Bryce Vine Interview with WRSU

WRSU sat down with the genre-bending Bryce Vine to chat about his upcoming album, influences, and traveling. You can check out the interview and more on Bryce below.

WRSU: So, you’ve been on the road for about a week, how is it touring with Max?

Bryce: Tour has been amazing so far, I mean, this is the first tour that we’ve had a full crew. I got a drummer now- we have a whole team. Max’s people are cool as hell. It’s just a good energy all around.

What’s it like touring with a full band? Does having more people around make touring chaotic?

No, everyone’s professional here. Everyone knows what they’re doing. Everyone’s been on tours before. It’s nobody’s first time out so everyone gets the etiquette. Especially when we have a long ass drive everyday and the shows are back to back like yesterday… it’s been amazing.

So, I went to your show about 2 years ago, before “Drew Barrymore” was out, but you played it. After that, it was stuck in my head for a week. Since that song came out two years ago, you’ve been on the radio and the charts. So, what have these past two years been like for you?

Probably the most amazing thing that we got to do was go to Europe to do promo. I mean we got to go to Paris and Amsterdam, Brussels and Hamburg, Germany, and Berlin. It was really the first time I had the chance to be like, “Holy hell! We’re making it.”

So, you grew up on the west coast and a lot of that is reflected in your music, especially in your earlier work. Now that you’ve traveled all over the world, how to you draw on those places as influences, like you did in “Nowhere Man”?

I think just having an overall acceptance and willingness to meet people. Be around people, talk to them, hear from them… go to the local places- whether we’re in Jacksonville or Paris. We like to be a part of the culture of where we are, be open to things and try things. That’s really important for inspiration, especially when I go back home and need things to write about. It’d be a lot harder to do if I was in a hotel room all the time.

What about a person makes you want to write about them? Like, at what point do you begin to draw inspiration from people you meet?

I mean, probably immediately. As things happen in life, you find little ways of thinking about it when you go into the studio or something. Like, I just wrote a song called “Not Alright” about the relationship i’m in now. It’s about how two people can’t communicate the right way. It’s from personal experience, you know, it’s like…sometimes it’s easier to write things in retrospect when it comes to relationships because when you’re involved in it, it’s harder to see the big picture. I wrote songs like “The Fall” and “Glamorama” after breakups. After being in the relationship and going through the heartbreak, rather than in the moment.

When you go in to record, do you usually have a concept in mind or do you let EP’s play out as you’re writing?

I write ideas down in my phone all the time, like if I hear a word I haven’t heard in a while or just a funny sentence- like I have a song that I’m writing right now called “Knee Deep In Shallow Water”, because that’s how my friend felt with his girlfriend at the time, he was always knee deep in shallow water. I was like, “that’s a great title for a song,” and now I have a song called that. It’s like you just take little things from life. We all do it, we all have things we remember, we have different ways of recalling those memories, and mine is just doing it through song.

What did you learn as an artist from playing house shows and playing in punk bands early on?

Just performance in general. You need years and years of work, nobody is amazing at getting on stage their first try. Having grown up doing this, I got to experience it in all types of ways, from playing lead guitar- with my hood up cause I was nervous to look at the crowd- to being in a group where I only had a mic in my hand and now it’s like, oh wow, now I don’t have the comfort of having a guitar in my hands, what do I do? Just kind of always evolving to the next level and watching other performers and it’s just a constant learning experience. I’m better at everything now than I was two years ago, or probably five months ago.

Have there been any shows or performers that you’ve seen that have impacted the way you perform, whether it was live or on video?

Recently, Gambino. Childish Gambino. He just radiates on stage, and has something special about him. But I grew up appreciating bands like Blink-182. They just got on stage and looked like they were having a blast. They were the first band that made me realize that you could just enjoy what you’re doing to the fullest, and even act kinda dumb.

In a recent interview, you mentioned the upcoming release of your first album. What can you tell people about that?

Yeah, the album’s called Carnival. I’m still finishing it up, I don’t wanna put out a song, or a whole album, until I least have another song on the radio. People don’t listen to albums anymore like they used to. They need to know that they’re a fan of your artwork, your music, your art before they commit to listening to an entire album. I don’t blame them. I just have to make really good songs, get enough people to say, ok I get what you’re doing and I like it. And then I’ll put out a body of work.

Have you been working on the album for a long time?

People say you’re working on your first album your whole life.

Will there be any older songs on the album?

It’s possible, but it’ll probably be all new songs. “Drew Barrymore” will be on it for sure, “On the Ball” will be on it. I have a song coming out called “La La Land” and a song coming out called “You”. One called “San Junipero” which is based on an episode of Black Mirror. So it’s about one night. It’s a lot of different kinds of stuff but it’s all my vibe and I think it’ll be- I won’t let it not be special. That’s how I’ve always done things. I’ve worked on something until I think it’s done. And when I’m happy, usually other people are too.

Bryce Vine – Drew Barrymore [Official Music Video]

Bryce Vine:
Facebook- https://www.facebook.com/brycevine/
Twitter- https://twitter.com/brycevine
Instagram- https://www.instagram.com/brycevine/?hl=en

♫ WRSU SOCIAL MEDIA ♫

► Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wrsurutgersradio/
► Twitter: https://twitter.com/wrsu?lang=en
► Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/rutgersradio/
► Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/user/fsoy53ubdix7xgx5spkqpzpff?si=PScCQoy7ROugH-MWbX6aUw

Interview by: Bri Born