Miss Vincent talk new single “Gravity” – exclusive interview

Punk rockers, Miss Vincent recently dropped their new single, “Gravity”.  The band have built themselves up on a solid foundation and have seen many a sticky-floored toilet tour venue – you know the type!  The Southampton rockers aspire to bring the romance back into rock ‘n’ roll, so watch this space.  In the meantime, we caught up with the band to find out what they’re all about…

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Hey Miss Vincent, for our readers who are new to the band, can you tell us a little bit about yourselves?  What’s the meaning behind your name and how would you describe your sound? 

For sure! My name is Alex and I sing and play guitar in Miss Vincent. We’re a punk rock band with vintage vibes, bringing together classic sounds from the golden era of rock ’n’ roll and all the best elements of driving, down-stroking, anthemic punk rock. Think Alkaline Trio playing Buddy Holly songs and you’d be pretty close.

Our band name came about in a roundabout way. I’m a huge Alkaline Trio fan and they have a song called Queen of Pain, which has a line that goes ‘the stars at night are big and bright, deep in your eyes Miss Vincent’. I googled it to try and find out if it was a reference to something, or if there was a story behind it. What I found was a totally unrelated story about a woman called Joyce Vincent, who died watching TV and wasn’t found for two years. She wasn’t elderly, and had led an interesting life, but somehow she lay there for two years. I found the story intensely sad, and wrote a song about it called Miss Vincent. When we were deciding on a band name, we adopted the name of the song as our band name, and we’ve been Miss Vincent ever since. Joyce Vincent actually has her own documentary called ‘Dreams of a Life’, which you can find online if you google her.

 

You just dropped a new single, “Gravity”, as well as a music video – congratulations, how are you feeling? 

Honestly? Relieved, mostly! We’ve been sitting on music for what feels like an eternity so to finally be releasing it feels great. With most of 2020 being a total write-off, it feels like we’ve been in a waiting room since February last year when we got home from our Europe tour, so getting new music out into the world feels incredible.

 

What’s the story behind “Gravity“?

Well, it’s pretty up front. Honesty and vulnerability are two things that don’t come easy to most songwriters. We like to hide our secrets in thinly veiled metaphor, and don’t often address an issue head-on. But Gravity is a song that throws all that to one side and says exactly what it means. It’s about the challenges of going through life as you get older, how your relationships change with others and the world around you. The sense that sometimes you feel a nagging weight that tries to keep you from powering forward, changing things in your life that need to be changed, and being honest and open about things that are hard to discuss.

The scope of the subject matter meant that the song itself needed a level of grandiosity that we hadn’t really attempted before. We’ve increasingly been working our more peripheral influences into our music, and this song has a whole bunch of them. The big opening, the huge choruses, and the change in feel for the bridge were all ideas that had been percolating for a while, and all of a sudden they came together. Overall, it’s a big fucking rock ’n’ roll song that lays it all out – and if you’re used to experiencing the highs and lows, you’ll hear something that you identify with.

Is it true that there is an album on the horizon? 

Yes! Our debut album, A Funeral For Youth is out on September 17th via the wonderful people at Silent Cult. If I had a quid for every time someone has asked me ‘when are you guys doing an album?’ over the past couple of years, I’d be rich, so it’s amazing to be able to talk about it now. It really is a statement of identity of who we are as songwriters, and what we are as a band. It’s been a long time coming, and I can’t wait for the world to hear it.

We have preorders available at missvincent.co.uk, where you can find it on record in fantastic blue and pink swirl, on CD and cassette, as well as loads of other cool stuff to go with it. Some of the limited bundles are already sold out, but there’s plenty to go around so go check it out!

 

As a band, what has been a stand out moment for you?

This is a question we get a lot, and to be honest it’s so hard to pick just one. Some of the shows we played in Germany last year felt very like very significant moments – playing to people in a different country when they’re singing back at you was crazy and amazing in equal measure.

There was a tour we did a few years back with FVK and Vukovi that still sticks in my mind as one of the best weeks in my living memory, from the fans, to the crew, to the other bands on the tour, just everything was incredible.

And another one that I always come back to is the release show for Somewhere Else is 2017, when we played a slow song from the EP (which I was pretty nervous about because we hadn’t really done a slow song before), and the crowd totally drowned me out when we hit this certain point in the song. It was the first time that had happened and I just remember stopping singing and trying to take it in.

 

What would be your dream tour line up? 

I’m gonna stick to bands that are still alive otherwise this would be impossible to decide. I think I’d have to go with a three band bill, because that’s always a good balance. Green Day would headline, because they’re probably the greatest live band in the world in my opinion, and I could happily watch them every night. Before them we’d have Alkaline Trio, because playing even one show with them would mean I’ve completed life. And we’d open the show, for obvious reasons.

 

What was the first rock show you ever went to? 

I went to a few local shows with punk and ska bands when I was a tween, following bands like Pickled Dick (they’re called Mike TV nowadays), but the first ‘big’ rock show I ever went to was Iron Maiden at Earl’s Court in 2003. I had no idea what to expect, and the whole experience left me open mouthed and gagging for more. Funeral For A Friend opened the show too, which Maiden’s crowd hated, but I loved them. Although I don’t listen to so much heavy metal these days, it was still a formative experience.

 

What song do you have on repeat at the moment? 

There’s a few. I’ve been listening to various versions of “I Only Wanna Be With You” but I keep coming back to Dusty Springfield’s original. It just encapsulates everything I love about that era of music. I also can’t stop listening to The Shirelles’ “Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow” – I’m really loving those ‘girl groups’  (a very out-of-date term, I know) from that era at the moment. Then there’s songs like “Don’t Take Me For Granted” by Social Distortion; I’m a huge Social D fan and a couple of their albums are essential Summer listening. Oh, and “Ghosts” from the new Bruce Springsteen album. It’s just a huge, huge rock song and it lifts my heart. There are so many more, but those are the ones that come to mind off the top of my head.

 

Great chatting to you Miss Vincent, is there anything else you’d like to say to our All Punked Up readers? 

Be excellent to each other! We always say this sort of as a joke because of Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure, but it’s actually good advice. Be nice, don’t be a dick.

Check out the “Gravity” music video below:

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