Gigslutz recently sat down with Vulture Authorities, Fionn Viteză, to chat about: politics, Uruguayan football and their latest album, Superyatchs for Everyone.

Gigslutz: Can you tell us a bit about how the band came to be?

Fionn Viteză: “Originally, when I was about 18 I was with the originals, the old school, we were practising for a few years and we didn’t really go very far but it was a good learning experience with some good lads. But then COVID hit and I did the first album on me own. After that I met Ash, our guitarist and other vocalist…the one who can actually sing ahaha. 

“I met him while watching an old firm game in the pub so we bonded over Rangers getting beat! I then met John through podcasty stuff, I saw he kept commenting under the posts and he had a bass guitar profile picture so thought, ‘you’ll do!’ ahaha…in fairness to him he was kind of the architect of everything.”

GS: And you mentioned the Old Firm game which leads me to my next question, there’s a definite political stream throughout the album, Superyachts for Everyone, was that always the plan?

FV: “Oh yeah! I thought everyone else grew up reading Karl Marx when they were 7, then I found out they didn’t.

“My grandad left a note on my kitchen table when my mum was about 2 saying, “I’ve gone to join the Cuban revolution see you later” so that’s where that comes from.

“Then obviously when I was looking at the size of my overdraft growing every month, sprinkling in a bit of football and some gambling addictions and that’s the ethos! What more could you ask for?”

GS: That’s one thing that stood out to me on the album, just how real those stories felt.

FV: “I think post-COVID I might have gone a bit mental, as everybody did. I mean there’s my favourite line I’ve ever written in a song of ours called Last Orders, “while I bet on the Uruguayan Primera Division” which was definitely a real story!!

GS: And going back to the political aspects of the album, there seems to be a focus on Eastern European and Balkan politics

FV: “So that comes from when I did a bit of travelling. So we started by doing Serbia and Romania but the next year we came back and did the Balkans and the ex-Yugoslav countries and I just fell in love with a band called Dubioza Kolektiv who I’ve now seen about 8 times.

“I just fell in love with the place, just eating the best food in the world for a couple of months! I’ll tell you the kebabs here don’t come close to ćevapčići!!

“But it came from travelling really, like my name on Twitter, ‘Viteză’ isn’t actually my name. I robbed it off a sign in Romania and thought, ‘I’m having that!!’, then I found out it means speed so a double entendre there.”

GS: You can definitely tell that it’s a real passion of yours, how do you think it compares to other bands out there who claim they’re political until you scratch beneath the surface.

 FV: “Yeah there’s a lot of bands out there who when you listen to their lyrics you do think, ‘ehhhh’, they can just feel a bit GCSE for me.

“It’s like an aesthetic over substance sort of thing, especially with the more successful people in that post-punky lane, it does feel like they’re pushing it for marketing.

“For example there’s lots of bands that have never said anything about Palestine, ever, and there’s those that have so you can tell the difference between who’s real and who’s not. Who’s worried about losing money rather than talking about a genocide.”

GS: And do you think there’s a class aspect to it?

FV: “Yeah defo. You hear a new artist and think ‘these are alright’ and then you go to Wikipedia and see they’ve attended this school, so there’s very little new actually working class bands.

“Some of them get away with it because they have a Northern accent. It’s painful.”

GS: Going back to the album a lot of the song names are very very tongue in cheek, do you think it’s important to have that sense of humour when tackling those heavier subjects?

FV: I think so. What I hate is the way a lot of the new underground artists get discovered, for lack of a better word, is ads on Instagram. So it’s the amount of music you get hit with, and some of it is world-class…like your Mike Stoyanovs. I mean what a man! He just says, ‘fuck off, this is what I’m doing, fuck you!’

“But the amount of really serious people you get, especially rappers, talking about how much money they have and you kick on their profile and see they’re a painter and decorator in Telford. Don’t talk shit!!

“All music is kind of getting homogenised into shite, commercial nonsense, so people on the way up feel they have to talk about how much money they have, even if they don’t actually have it. 

“So with the sense of humour thing I just can’t stand trying to take yourself seriously because everyones a dickhead at the end of the day and if you position yourself like you’re untouchable, then people are going to give you a load of shit.”

GS: Lastly, are there any plans to take the album on the road?

FV: “Yeah so in the new year every song will have a video of it’s own and we have two dates booked in for Manchester and London, and we’re hoping to have a bit of a mini tour (next year).

“2025, the year of the Vulture!”

Superyatchs for Everyone is available to stream and purchase here.

Follow Vulture Authority here.

 

Follow Fionn here.