Interview with V*A*S*E: ‘I think you can’t get enough of Chris Cornell!’

Brighton, Michigan grunge-rock band V*A*S*E have released their gloriously rowdy debut EP ‘For The First Time’.

The band, which was started in 2018, comprises cousins-turned-guitarists, Drew Kussmaul and J.T. Jasinski. The idea was conceived when, one day in 2015, J.T. played a very poor version of ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’ on acoustic guitar, according to his cousin. Kussmaul, intrigued, decided to buy an acoustic guitar to practice covers on, before upgrading to an electric Kurt Cobain signature Fender Jaguar. They’ve since added vocalist Christian Thibodeau, who has a natural grunge voice, and Derian Parsons on bass. ‘The asterisks don’t mean anything,’ Kussmaul said. ‘We were just copying the M*A*S*H logo from TV (laughs). You can pronounce our name the English or American way but we think ‘vase’ the English way is cooler.’

‘For The First Time’ blends Thibodeau’s naturally grungey voice, which veers towards metal in places, with punky, instrumental layers: ‘It’s kind of hard for an artist to describe their own music,’ Kussmaul admitted. ‘I think I’d ask someone what their favourite band is and if they say 90’s stuff or Nirvana, I’d say give us a try (laughs). We wanted the EP to be those songs. J.T. and I had written some of them as far back as 2016. We wrote all the tracks for this EP but Christian and Derian have written some of our upcoming stuff.’

The six track EP opens with the appropriately noisy ‘The Rite’, replete with fuzzy, distorted guitars and Thibodeau giving it his best Chris Cornell on vocals. It’s on the heavier side of grunge, with massive riffs and in your face drumming powering the track along: ‘I came up with the riffs and J.T. wrote the lyrics,’ Kussmaul said. ‘He helped me make decisions about how to play some parts. It’s very Sonic Youth inspired In the beginning, I’d use a fuzz pedal when I played it live but in the studio, there are so many pedals you can pull up on Logic (Pro). I’d never recorded before but my favourite guys bring in their Marshalls and pedals (laughs). I don’t have a big collection of pedals, just a wah, distortion and compressor. We messed around with sounds in the studio, using actual pedals and computer ones but in the end, we thought the computer ones sounded better!’

As the chorus goes: “Even if you know it, you might even show it. You might even make it lock, Imma take it on the top. Even if you know it, you might even show it. Hit ’em with the forty-five. Gonna take it like a rise.”

‘For me, it’s a very cynical look at anger, dealing with it in all the wrong ways’

‘The Rite’ can mean different things to different people, according to Kussmaul: ‘For me, it’s a very cynical look at anger, dealing with it in all the wrong ways,’ he said. ‘J.T. wrote the lyrics. From my understanding, he often will write lyrics only to find the meaning behind them after they are already laid down. We filmed the video in an abandoned high school in Detroit on the stage where they used to do plays. My friend Gerard plays a mysterious goth (laughs). The lyrics represent anger but it’s our song that we always play first, it slaps people in the face! We figured if they like that they’ll like the rest of the set. That guitar intro is in a weird time signature, every drummer has had a different opinion as to what that time signature actually is (laughs). A drummer friend of ours, Jake, said: “Its hard to follow at first, but I picked up on a pattern: It’s 9/8 and then switches to 8/8 for one measure, and then goes back to 9/8.” 

Other tracks are about being true to yourself and breaking the chains, which is evident in the closer ‘Fired and Free’, which erupts with a chuggy bass line riff, which is joined by a frenzied ‘whoosh’ around 20 seconds in: ‘The “whoosh” 20 seconds into ‘The Rite’ is just a computer effect,’ Kussmaul explained. ‘I’m not 100% sure, but if I remember right, it’s called a reverse chord. Basically, what I remember doing is playing a chord, then on Logic, the chord is “reversed,” then crescendos for a buildup effect.’

