by Victoria King
Calgary pop-punk band Viet Cong stopped in Winnipeg over the weekend – we chatted with lead vocalist Matt Flegel about tour, post-flood Calgary, the Bandcamp material, and more.
Stylus: Can you talk about the material (released on Bandcamp): how it came about, where it was recorded?
Matt: Me and Monty, one of our guitar players, had been working on music just in his studio, which is essentially just the basement of his house with a bunch of gear . . . we’d been working on stuff for about a year and a half without really having a band to play shows with, just working on music for fun. We’d played a few shows in Calgary and then our drummer Mike left for India for a few months so we kinda took a hiatus and then he came back and we started playing shows again, and the Freak Heat Waves guys invited us to come on tour with them and we said yes, and decided we needed something to bring with us. So the stuff on Bandcamp is some of the recordings that we’ve been doing. It’s mostly the stuff that’s not going to be on the full-length that we have . It’s kind of almost a B-sides thing before we had A-sides …
Stylus: That’s funny since you guys have been getting a lot of really good feedback, just on that material.
MF: It’s funny because we didn’t actually put it up on the Bandcamp until the third week into the tour and we’re on week seven now and . . . It’s not the smartest way to do it [laughs].
Stylus: How’s tour going so far?
MF: Tour’s been good . . . it’s been a long one. I’ve been in lots of touring bands before and in the past three years I haven’t really done much other than a couple weeks at the most here and there, so this has been a seven-week tour, which when you’ve gotten yourself comfortable and domesticated is kind of a crazy thing to do yourself, as a 31-year-old man. I forget what Mike was just saying [indicating to another band member] but his sister sent him this thing, and it’s like, ‘The Life of the touring band: “$10,000 worth of gear in a $500 van, travelling 500 km to make $50” [laughs] and that kiinnnddaaa sums it up. It’s a good starting point . . . We had to start somewhere.
Stylus: I saw an article on the internet of you guys playing at Sled Island this past year when the flood happened. Can you talk about the effect of the flood on the music scene & community in Calgary?
MF: I mean, it’s disastrous for the music scene because really, Sled Island is kind of like of the culmination of things that have been going on in Calgary for the last few years and I feel like since that festival started, it’s kind of put Calgary on the map as a place for musicians from all over the world to come and play. It’s like a legitimate festival and it was pretty disastrous for something like that to happen at that time in Calgary. Like I wish it had happened three weeks later when the Stampede was going on. Like, one of our really good friends moved from Montreal – she got the job as director for Sled Island – and I heard they’ve just gotten to the point where they’ve cleared up most of the “disaster conversations” and problems and all of that, and they’re starting to look at what they want to do next year which is good because I thought that they might not be doing it next year . . . Yeah, it was weird, definitely crazy.
Stylus: A lot of the press about Viet Cong continues to describe it as “ex-member” of this band, “ex-member” of another. Is that frustrating, or encouraging to have your old material brought up and when you’re starting a new project?
MF: I dunno, people are always going to write about things that you have done in the past [i.e. Women], no matter what, in any field – it’s like a resume or something almost. People look at what you’ve done and they’re going to judge based on what you’ve done in the past and it’s not frustrating, and I’m definitely not ashamed of any of the projects that are being mentioned I guess, but [Viet Cong]’s definitely its own thing.
Stylus: What’s the deal the art that’s been released on the Bandcamp material you’ve put out? It looks like two women slumped over . . .
MF: Oh! They’re Malaysian transvestites. I dunno, my brother actually designed that for us. We asked him to make us a shirt and we decided that it was awesome enough that we wanted to put in on our tape cover too so . . . you’d have to ask him what it means. When he heard our music I guess he thought of Malaysian transvestites [laughs].
Stylus: Lastly, how’s Winnipeg been for you so far?
MF: So far it’s been a few hours. I’ve been here many times though, it’s always biting cold. It reminds me of UK cold where you just can’t get warm. We’ve always had good shows here in the past and I’ve always had a good time, people are always really friendly.
You should check out Viet Cong’s material at vietcong.bandcamp.com.