Vague Plot
The New York based band, Vague Plot, recently caught our attention with their wonderful album, "Crying in 9", released back in 2024. We also heard a nice live tape with the band and so we wanted to find out more about this special band, so here we go!
First of all, thank you for the interview. How are you all doing? What have you been up to lately?
Phil Jacob: We’re doing well considering the chaos going on right now here in the States. We’ll see how that goes. Music is definitely helping. We’ve been working on and recording a bunch of new tunes and have a few shows coming up later this spring.
We first discovered you a couple of days ago. We listened to your
excellent live recording from Tubby´s from 2024 that was up on our
fellow tapers site "NYCTaper". You are totally new to us as
a band and we really dig your wonderful music. Can you bring us some
background info on how the band got together in the first place?
PJ: Thanks for the kind words! We’ve all been pals for a long time but this project started just after the pandemic as a weekly jam session and then developed from there. We’ve played together before on various projects, so this feels like a natural progression for us.
On your Bandcamp page you have three releases so far. What can you tell us about your studio album "Crying in 9"?
PJ: That album was born out of a lot of jamming. Some of the jams were developed and tweaked in various ways and others were recorded spontaneously. We’re constantly trying to blur the line between composition and improvisation in a way that stays fresh for us.
The complete album is a stunning piece of art, but if we need to pick out one track that stand out (at least for us) we would consider "Windswept" as a master favorite of ours. Did you jam on that one before you recorded it or was it totally improvised and spontaneously jammed on the spot?
Zach Cale: That’s a favorite of mine as well. It’s got a nice arc. It was indeed a completely improvised piece of music. I started off that first guitar figure and it bloomed from there.
You also released a very nice looking audio cassette tape of the studio album. It is unfortunately already sold out according to your Bandcamp page. Will you reprint that one at some point?
ZC: I don’t think the cassettes will be repressed. Maybe if someone wants to put out a vinyl edition?
Speaking of cassettes, LP:s and CD:s. We are especially fond of LP:S, because one tend to listen attentively to the complete album. What do you prefer yourselves and why so?
We are a webzine that mostly make interviews and reviews, but sometimes we also record bands that we like. How is the live experience vs. the studio experience for you? What do you prefer? To play live or record in the studio?
ZC: It’s cool that you record bands. We like doing both, but prefer playing live a bit more. Recording has to be calculated. We’ve only ever recorded ourselves in our rehearsal space. Our album was made there on a Zoom recorder with lots of bleed. There’s a lot of spontaneity there, though. Half the tunes were improvised, but even the structured ones have a lot of loose sections. At a live gig it’s always changing.
Uriah Theriault: We've been recording every time we play since we started as a group. Sometimes these recordings serve as reference material for developing songs, but sometimes they can stand as they are. Our practice space is where we’ve done all our recording so far, so there hasn't been an actual studio experience for us yet! We feel our method best captures our ever-changing and transient tunes, without the pressure of exactitude that can come from being in a studio. We've all recorded in studios with other projects, and are definitely open to it in the future.
Sometimes we ask the bands that we interview what artists and bands they would invite, if they would arrange their own festival...in your case...which bands and artists would you pick?
ZC:
75 Dollar Bill
Aaron Dooley
SML
Horse Lords
David Nance
Bitchin’ Bajas
Sunburned Hand of the Man
Bill Orcutt Guitar Quartet
Los Piranas
We started out the interview explaining how we first heard about you. In most cases we actually get a nice sounding live tape of a band and then we fall in love with that tape and then we put it on repeat for the rest of the evening. What do you think of tapers in general? Do you embrace the taping scene or do you believe that it does more harm than what it might bring back to you as a band?
UT: Tapers are awesome. Some bands play songs the exact same way every time. That's not Vague Plot. Tapers understand that magic happens in the moment, and that one night might be completely different than the next. The vibe in the room is different, the dynamics in the band shift, and the space itself can influence how we play. We have some royal flubs on tapes we've heard, but also some beautiful happenstance moments. That's the risk, and we're grateful that there are folks who can appreciate it. As music moves towards automation, what could be more human than happy accidents?
Speaking about live music and taping...what is your favorite live tape of another artist or band, that you still can pick up and listen to?
UT: Dylan's Royal Albert Hall concert, Jimi Hendrix's Band of Gypsys, Live Dead and Neil Young Live Rust still get regular airtime. And Sam Cooke or James Brown live albums can really humble a musician.
PJ: I still love Grateful Dead’s August 27, 1972 show in Veneta, Oregon. A friend of mine gave me a couple cassettes a long time ago with the entire show on them. It’s always nice to put that on. I think the band was at the height of their powers at that time.
The last question for this time. What does the future hold for the band? Will you play live this year or perhaps record a new LP soon?
ZC: We’ve been recording more so hopefully that’ll result in a new release before too long. There are a few local gigs on the horizon. No big tours planned at the moment. We played a ton last year when the album came out. Mostly we’re in the workshop these days getting new material together.
Many thanks for the interview and best of luck with future live
recordings, studio albums and live concerts! All the best to you!
Vague Plot - For more info, please check:
https://vagueplot.bandcamp.com/music
https://www.nyctaper.com/2024/08/vague-plot-august-9-2024-tubbys/
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