Following on from the groovey number ‘sand lake’, Brazilian-born, New York-based musician Vinny Silva, aka Vicious Clay, returns with a striking new single ‘mine all mine’. From his upcoming album Bleecker Street Revisited, this fresh release pushes this artist’s songwriting into an even more existential and reflective territory, backed up by a powerful live band sound. Influenced by the literary weight of Bob Dylan, the groove of The 1975 and Led Zeppelin, and even works like The Odyssey and Huxley’s The Doors of Perception, Silva distills big ideas into sharp, four-minute bursts of rock energy. What began as a solo endeavor in 2020 with a self-titled debut EP has since developed into a deeply personal studio project where his intimate notebook scribbles have been transformed into fully-fledged singles. Whether writing in his own space or performing on stage, it’s clear that Silva is totally in his element as Vicious Clay. For On The Record, we spoke with this up-and-coming about inspiration, process and what fans can expect next.
Welcome to Unrecorded! For those who aren’t already familiar with Vicious Clay can you introduce yourself?
Thank you! My name is Vinny Silva, I created Vicious Clay a couple years ago as a solo project, and it has evolved into a sick 4-piece live band + solo studio session band. We released the debut self-titled eP in 2020, and have a full album coming out very soon.
We last connected over your single ‘Sand Lake’, so how does ‘mine all mine’ continue or shift the story that you’re telling with your upcoming album Bleecker Street Revisited?
This album is a collection of songs I’ve written at Bleecker St, living in Bleecker St, or about Bleecker St, and there are many recurring different Bleecker streets in my life, almost if like a destiny kind of thing. So mine all mine is about adventures, being on the road, and trying to make sense of art, music, purpose while living every day like the last.
Was there a specific moment or thought that inspired your existential and reflective lyrics?
I’m really proud of the meaning this song has taken. Many different moments and thoughts came together for the conception of this. Musically, it all came together pretty quick, it just kind of wrote itself and I just followed it wherever it took me. Lyrically, it came to me as a meta-song about writing songs, and finding inspiration in different art forms other than just music. I challenged myself to try to do all that in the simplest way possible and hope it worked out!
How do your influences like Bob Dylan, The 1975 and Led Zeppelin come through in your overall style?
Dylan has always been an influence, but for this song I was listening to his Nobel prize acceptance speech, and the literary examples and stories he narrates inspired me very much. He has the best and most unique way of digesting dense literature into his lyrics and books. The 1975 and Zeppelin are contrasting but groovy musical influences, and I thought I should mention them as inspiration for this song.
Outside of music, you also draw inspiration from literary works like The Odyssey and Aldous Huxley’s The Doors of Perception. How do you distill such weighty concepts into a four-minute rock song?
Simply by taking lines or simple stories in them that inspired me, it’s not really dense when a certain excerpt from them easily translates to anyone. Again, it’s a meta-song about experiencing art or something for the first time, living that and moving on. It’s existential yes, but at the same time, it’s supposed to be lived and then, ‘burn after reading.’ Does that make sense?
Going from metaphysical to the physical, would you say that the space that you write and record in also affects your sound?
Yes! Writing a song is usually a very contemplative process for me, lived and thought of for days, weeks, months, in different places and scenarios, picking up the phone and recording an idea, rushing to my notebook and writing my thoughts, pen on paper. That’s how it was with this song at least, like a collage of ideas and locations. I recorded a demo of it at home, and brought it in to Studio G where I recorded all instruments, and it gave such a new life to the song. Every part of the process from demo to mixing and mastering, was so intoxicating in the best way!
What impact does your dynamic with long-time collaborator Apoena Frota have on your songwriting process?
Whoever has worked with Apoena, knows how important he becomes in any project he’s involved with. I brought in all of the songs with pretty matured demos, melody, harmony and song structure. The energy he brings in to the production process, while engineering all of the sessions and saying the right comments at the right time to get the best performance out of me, taming me down but also getting me absolutely lit up whenever necessary.
How do tracks like ‘mine all mine’ change when performed on stage? Do you like to keep to the originals or switch it up for a gig?
So glad you asked that. This one has a life of its own on stage, it really does go wherever it wants to go in the bridge section, with a new tempo, and lots of improvisation. I like to keep it fresh and open to infinite possibilities every time. It is one of the best live Vicious Clay songs in my opinion.
With ‘mine all mine’ out and the full album approaching, what do you hope listeners carry with them from this track into the rest of Bleecker Street Revisited?
Not every song is as dense as this one, but it is definitely so much fun to listen and dance to! The whole album is about having fun, regardless of how deep I had to dig for all sorts of feelings and good and bad experiences. I’ve dressed it all up the best way possible, I believe, and it’s an album about life, hopefully from a fresh perspective you haven’t seen before. Can’t wait for you to hear all 10 songs and tell me what you think afterwards!
What else can listeners look forward to from Vicious Clay?
Maybe one or two more singles, and the album coming next, by the end of Fall you’ll have everything out (besides what I’m currently working on for future releases). Then we’ll have a couple more shows, one a month, and a two-show run in Brazil at the end of the year! November 30th at Jai Club in São Paulo, and December 10th at Bar Valentino in Londrina. Can’t wait!
You can also listen to ‘mine all mine’ in our Indie Rockers playlist.
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