It’s easily my favourite track on the EP, it’s incredibly hooky and the way it builds around the two minute mark, combined with squealy riffs, makes it the standout track on the album. It almost feels if the guitars and drums are having a riff off in the outro, such is the power and energy they conjure: ‘J.T. came up with the idea for this one when Christian and Derian were already in the band. J.T. came up with the bass line. Theoretically, it’s about breaking the chains, about getting away from things that are bad for you. It’s very grand. It’s got that big bridge and energy when it kicks off. We wanted a unique snare beat like in the Dick Dale song ‘Misirlou’, but it is a specific live version from December 1995. Christian wrote half the lyrics.’

As the track goes: “Don’t you worry child. You fought a good fight. Though you question why, ’cause I see your high tide canvas for miles. It brings me to life, yeah, oh.”

When it comes to upcoming songs, they are not short of ideas: ‘We’ve got a whiteboard with 40 different ideas on it,’ Kussmaul grinned. ‘Some of them could be an idea for a song or just a riff.’

‘We wanted a unique snare beat like the one he had found in a Dick Dale song’

‘Good As Dead’ kicks off with a seriously fuzzy riff, with Thibodeau at his defiant best, giving me Pearl Jam vibes: ‘J.T. wrote the lyrics, it’s about relationships, love and lust,’ Kussmaul said. ‘It’s another one that was written a long time ago. It’s the second or third song that J.T. and I wrote together but we didn’t really like it (laughs). We put lyrics to it and came up with the little intro. We let the drum and bass fall where they did. We don’t have one drummer, both Elijah Simmons and Derek Laughlin play drums on the EP. We’ve been rocking with Shane Wheeler live on drums recently.’

As the track kicks off: “Well even though she said, even though she said. Lyin’ in my bed, I’m as good as dead.”

Kussmaul describes his local area as ‘a bunch of towns you haven’t heard of’, each with their own stereotype: ‘In Brighton, the stereotype is that if you’re older, you’re snobby with a decent amount of money,’ he said laughing. ‘There’s not really a music scene, there’s not a congregation of three to four bands. If you want to play shows, you have to go to Detroit or Ann Arbor.’

He turns out to be a massive Chris Cornell fan and I say that I am, too: ‘This year, I’ve listened to a lot of Soundgarden and Stone Temple Pilots,’ he said. ‘I think you can’t get enough of Chris Cornell! I find inspiration in a lot of things, including in jazz and in death metal (laughs). The endings of ‘Rusty Cage’ and ‘Jesus Christ Pose’ (both Soundgarden songs) are phenomenal. His song ‘4th Of July’, towards the end, he doubles the track and sings the song two different ways – the high part and the baritone. We tried to do that in the studio but we realised you can’t just do that, it’s soooo hard! He was a pure genius, one of the greatest performers of all time.’

If he could go for a pint with anyone, Kussmaul says that ‘Chris Cornell would be cool’: ‘Do I go with someone I think I’d have a good time with or someone I really admire? I’d like to go for a drink with Iggy Pop in a bar in 1968, I would see if I could get a genuine moment with him!’

Kussmaul is trying to think of their funniest moment: ‘It’s hard to pinpoint a funniest moment in the band, but there was something that made me laugh that happened just recently at one of our shows,’ he said. ‘We were playing at the New Dodge Lounge in Hamtramck and invited out a lot of our friends. During our set, in an attempt to get the crowd moving a little more, I layed a few kicks from stage to the chest of one of my good friends, Nick. These kicks were not devastating blows by any means, just a good natured attempt at stirring up the crowd, which I knew Nick would understand because I’ve known him for a while, and he’s seen plenty of our shows. About a week later, I was hanging with Nick and a couple other of our friends that were also at the show. Kaelan, another one of our friends who was there, brought up that show and how I layed a few kicks into Nick during the performance. Kaelan told me that he was confused at the kicks, and thought that I was pissed off at Nick for some reason and was trying to basically say “Fuck you” by kicking him in the chest! Kaelan is one of those guys who stands up for his friends at any cost, and he basically told me he was ready to stand up for Nick at that moment, because from his perspective, I was kicking his friend for no reason. We all found the miscommunication, and the image of Kaelan getting on stage to defend his friend from me hilarious!’