{"id":6845,"date":"2013-05-10T15:07:47","date_gmt":"2013-05-10T15:07:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stylusmagazine.ca\/?p=6845"},"modified":"2013-05-10T15:07:47","modified_gmt":"2013-05-10T15:07:47","slug":"vikings-ready-to-make-landfall","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/2013\/05\/10\/vikings-ready-to-make-landfall\/","title":{"rendered":"Vikings :: Ready to Make Landfall"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"vikings\"<\/a><\/p>\n

by Matthew Dyck<\/strong><\/p>\n

Stumbling on Vikings\u2019 yet to be released recordings was kind of like spotting an offshore ship I wasn\u2019t meant to see. Despite playing to large crowds at The Lytics<\/a>\u2019 CD release show, and opening for touring acts Twin Shadow<\/a> and Poolside<\/a>, Vikings have remained almost entirely off the Internet\u2019s radar as the electro-pop trio gathers a following through word of mouth alone. So, naturally, I was curious why an act so catchy would purposefully keep such a low profile. After a daylong blizzard, vocalist Josh Youngson and brothers Dave and James McNabb braved the snow to have coffee with Stylus and reveal their secret strategy to take over your eardrums in 2013 \u2013 well, maybe not so secret anymore.<\/p>\n

Both the air of mystery surrounding Vikings, and their lack of MySpace, Facebook, or independent website, is all a calculated move on their part. \u201cBut they\u2019re all coming,\u201d Youngson assures me. \u201cYou\u2019ll be able to find us everywhere.\u201d<\/p>\n

Their plan is to release their debut in three parts, with every section coinciding with the release of a new music video and containing remixes by other artists, as well. \u201cSome of my favorite songs have come from remixes by other artists,\u201d says Dave. \u201cThere are festivals happening all the time and DJs playing around the world, and most of them won\u2019t play original versions of songs. So it\u2019s a different way for us to get it out there.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s the kind of collaborative process that has been shaping the band\u2019s sound since late 2011, when the trio first hit the record button in their basement studio. And bonding over coffee and cigarettes during marathon writing\/recording sessions has produced the kind of eclectic electronic pop songs that are as catchy as they are hard to define.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat I wanted was something of a dreamscape, really fantasy-based, and have the song translate towards that \u2013 something that acknowledges the 80s but is really more focused on the future,\u201d explains Youngson. To make connections between Vikings and their influences is no easy feat. \u201cThere are hundreds of bands that we bond over,\u201d says Dave.<\/p>\n

But at the core of every Vikings track lies a great pop song \u2013 utilizing a host of electronic instruments, including analogue synths and Native Instrument machines, opened the tracks up to endless possibilities. According to Youngson, \u201cThey\u2019re songs that will hopefully make you experience worlds that are outside the one you\u2019re in and take you on a journey.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ll take things that are sonically beautiful and then mix them with things that are going to make people go really crazy at a live show,\u201d continues Youngson. \u201cMusic like that is naturally infectious when you see it.\u201d<\/p>\n

While Vikings\u2019 music looks forward, each member\u2019s background fills out their hook-heavy and expansive sound, both on the stage and in their recordings: Youngson has plenty of front-man experience as the former vocalist of Punk\/Metal band Sick City, James McNabb has been cutting his teeth as a local DJ, and brother Dave\u2019s education in Audio Engineering at Precursor Productions has been bringing out Vikings\u2019 deadly style in the recordings, which greatly improved their initial efforts.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe wrote and recorded the majority of everything in our studio,\u201d says Dave. \u201cBut when we sent it away to get mastered, it wasn\u2019t where it needed to be in our eyes and in our ears.\u201d<\/p>\n

What happened next was four months of the band working overtime, stripping the songs down to their core and starting from scratch to achieve the sound they needed. \u201cWe spent a lot of time with Andrew [Yankiwski] at Precursor mixing and mastering our tracks,\u201d Dave explains. \u201cIt was cool because I was in class for four hours and then the guys would show up to work on stuff for five or six hours, so I would be there all day.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s the kind of investment and attention to detail that\u2019s making Vikings the band to look out for in the coming months. \u201cWe\u2019ve fine-tuned our live show,\u201d says Dave. \u00a0\u201cWe walk away from every show feeling like we\u2019ve ran two miles. We definitely feed off of the adrenaline that comes with playing live.\u201d<\/p>\n

And the response from fans has been overwhelmingly positive. \u00a0\u201cIt\u2019s exciting because people are asking, people are bugging us, writing on The Pyramid\u2019s Facebook wall, \u2018Where can I find these guys?\u2019\u201d Artists from across the globe are taking notice, too, as electronic acts apply finishing touches to their versions of Vikings\u2019 sound.<\/p>\n

\u201cDaytona from Paris is contributing, French Fox from Montr\u00e9al, and Box of Wolves from Winnipeg. \u00a0Everyone we send our stuff to wants more,\u201d Youngson tells me. \u00a0\u201cSo we\u2019re finally ready to give people what they want.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Matthew Dyck Stumbling on Vikings\u2019 yet to be released recordings was kind of like spotting an offshore ship I wasn\u2019t meant to see. Despite playing to large crowds at The Lytics\u2019 CD release show, and opening for touring acts Twin Shadow and Poolside, Vikings have remained almost entirely off the Internet\u2019s radar as the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[563,1070,1104],"class_list":["post-6845","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-features","tag-local","tag-vikings","tag-winnipeg"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6845","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6845"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6845\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6845"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6845"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6845"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}