Live-Metal.Net - Interviews: Vains of Jenna

That’s right, a “fuck you” and a “fuck her, too.” If those lyrics sound familiar it’s because they belong to the hit Cee Lo Green song, one of many songs, new and old, that Swedish sleaze rock band Vains of Jenna covers on its new release, Reverse Tripped (April 5, 2011, Cleopatra Records).

Vains of Jenna is no stranger to LiveMetalNet. In our early days, they were one of the first bands we formed a real relationship with. According to drummer Jacki Stone, he did his first real interviews with our site back in 2007, first with the release of their debut album, Lit Up/Let Down, and then while opening a U.S. summer tour with Poison and Ratt. How about that?

Even though the band relocated to sunny Los Angeles, Calif., some time ago, life hasn’t been all guns ’n’ roses for the up-and-coming band. They still are searching for a permanent record label for a future release, and in March 2010, vocalist Lizzy DeVine left the band for personal reasons. But Vains of Jenna wasn't going to go away without a fight. They quickly recruited their friend Jesse Forte as their new vocalist, re-recorded some older tunes with him and released new music.

Now, with the release of Reverse Tripped about a month away and “Fuck You,” having leaked to YouTube and other sites, receiving a great response, LiveMetalNet’s Jeff Maki talked with an old friend,Vains of Jenna drummer, Jacki Stone. Jacki tells us all about the new release and the new singer, and talks about the struggle of bands in this day and age.

LiveMetalNet: Hi Jacki. You guys were one of the early bands that kind of reached out to us, so I feel that it’s kind of important to stay in touch with bands from our early goings.

Jacki Stone: Yeah, actually, I think my first real interview was back with you guys back in 2006, then in 2007 with the Poison tour and stuff.

Yeah man, cool. There’s, of course, a lot to talk about with you guys. The first big thing is that you have a new singer since we’ve last spoken. Tell us a little bit of what happened with Lizzy and everything, and how you found your new guy.

There was no hard feelings or any fights or anything like that with Lizzy. He just thought that he couldn’t do it anymore. There was a lot of hard work in his life, being in a band and being on the road and stuff, and going back and forth from the U.S. and Europe all the time. So he felt like he couldn’t give it 110 percent anymore, so he had to quit.

And basically we had tour dates in Europe at that time already booked, so we wanted to continue with the band without having to wait for a couple of months. So we set it up on MySpace and Facebook and Twitter where people could send in their clips about themselves and wanted to try out for us as our singer. And we got a lot of responses on that, but we found Jesse pretty much around the corner. He had played with a band (Cast of Kings) that opened up for us a couple years back and had been playing around the strip and stuff, so he knew about the band. And I had been in contact with him, and he was the only one that tried out. He had a rehearsal with us, and it felt good from the beginning.

From there on, to a year after that, we had tours in Europe, shows here in the States and have gone to Brazil and Argentina, and it’s going good. It feels great to have him in the band—he’s a great fucking singer and it’s awesome.

I don’t really know. I talked to him, maybe a couple of times after he quit the band. But he’s doing his stuff, living his life with his girlfriend. And we’re doing our stuff, so there’s not really enough time to do more than what we do with the band right now. I don’t know, we’ll see. Maybe one day he’ll do something. But we will for sure put more stuff out and keep on touring.

Obviously, the loss of a band member, particularly a vocalist can be a huge blow for band. When this all first happened ,was there any ever doubts that you guys were gonna continue? Did you think about disbanding, renaming the band or was there any doubts whatsoever?

Actually, there was nothing like that, really. We wanted to continue playing and go on with Vains of Jenna. Of course, it’s been an up and down roller-coaster, pretty much. Like you said, you lose a singer, that’s a pretty big thing. That’s the face of the band. But there was no doubt in our minds that we wanted to continue playing, doing more tours and recording more albums. So not really. There’s the ups and downs, and there’s the haters out there, but there’s always people that really like it. And I think it’s going for the better more and more, the more time we spend with Jesse.

