"True fact: The only time we’ve ever gotten complaints from our neighbors is when we play this song," says Preetma Singh, drummer of Vomitface, and NYLON's soon-to-be Market Director (and our October 2014 Girl We Heart). "As soon as the intro kicks in, the phone rings."
Given the self-professed sludge-pop group's song in question, "Sloppy Joes"—ripe with rich riffs, sharp percussion, and dark howls—the thought of parents and uptight neighbors reacting to a noisy '90s garage band practice comes to mind. We, however, would ring to request a higher volume. After all, it's not every day that you come across authentic lo-fi and avant-grunge. And that industry lapse is precisely why Singh and her bandmates, Jared Micah and Keller McDivitt, started Vomitface.
"Sloppy Joes was one of the first songs we wrote. I think it really set the tone for what we wanted to accomplish in Vomitface, albeit accidentally since we weren’t seeking to be a band at that point," says Singh. "There’s something very visceral and abrasive yet soothing and freeing about the song—I think it manages to really encapsulate the history and spirit of rock/punk music without being derivative or nostalgic. The feelings it elicits are also as complex—I don’t think you can call it wholly sad, angry, wistful, desperate, sarcastic, earnest, or euphoric, but there are elements of all of that bound up in the song at once."
For the video, the band decided to go for a compelling, irreverent feel, refraining from being to literal with the song's title. "Irreverence is a very important part of Vomitface," stresses Singh. "But, so is knowledge about what came before. Hence, the classic performance concept—there is nothing more clichéd, but it there’s also nothing more satisfying in a music video."
"One of the best and worst things about being in a band called Vomitface is having to confront the assumptions people have about who we are, what we must look like, what we must sound like, etc. I think this video probably gives some people cognitive dissonance about what a band named “Vomitface” would be. And, we are more than happy to challenge and re-define those preconceptions. Vomitface is all about redefinition."
Watch the video below, directed by Tarik Karam and edited by the band, and pick up a copy of our October issue (on stands today!) to find out more about Preetma and Vomitface.