VISTA talk new EP “The Ruins” — exclusive interview

We recently caught up with New York band, VISTA to find out about their upcoming EP release.  Greg and Hope bring us up to speed on what we can expect from their new music…

Your EP, ‘The Ruins’ hits digital platforms on October 25th – how are you feeling?

Greg: I’m feeling nervous but excited. I don’t know how people are going to react, it’s incredibly raw. Doing our absolute best to get it out there though!

Hope: Anxious as all hell! I always feel some anxiety before a release, but this one feels different. It’s positive energy with a nervous stomach.

Any plans to celebrate the release?

Greg: We’re playing a bunch of shows, and EP release show the day after it’s out. We are putting out a documentary. Maybe we will bake cookies too? The world is our oyster. With other EP’s on the horizon, it’s important that we make sure we maintain a good work flow of celebrating a release vs working on the next release.

Hope: The EP release show is gonna be crazy (10/26 at Amityville Music Hall). All of our hometown Long Island shows have been incredibly memorable. I’m sure I’m going to celebrate by crying off and on. We’ll just be celebrating at home with our friends at our home venue, and that’s comforting to me.

Describe the EP in three words?

Greg: Tragic. Dark. Interesting.

Hope: Sad. Experimentative. Evolved.

What was your inspiration for ‘The Ruins’ and is there a common theme between each song?

Greg: Each song to me, deals with a different aspect of ruin and what’s broken us down. It’s loosely connected. We can definitely say that not every song is about a happy topic, there’s definitely something “wrong” in every song whether it’s obvious or not. Our inspiration was basically our lives and what we’ve been through. hatT’s a common influence between all 3 EP’s.

Hope: Every song touches upon a multitude of topics; they’re all kind of woven into each other. Writing about our personal ruins really allowed us the room to explore quite a bit sonically, but I also got the chance to delve lyrically into some really dark shit. The overall inspiration was ultimately our own ‘ruins,’ and that also falls in line as an acting common theme.

Do you have a favourite lyric from the EP and why?

Greg: I totally do. I don’t want to spoil it in case this comes out before the EP but there’s a VISTA Easter egg in “After Death”. Love it. Another favorite is “Sin City won’t save you”. I feel like that perfectly encapsulates the respective song. That song makes me feel a certain way when I listen to it, it’s hard to describe.

Hope: There were a few that I connected to on the spot. In “After Death,” there’s a line that sings “daddy, I’m afraid I won’t make it, I’ll die too.” Writing that really punched me in the gut. On another song called “I Don’t Need Help,” there’s a line in the chorus, “I am lying through the panic.” That essentially defined me to a T when I was beginning the process of grief two years ago. Those are the two that stand out the most, but ultimately the whole EP is filled to the brim with personal lyrics.

It’s been 2 years since your last record release of ‘Long Live’ – what has the band been up to?

Greg: We put out four singles between “Long Live” and the trilogy cycle, those were all things we were busy with over the years. We spent a good amount of time in late 2018 and early 2019 writing just to write. That was one of my favorite things. We also have been touring quite a bit, tons of shows and being away from home. There was still a decent  amount of time home to focus on our personal lives. It was a pretty decent balance.

Hope: We definitely put a lot of focus on touring. Once we finished the Electric Souls tour this summer, we chose to take a step back from that and put the primary focus back on writing and recording. I don’t think our focus was where it should’ve been in 2018 and for the first half of this year; it really helped rein us back in to remove ourselves from a situation that was doing more harm than good. We will get back into touring in 2020, but it feels like we made the right choice for now.

We know what we’ll be listening to on Friday, what a great way to start the weekend! In the meantime, check out VISTA’s 2018 song “Witch Hunt” below:

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