How do the styles differ between Lizzy and Jesse? And how did you know he was your guy? What was the main factor there?

Jesse has such a big vocal range—he can sing pretty much everything. He can sing blues, straight-up rock ‘n’ roll, pop songs. There’s nothing that he can’t do, really. When he tried out, we played some of our songs, like “Enemy in Me” and “Mind Pollution,” and he nailed it in the first rehearsal, so right there we were like, “Oh, this guy can really fucking do it.” And as time has gone on, as we are writing new music, we can experiment so much more with different styles and different vocal things because he’s such a great singer. He’s got such a huge range in his voice and can sing whatever, so that’s pretty much how we decided. And he’s such a sweetheart, too [laughs]. He’s just a really nice guy, and it’s always important to have the chemistry.

Yeah, the album coming out is called Reverse Tripped. It’s a covers album that we did with Cleopatra as the label. Our first single is going to be our version of Cee-Lo Green’s hit, the “Fuck You” song, and that one is also on a compilation, Valentine's Day Collection for the Broken Hearted (Jan. 1, 2011, Goldenlane Records).

But yeah, the album is called Reverse Tripped. It’s gonna be out on iTunes and stores on April 5. And the “Fuck You” song has already leaked on YouTube and stuff like that. We’re really looking forward to it. Like I said, it’s a covers album, but it’s got a lot of good stuff on there, like classic rock ‘n’ roll and some new stuff like the “Fuck You” song. We’re also working on new material, but we’re gonna go out and tour on this album as much as we can. But I also can’t wait to go into the studio one more time, maybe with the producer that we had for Reverse Tripped, Adam Hamilton. He’s an amazing producer and great guy to work with, so that would be awesome, too.

We got The Beatles, Simon & Garfunkel, The Zombies, The Mamas & the Papas, Elton John, Deep Purple—all that good ole classic rock stuff. We’re doing “Wish You Were Here” from Pink Floyd, “Sound of Silence” from Simon & Garfunkel, “California Dreamin’” from The Mamas & the Papas … So there’s a lot of cool songs on there, man.

Now I’ve always kind of wondered, when you’re doing covers of the bands, how does that work? Do you have to ask permission? Is it just a matter of making a phone call? Write out checks? How exactly does that work when you’re essentially recording someone else’s music and making money from it?

Yeah, actually, I don’t really know how it works. I know you have to have some kind of permission to do it, I guess, but it’s nothing that we’ve done in the band. It’s been the record label that took care of that, so we only have to think about how to arrange and put our little stamp on the songs, and do that kind of work. All that other stuff is taken care of by the label.

You’re talking about going in and recording new material. I think I mentioned (when I talked to you) in the e-mail that the cover of “Fuck You” has kind of like a Tesla vibe. I was just thinking earlier that, growing up, you had the glam bands and the hair metal bands that were all about the girls and having fun and parties and all that. Then you had your other bands, like Tesla or Faster Pussycat and bands like that, that were a little more serious and more about the music. So that’s my question: Are you guys kind of maturing as a band with Jesse as your vocalist? And is this maybe the direction that you’re heading in?

Well, we’re definitely growing as a band. We’re better musicians, we’re better writers, we’re a little older and wiser. [laughs] But I wouldn’t say that we’re going for any particular style of music. We’re pretty much doing whatever we feel like, whatever is in our hearts. Our main influence hasn’t been hair metal, but bands like Nirvana and stuff like that, even though we looked like sleaze and glam in the beginning. But our main influences are—what can I say—everything from Elton John to Slayer, and whatever in between. There’s R&B, rock, hip-hop, pop, metal—all that kind of stuff. But I guess you can say we’re a little more grown up. But it’s definitely always been about the music. The partying and everything was little more in the beginning of the band, even though we party still.

We’ll just see what happens when you go out on tour again, I guess. That’ll be the final judgment I guess.

