After getting this set up and waiting for 40 minutes, I got to speak to some of the guys from Vincent's Not Well.
VAJ: Well, let's start with who you are, what you play, and what you do?
Mike: Michael Campbell, lead vocalist and do 99% of the writing, lyricwise, and then I guess the guitar player, George, starts the tunes, and then generally we all lend a hand in the rest of it.
Darren: Darren Keddy, bass player, and influencing on the writing, and Danny Mcgraw is on our drums. George Leighie on guitar...Basically, George and Mike get together and they have the idea of the song down. Even Mike, the singer, comes in with ideas on how he thinks the song should go, kind of a little melody in his head.
Mike: I don't play at all, but I do have a couple of tape recorders...and I'll write a song...and I'll sing it into the tape recorder, and I'll say George, this is what I got, and he'll come close to it or change it a little bit...
Darren: We try to make our songs so that they don't get mundane. We don't want to have one type of sound.
VAJ: What do you write about, lyrically?
Darren: Life, love, and people.
Mike: Yeah. It's usually quite deep actually. A lot of bands start out writing affairs of the heart and stuff like that, and it's hard to get away from that, so some of the songs are about boy meets girl and their relationship type thing, but I try to stay a little bit away from that...things in general going on in the world...dealing with religion...the fighting that goes on in the name of religion...we're not a religious band it's just things going on in the world...It's usually along the serious line or fantasy...
VAJ: How would you like people to feel and react to your live performances?
Mike: During our shows, people go away with feeling they're energized, and whatever we're singing, we're portraying energy...
Darren: We have a tendency of sounding very powerful.
VAJ: What originals do you guys get off on, on stage?
Darren: Everyone of them, honest to God... (laughter)
VAJ: Alright, now why don't we go back a little bit and tell me how Vincent's Not Well got started. Where did it come from?
Mike: Darren and I and our guitar player George, lived together (5 years ago)...they were doing their own band thing and I wasn't in the band. All of a sudden their singer couldn't make it...so I sang, and I was awful...after awhile we just started doing things. One day I wrote a song...I said "George I got this song here...", he put music to it and all of a sudden we played it...
Darren: When I joined the band, Pat was a drummer, who knew Mike and George...and then they asked me to go into this competition with them...They were called Plain And Simple then, we tried it and the drummer decided, "I want to start a band with you guys"...so then we changed the name and we changed the music...that was in 1990. '89 was Plain And Simple and '90 was Vincent's Not Well...
VAJ: Why that name?
Mike: Well we used to practice on the other side of Riverview at my house...There's this older couple that lived across the street and down 2 houses. Everytime we played, she'd either call me...or the cops would show up...I'd pick up the phone, the first thing she'd say is, "Vincent's Not Well, turn that damn music down!!"....and hey that's it.
Darren: Then we had a fella, the first drummer, had a friend who was an artist, and he heard the name...he was just sketching one day...he sketched a little fella in a straight jacket standing in front of a urinal and he didn't look very happy. So that's basically our Vincent...and he looks like our latest drummer (laughter)
VAJ: Now you mentioned earlier about being in the studio, tell me what lead up to your new recording.
Mike: It was one of our goals and we do set goals. We did 2 or 3 recordings on 4-track, but we did one with 13 songs on it and we felt it was the best recording we could get on 4-track. We said if we want to grow in the right direction, we'll have to get it done professionally...We approached the studio and told them what we expect, he said this is what I have to offer and it seem to fit our needs and we booked it, and we were ready. 8 songs down in 4 hours...this is the kind of stuff labels want to hear...that's cheap!!!
VAJ: Now what are you planning to do with it once it is completed?
Mike: We're going to distribute it to labels for one thing.
Darren: I'm going to be seeing program directors of radio stations.
Mike: Campus radio stations. They see to be our venue. That's where we're going to concentrate on in the fall is the university scene.
Darren: We're also going to take one of 8 songs, a song about the homeless, and we're gonna make a video.
Mike: There's a lot of talent out there and we want to be competitive, we've got to get noticed and that's our goal. We want to get noticed.
Darren: Moist said that. That's the secret to making it is to market your band.
VAJ: What do you guys have lined up for immediately, right now here in the future?
Mike: We're really concentrating on the recording right now.
Darren: We're playing "24 Hours In June" but that's just something we're doing and not really a goal.
Mike: We're looking for exposure. We're doing freebies. "24 Hours In June", we just did a benefit down in Sackville...we're doing all of this kind of thing for exposure. Of course we want to play some gigs that make some money cuz that helps us with the recording...I think our main goal is to get the tapes out there...We're looking for sponsors right now...maybe longer term goals we're looking for a manager and an agent and that type of thing. Right now we're doing all the foot work...we want to concentrate on the music more than anything else and let somebody else worry about that. We want to travel to Halifax and Saint John and PEI and wherever.
Darren: We'd like to back up some big time bands too.
Mike: That thing in Newfoundland, with I Mother Earth, Tea Party and Moist. We could slide right in there. That's our stuff.
Darren: There's one thing we have to say though, another one of our goals is there's no time limit on how fast we achieve any of these goals, we have fun. That is one of the most important things. We keep saying that we're having fun and this is a ball.
Mike: We don't argue much. We give each other constructive criticism, very often too, and it goes over quite well. We're pretty honest and we don't fight about it.
VAJ: Do you have any final comments to all the screaming Vincent's Not Well fans out there?
Mike: Come out and see the show...people go away energized.
Darren: For a bunch of old guys we got a lot of piss and vinegar. (laughter) Which is good eh?