LOOK at that promo picture for Scottish rockers Vukovi; day-glo, brash, fun – a perfect representation of much of the material on their forthcoming debut album. Songs such as dizzy former singles Bouncy Castle and Boy George or the frantic And Then He Lost His Mind are powered by a sense of fun that’s almost aggressive – cathartic rock this certainly is.
“I can’t wait to perform that one live on tour,” says frontwoman Janine Shilstone of the last-mentioned. “It’s so much fun and it really shows off the band’s playing abilities. It’s quite easy to sing too, so it makes it even more fun.”
Speaking to The National just days before Kerrang! Magazine name her as one of the best ever frontpersons in rock, Shilstone could do with a break. It’s been a tough few weeks, she admits, readying the album and full UK tour, and preparing a hard-hitting video for forthcoming single and Shilstone’s calling card against convention Weirdo. Small wonder, then, that she’s currently nursing a severe cold.
Weirdo is defiantly pop, but it nevertheless tackles the often underestimated issue of bullying.
“I wrote the song to encourage people to stop being ashamed of their quirks, their interests, the way they look,” she says. “The video will be centred on teens and cyber bullying, which really scares me and is so prevalent now. It will be quite controversial, but I want to make a point of it. “Our manager was like: ‘I’m not sure we should do this’, and we were like: ‘We’ve never played it safe before so why start now?’ I know this might not make a massive difference, but I want people to not feel alone, and for them to know whatever they’re going through, someone else is too.”
That sense of empathy runs through the album like writing through sticky candy. From tackling relationship confusion to depression and suicide, Shilstone is a songwriter who fearlessly sets complex life troubles within catchy, kick-ass anthems. At turns self-mocking, sharp and challenging, the result is often illuminating, frequently empowering. Not unlike Alice Lowe’s recent film Prevenge, a comedy drama which, in addressing the often taboo subject of ambivalence in pregnancy, is as touching as it’s schlocky, there are many tones successfully at play here, no less so than hectic opener La Di Da. The former single is partly informed by the dynamic between The Joker and Harley Quinn, one of the comic book world’s most troubling, confusing relationships.
“It’s definitely an abusive relationship,” she says. “He can’t be without her but he’s constantly seeing how far he can push her. I was a big fan of the 1990s animation of Batman and I think people romanticise it in a way, but it’s essentially domestic abuse. That’s why I think she lost her mind. It’s about not romanticising it, it’s about saying: ‘Hold on, this is actually abuse.’ It’s maybe got a darkly funny way about it, but I hope I’ve treated it honestly.”
Shilstone lays herself bare frequently in this record, with tracks such as Prey, Target Practise and He Wants Me Not addressing poor treatment in relationships and the resulting emotional turmoil. Always poppy, always catchy, it’s like Taylor Swift if she had more System Of A Down records in her collection (and that, to The National at least, is a Very Good Thing).
“I don’t see the point in writing songs about things you can’t relate to, so my songwriting is very honest,” she says. “I’ve had many songs in my life which I’ve related to or helped me understand things. When you’re writing, you’re relaying things to yourself and you can begin to understand why you are the way you are. It’s definitely a reflective thing for me. I’m not deliberately trying to make people people relate to things, but I’m sure there’ll be a million people going through what I’ve gone through.”
That these 12 songs gel so well, Shilstone says, is partly down to the influence of producer Bruce Rintoul.
“He’s so, so challenging,” she says of the longtime Vukovi collaborator. “He’s brought the album to the next level. We could have never have achieved the sound we’ve got on the record without him, and as soon as I went into pre-production with him, I knew straight away he was right for the album.
“He’s good at getting rid of the shit and getting to the point. I’m like that and I think that’s why we get on.”
Formed in 2010 after bassist Jason Trotter, drummer Colin Irving and guitarist Hamish Reilly’s short-lived outfit Wolves, Vukovi – itself a derivation of the Serbian for “wolves” – may only be releasing their debut album now, but Shilstone says the band is happy to have waited it out.
“We’ve had a lot of hurdles and difficult things happen to us over the years but when I look back now, I think it would have been the ending of us [to have released an album earlier],” she says. “It would have broken us, we weren’t ready and I don’t think we had the right team behind us.
“We’ve worked so hard to get to this point and I think we’re smarter and better musicians and songwriters. A few years ago, we were just finding our feet. If we’d done it then we would have fallen on our arses.”
March 10, King Tuts, Glasgow, sold out.
March 19, The Tunnels, Aberdeen, 7.30pm, £7. Tickets from bit.ly/VukoviTunnels Vukovi’s self-titled debut album is out March 10 via LAB Records vukovi.co.uk www.facebook.com/vukoviband
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