[laughs] Well, we’re always on tour with beer flowing around. It’s always good to have a little before, during and after the show. That’s all there is on tour for fun, but it’s always about the music. You can’t have a really great show being stupid drunk, and then you fuck up and the audience ain’t getting what they paid for.

Cleopatra is just for this covers album right now. We’ll see what’s going on. The song and the video is gonna be out, and the song is already on iTunes. The video is coming out in March, the album April 5, so we’ll see where that can take us. Maybe we get some good deals coming up, you never know. If not, we’re doing it by ourselves. That’s how it works pretty much.

When we talked to you guys way back on the Poison tour when you were just starting out, you were on Bam Margera’s label. How was that whole experience? Is that label defunct now because I haven’t really heard anything about it since?

No, that one kind of faded out after a little while. Bam’s got a lot of other different projects and things from Jackass and reality shows and stuff like that. So that label was pretty much just to help us out—he liked our music and wanted to put out our record and help us get promoted. I don’t think he’s doing anything with the label right now. It’s pretty much on hiatus or doing nothing.

We actually hung out with him for the Jackass 3 premiere and to see a screening of it. When he’s around the L.A. area, we all hang out. He comes to the shows, and we go party with him a little bit and stay at his house. Which is cool—he’s a good guy and very cool.

Do you feel that Vains of Jenna has had a big break yet? Or what was the biggest break so far, in your opinion, if there was one?

Well, it was a really good time when we were on the Poison and Ratt tour, for sure, when we released the “Enemy in Me” song. That was definitely a good time for us. We came out with CKY, GWAR and the Cradle of Filth tour after that, so that was where we definitely played the biggest shows were on those tours.

But I guess that we’re still really waiting for a break. It’s not easy. There’s a lot of bands out there, maybe not doing the same thing, but getting record deals and doing tours and stuff. So you’re not alone in the world playing music. With YouTube and everything, you can post whatever you want about a band, MySpace and Facebook Even though it’s good for bands, it’s also harder for bands, too, because there’s so much out there.

For bands, if you’re not out there playing live, or if you’re in the studio recording or something, the crowds, the fans, they get bored with you very easily, more than they did before just because there’s just so much out there. You kind of just go find new bands. So you have to be really productive and get stuff out there as much as you can. You have to tour and keep in contact with fans, probably a lot more than you had to do back in the day.

But no, at the end of the equation, we’re still waiting for our break. [laughs]

You mentioned the Cradle of Filth tour. I’m actually going to go see them Sunday at a show in Baltimore. Any advice before I go to that show, and did you have a chance to hang out with those guys?

Well, at the first part of that tour, we didn’t get along very well. [laughs] No, there was some issues on that tour, which was really weird and fucked up. You know, I’m not a very big fan of their music, but they have a good following in the States. I haven’t seen them live or anything since the tour. So you know, I guess go there and be painted white like all those bands and be ready to [does a quick mimic of a black metal scream and laughs].

Can you elaborate on any of the problems? Of course, I don’t want to get you in trouble or anything.

There were some issues. We shared a backstage area on one of the shows and (guitarist) Nicki (Kin) and (bassist) JP White were coming in to grab a few beers, with a couple of girls, some friends of ours. And their tour manager wouldn’t let them in and threw the tour in their faces. And that became a little fight over there and we were almost kicked off the tour, but we got saved from that from Bam and the crew from the Viva La Bands tour. So there was kind of like a big tension going on there for a couple of weeks, but in the end, everybody knew that we were right anyway. [laughs]

Yeah, I’d like to say that the video for “Fuck You” is coming out in early March and we are having our release show at the Whisky A Go-Go on April 1. And then the album comes out on iTunes and in stores on CD and vinyl actually—we’re going old school—on April 5. We’re going on tour in May and June, with selective dates in June with Adler’s Appetite. Then hopefully when we come back, we can go out on some more tours. People and fans should request us to radio stations and venues all around the country if they want us to play around their area. Get the word out that Vains of Jenna is coming to a town near you.