Interview with Vicious Rooster: ‘I want to bring big rock ‘n’ roll back’

LA-based rock band Vicious Rooster brought out their majestic bluesy single, ‘Something’s Goin’ On’, last November, which was memorable for its throbbing bass line and explosive percussion. Now, two new singles are in the works.

Argentinian singer-songwriter Juan Abella founded Vicious Rooster after he moved to LA from Buenos Aires four years ago. He is the only permanent member of the band, playing guitar and harmonica but he drafts in musicians from both Buenos Aires and LA to play on various tracks. His name was inspired the fact that he likes bands who have two words in their name: ‘I combined two words that I thought sounded cool and people seem to like it. Last year, I went to NAMM in Anaheim (the music trade fair, the National Association of Music Merchants) and saw Jerry Cantrell from Alice in Chains, who is one of my idols. I was wearing my Vicious Rooster badge and he noticed it and thought it was a cool name – because they have a song called ‘Rooster’ – and I thought, well if he thinks it’s cool then yeah!’

‘Something’s Goin’ On’ is a seriously high-energy track and features a scorching solo in the bridge: ‘You know when you’re sometimes attracted to someone but what you’re attracted to is the idea of what they are like as a person? That’s what it’s about, that type of ‘this could be something’. You have this rush, this feeling about this sexy person. It has a lot of energy. It came to me super fast. I wrote around 70% of it in half an hour. On many songs, you have to build the end of the story to catch the listener’s attention but on this one, it launches straight into the story. We recorded the video during the pandemic, it’s our first video clip.’ (He gave me serious guitar envy in the video because he’s playing a Gibson Les Paul guitar.) 

As the song goes: ‘It might be the things you say, it might be the way you move but when you come my way, I find myself with no excuse. I ain’t tryin’ to make it stop, I’m only telling you the truth. There’s something goin’ on between me and you.’

The track was mixed by Mikal Reid, who’s worked with renowned artists such as Mick Jagger, Alice Cooper and Ben Harper.

‘Everything you watch in your living room as a kid, I wanted to go and play in those places’

Living in the US has been a long-time dream of Abella’s: ‘It was something I’d always wanted to do,’ he said. ‘I’m a huge fan of The Beatles, they’re my top band. ‘Everything you watch in your living room as a kid, I wanted to go and play in those places – in the UK or the US – where those people have played. I arrived here in 2016, the day after Christmas. I was coming to study music for six months and that became nine months and then a year and now, four years on, here we are!’

In August, he brought out the single ‘The Moon Is Dancing’: ‘It talks about insomnia and anxiety, when you can’t sleep because your thoughts won’t let you,’ he said. As the song goes: ‘The tension’s rising, my mind is going insane and my defences slowly crumble down, the moon is dancing, my thoughts are rolling to nowhere bound.’

Abella gets inspired in all kinds of places: ‘I might get an idea in the street and sing it into my phone and fill in the gaps when I get home,’ he laughed. ‘Once in Argentina, I was very tired when I got this idea and thought, no, please, I don’t want to wake up, but I mumbled it into my phone anyway. When I listened to it the next morning, I couldn’t understand anything! Later on, I was in the car when the idea came back to me, so I started to sing it into my phone but I got pulled over by the cops and fined for being on the phone. The song made it onto the album, though! I think it was ‘Set It Free’. The stories on this album are completely connected, the hard part is that they have a connection for me but how do you make them have a connection for the listener?’

‘I’d like to release at least five songs this year’

Next up are two new singles, likely ‘Change Your Mind’ and ‘Whatever Happened To Love?’: ‘I’m working on them both at the moment – and others – trying to decide which one to bring out first,’ Abella said. ‘I have the drums and bass and some guitar parts but I need to record what’s left to finish them. They’ve both got big, very catchy choruses. If I can, I’d like to release at least five songs this year.’

Vicious Rooster brought out their debut album, The Darkest Light, in 2017, which while rocky, is less gritty than the songs they released last year: ‘The Darkest Light has more of a Black Crowes or Supertramp kind of vibe,’ he said. ‘Now, my songs are shorter, more to the point. (‘Something’s Goin’ On’ is just 3 minutes). I’m happy that rock ‘n’ roll is coming back, I like that a lot. I like classic rock, when it sounds a bit raw. I want to bring big rock ‘n’ roll back, where musicians actually play, where it’s not just done with software, not that there’s anything wrong with that.’

The stand-out track for me on The Darkest Light is ‘Devil to Me’, with its blistering, frenetic intro. ‘It’s a special song on the album,’ Abella said. ‘It’s the only song in which the guitars are tuned to standard rather than open. I did this because the melody came into my head and it was easier to play in standard tuning.’ (‘Open’ tuning is where the strings are tuned differently from ‘standard’ tuning  – EADGBE – in such a manner that strumming with no strings fingered or fretted generates a major or minor chord.) 

Abella says he was going through a break-up when he wrote the album as well as self-searching in terms of what he wanted to do. ‘This song is not about that, though, it’s the only one on the album that isn’t,’ he said. ‘It’s a pop/rock song with a catchy melody that could be about flirting and sexy times. It’s a love song, really, it has harmonicas, guitars, more parts than some of the other songs and a more standard structure.’

‘Runaway Angel’ on The Darkest Light is often people’s favourite, according to Abella: ‘It’s catchy and simple. I really like singing it live, I sing it differently nowadays – louder and higher! ‘The Darkest Light’ is my favourite on the album even though I haven’t played it much live. That one and ‘Falls to Pieces’, where we added organs. ‘The Darkest Light’ is about moving on from loneliness and finding a new me.’

His love for The Beatles has remained strong over the years: ‘If I could only listen to one band for the rest of my life, it’d be The Beatles. I saw Paul McCartney play with Ringo Starr at the Dodgers Stadium. I would love to tour with Paul McCartney or The Black Crowes.’

The most amazing show that Abella has seen in LA was blues and roots singer Chris Pierce aka Reverend Tall Tree: ‘Live, it’s insane, the power of his voice. I love Chris Cornell, too, and David Coverdale! I got to see Chris Cornell at a blues festival in Brazil, my uncle invited me and John Mayall played, as did Dr. John. The last performer was Chris Cornell. The first thing he said was: ‘I don’t know what I’m doing at a blues festival but let’s do it!’ I watched the whole set, just leaning on the stage.’