2015 was a year of highs and lows for Canadian post-punk band Viet Cong.
The highs can be attributed to a stellar performance at SXSW (despite drummer Mike Wallace suffering a broken wrist) and the release of their self-titled debut album, deemed by critics and fans alike to be one of the most original and progressive albums of the year. But that attention ironically brought about the lows for Viet Cong when controversy over their name came to a head, resulting in groups of protesters picketing outside venues. Some venues even cancelled shows due to the mounting public pressure.
In three short years, these four self-confessed “mostly private people” from Calgary have survived the scandal and success of a band double their age. In a Facebook post late last year, they openly admitted the band name had been a rushed decision and they never meant to cause people pain. Nearly four months later, with no name change as yet, and their first Australian tour due to kick off in a couple of weeks, we sit down with guitarist Scott ‘Monty’ Munro to set the record straight.
“We’ve got a bunch of names picked out already – we just haven’t narrowed the list down entirely yet,” Munro says. “It’s hard to pick a band name, you know? Especially the second time around.”
Munro is in good spirits, excited to talk about the band’s plans for the year ahead. “Honestly, we’ve been tossing around ideas for the name change since the beginning of last year, so we’ve been billing ourselves as Formerly Known As, and we’re going to finish the Australian tour under that name. But once we all agree on something, then we’ll make an announcement.
“It will give us the opportunity to make a different-sounding record too,” he adds. “We’ve been working this project on and off for two years – even before our self-titled album was released. So with the name change and a new record, it’s almost like getting born again.”
Those paying close attention to Viet Cong’s recent social media posts will have seen photographic evidence that from now on they plan to do things differently – and that includes their choice of recording studio. Opting to lay down tracks in a huge converted barn, Munro says the time away from the world was just what they needed to get their creative juices flowing.
“We’ve mostly finished now, although we need to do a little bit of tweaking, then we have to mix everything – but it will probably be wrapped up around February and then the record will come out in the fall, around September or October.”
Munro says that while they were busy working on new material, the guys traded records and immersed themselves in the classics. “We listened to a lot of The Cure and the Iggy Pop records that David Bowie produced in the 1970s, like The Idiot or Lust For Life, which are still always on rotation. I play The Idiot at least once a week still. It’s now to the point of disintegration but I don’t care – that record gets played a lot!” he laughs.
“Another personal favourite of all of us is a band called This Heat. They put out a couple of great records in ’79 and ’81. They weren’t a band for super long but they were fantastic, and we’ve been getting into all the bands around that time. The singer/drummer had a band called Camberwell Now and the guitar player had a band called the Lifetones – they’re a little more dubbed out but they’re also really good. All the stuff that came from that scene was pretty cool, and the new stuff we’ve written is heavily influenced by it.
“We will hopefully be playing a bunch of new tracks at these upcoming shows,” Munro continues. “Although I’m not totally sure – we might just play our normal set, which has never been played live in Australia before, so I hope that won’t be too disappointing,” he jokes.
As first-time visitors to our shores, Viet Cong remain curious about what to expect. When it’s mentioned that they’re playing in Wollongong on Australia Day, Munro seems intrigued. “I have no idea what you guys do, but we have Canada Day – is it like that? We’d love to catch up with Courtney Barnett and her band that we met at SXSW. I assume it’ll be just one big outside party? We’d love to get some sun.”
Being close to nature seems to be high on the agenda for the band. “We had some time off recently, so we went back to the little town in rural British Columbia where our friends have a barn,” says Munro. “We played Black Sabbath covers, watched a bunch of movies and hung out in the wilderness, which was pretty nice. After the Australian shows are done I think we’re going to get some beer and go camping – we’re all pretty mellow.”
[Viet Cong photo by David Waldman]
The self-titled Viet Cong is out now through Jagjaguwar/Inertia, and they play, with Batpiss, at Newtown Social Club on Monday January 25.
