. So sometimes when they piss me off now, they’re like, “Oh, God, Nick, please don’t go looking for God.” It’s bad if I say to them, I need to find God. It’s not that I’m a religious person, it was just a oh, God! But since they both got married, and they both got kids and families, yeah, they’re different blokes now.

But they still have the stories. Oh, my God, they have the stories. As twins, they have some stories that legal-

ly, they probably shouldn’t share with people. I’ll leave it there. (Much laughter)

What do you hope that the rest of 2021 and 2022 brings for you and for Vega?

COVID free touring. We know we got COVID to deal with. Touring Europe now because of Brexit is a nightmare for us. It really is a nightmare. But if everything goes to plan, yeah, we just got lots of touring to do and lots of catching up to do with people. So you can’t really talk about record sales anymore, because streaming has kind of destroyed that. So I think you know what? I’ve always said to people, that the currency for being in Vega is enjoyment. And we all completely stand by that. So I just want to still be loving what I do, because the six of us in this band are so passionate about it. But as long as you’ve got that, it doesn’t matter if you’re not raking in the money. If you’re enjoying it, what more can you ask for?

Do you have any messages for your fans out here in the States who are reading this right now?

Let me say that firstly, does anyone have a spare bag of cash so that we can come over and play live for you? Yeah. You know what? Break in America is one of those things that everyone wants to do. But your country is just so big. You can’t even begin to think about it. So all I would ask our American fans and friends to do is share Vega with people because I think we’re the kind of music that we’re undiscovered and if people put on a Vega song, and play it to someone, they love it. Because our music is filled with all the classic elements of your Bon Jovi’s, your Def Leppard’s, your Whitesnake’s, your Guns N’ Roses. Yeah, that’s all the ingredients of what we make. So there’s going to be something in the Vega music that you like and that your friends are going to like.

So please just share the name and the music far and wide. Download it illegally for all I care. Just share it.

https://www.vegaofficial.co.uk/

Promoting the all new full length album, "Down In Wuhan" out August 28, 2021. World-wide on all major platforms

Wed. Feb 16. 2022 8:30 PM WHISKY A GO GO

( with GRINDER BLUES, Featuring dug Pinnick of KXM and King's X.)