"You can neglect accountability or wake up and ask yourself how it is all still happening in this day and age.” - Void of Vision
With that statement, the gates were officially kicked open and Void of Vision embarked upon their most thought-provoking venture yet with their new surprise EP Chronicles 1: Lust which hit our ears on Friday (our review here). The four-track saw the band take a step away from their usual subject manner in favour of frontman Jack Bergin's new sense of self-awareness following two of the musicians most endeering years navigating the COVID pandemic.
From the call-to-arms single 'THE LONELY PEOPLE' - written at a time when it felt like everyone of importance had turned their backs on their entire music/arts industry, through to the accountability anthem ‘VAMPYR’ - inspired by the toxic culture and mistreatment of women in the music industry - this newfound mature approach to VoV's songwriting was a long time coming according to Jack who explained the fuel to his bonfire stemmed from years of certain people in power getting away with their actions:
"There is still a lot of toxic culture behind the scenes... it's fairly deep rooted, and I think it's been a thing for decades and that's just speaking for itself and how tired this state of mind is; It shouldn't be like that in the era we're living in at the moment when we're so accepting of equality and everything [else] in the music industry.
We're all a part of this mission and if it means, just perhaps even, pouring your thoughts out like we have in this song to sort of start a wave, it's going to help a lot of people (I think) realise that and who have perhaps been standing idly behind."
"You can agree with a point of view and say that it's the right thing to think, but until you make those steps to create a safer space and make everyone feel a lot more comfortable, it just begins there I think. Once everyone is feeling accepted and comfortable where they are then that's when everyone can really just band together."
This profound mentality comes after Bergin's desire to change who he was as a person, where he took influences from and the people he surrounded himself with. He discussed how he took the negativity of the world and made it part of his own personality, but during the pandemic, he had time to sit back and reflect on that path he was taking and what could happen if he kept going down that road. Jack didn't want to be a person with negative space and connotations attached to him - so he used his time away to think about the future, where he stood in life and where he wanted to focus his energy into - thus creating a rebirth of himself and VoV's motivation through music.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y8ayzN-LqF8
The first steps, as we've seen, came in the form of single 'VAMPYR' which made an impact upon release last Wednesday and encouraged their fans to speak up at times when they noticed something off. As Jack says, even from a fan level, it could be something as small as just letting your mates know to pull their heads in:
"Calling out your mates if you see something of ill behaviour... It's obviously a gigantic culture problem that has been kept in some people's brains... it's just so important to talk to these people [now]."
Like a lot of old, outdated boomer behaviours and mannerisms, times have changed and we need to act now in order for everyone to have an enjoyable time within our scene, but that mentality also extends into our own general everyday lives as well. The sooner we act on this, the better life will be for everyone involved.
Now, talking about the future, it didn't take a rocket scientist to notice the glowing number in Void of Vision's EP title, which lead to the question about whether Chronicles was part of a series and if so, does this mean it's the start of what's to come? It didn't take much pressing because Jack is honestly such a sweetheart that he let slip the next phase of their release process:
"There is going to be more, I think we wanted to come out of the gates with Cronicles 1 with a more explosive type of VoV - something a bit, I guess baptised by fire in a sense... There's a long road ahead for this process - it's something that we definietly wrote with covid in mind, not knowing where there was going to be a proper normal to come back to - so what we have coming it's going to be for every sort of crowd of people that are possibly into or could ever get into VOV."
Intriguing isn't it! It got me pondering if this concept would see the band tackle several different styles of music as they tell their stories through the Chronicles series (even the possibility of there being seven releases to coincide with the seven deadly sins), Jack laughed at the idea put forth to him and explained there's plenty of the way for VoV fans:
"I don't think I've ever seen people do something in this sense and I think that's how we want to kind of approach our releases from here on in... I'm hoping that we can continue to do some exciting stuff with releases for the real near future"
"There's a lot more in the pipeline as you are suggesting, so people can have that to look forward to..."
As the band embark on this next chapter of their careers, it's exciting to not only watch them as a fan, but a peer in the music industry and see how far they've come from the Disturbia EP (where I first jumped in) to where they are now and where they foresee themselves down the track. Void of Vision are one of Australia's best upcoming bands and with plenty to come on the horizon, we're eager to see where they go and what they do next.
Virtual Hangs/Words by Paul ‘Browny’ Brown @brownypaul
Void of Vision play Knight and Day FestivalDecember 30 & 31 at Kryal Castle, Ballaratt - Details Here
Stream Chronicles I: Lust here
Void of Vision – Chronicles I: Lust EP tracklisting:
1. OHNE SICHT2. GOTHIKA3. VAMPYR4. THE LONELY PEOPLE
