I now Present to you THE VERMONT JOY PARADE
With the upcoming Release of your sophomore album New Anthem can you Describe The approach you took to write the album? Any Differences in the style of music?
In order to create New Anthem, we first all had to move thousands of miles away from each other, and go through our own personal disasters & upheavals. The tunes themselves were crafted before our regional US tours the last 2 years, and our Europe tour last fall.
As for style, New Anthem is dustier. Also tighter and more orchestrated than Kicking Sawdust, which was essentially a live disc on analog tape. New Anthem also introduces alot of harmony singing, of which there was almost none on our first album.
How did you guys first meet and start creating such beautiful music together?
We all studied under Anna's ex-husband in Burlington, Vermont. Drug rings and a psycho-string band called the Jugtown Pirates of Lake Champlain were also involved.
I noticed you Recorded your album Kicking Sawdust at the Barn Recorder in Questa, New Mexico .... What brought you to that part of the world and why that studio in particular?
A kidnapping in a small New Mexico town following our show at the Seco Pearl's Mad Hatter Tea Party was the catalyst for our choice of recording studio. Also love. And analog tape. We couldn't say no to a studio in a barn located in the middle of high desert.
America or Europe which crowd do you think embraces you more and why?
We're huge in Belgium among the 14-year old girl demographic, thanks to opening for Jared Leto's band 30 Seconds to Mars for a couple dates last fall...but I think Americans tend to have a deeper understanding of the music, and we have a bigger fan base here from touring the last few years - although the reaction we got from crowds in Germany & Poland is probably more intense than anything we've encountered in America. That could be because our style is very much en vogue right now over there.
If you worked at a circus what would be the roles each of the members take in it?
Essentially, we already do work at the circus. Our movements are nomadic and our days are filled with spectacle, eccentricity, highs & lows. Actually one of the first band names we were throwing around was the Green Mountain Grease-Monkey Circus, and for awhile we were billed as the Good Time, Ol' Time, Anytime Circus. Ben apprenticed & performs periodically with Bread & Puppet Theater, and Benny is a juggler, balloon artist, unicycler, fire-dancer that performed at Burning Man. The whole band was hired as circus artists for Bonnaroo 2008 & 2009. Ben & Benny toured briefly with the Cabaret Capricho, a Mexican circus. That was in Panama, Nicaragua, Honduras, a couple years ago. No kidding. Its a long story involving a failed sailing voyage with an elderly philosopher. Really.
What are some other projects are you guys involved in?
Anna Pardenik & Her Apologies, Duke Aeroplane & the Wrong Numbers, The Toes, Grace O'Malley & Her 3-Masted Galley, The Renewal Chorus, Honeybee Press; also veggie-oil conversions, circus arts, & underground theatre.
What are the Plans for The Vermont Joy Parade for 2012?
Right now we're set to release our new album at an all night soiree in Burlington at the BCA Center - after that we're touring for 6 weeks from Montreal to Kentucky and back; check out www.vermontjoyparade.com for complete dates.
Right now we're scouting for representation - we've reached the point where we really need someone to work with us to put out our next album, which we have most of the material for already.
Over the summer we'll be playing some larger shows in the northeast, and the fall is pretty open right now; we'd love to go back to Europe...anything could happen at this point.
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