One of the most exciting names to come out of Australia in recent times, duo V O E have been making waves in the world of drum & bass with their electrifying blend of male & female vocals, rock n' roll energy, and stellar synths. Reminiscent of the likes of some of the greats like Pendulum, NERO, and Koven, V O E are certainly on the path to success. With such an exciting sound and future in store, and after recently winning a release on NCS through Koven's Track & Build competition, we decided it was high time to catch up with the duo to learn more about who they are and what they've been up to. Plus, on top of an in-depth interview, V O E have prepared a special Magnetic Mix to give you a proper taste of their unique sounds.
Check out the V O E Magnetic Mix below for 60 minutes of the most vibrant & dynamic drum & bass selections to get a true taste of the unstoppable duo's sound. The tracklist is at the end of the article.
Hey guys, pleasure to have you with us today! How are things?
It’s a pleasure to be here! Things have been busy but we wouldn’t have it any other way.
Hailing from Adelaide, Australia, have things started to open up again post-lockdown? Are you able to get back in the rave? (Totally not jealous)
Things have certainly changed here but our city has worked hard to adapt & started to open up, we’ve had a bit of a setback recently but venues are hopefully welcoming back a dance floor in the near future. As for the rave life, We were lucky enough to be able to fly out to Darwin to perform at Electric Storm festival – Equally as fun as it was sweaty haha.
How did you guys stay busy during the lockdown?
We put our nose to the grind and hit the studio. One of the biggest things was writing and recording with our UK mate Telomic for our tune "Not Thinking Straight." Another past time was doing live streams with a youth facility called Northern Sound System to keep in contact with our students and keep the production inspiration alight for them while we were all at home.
How would you say the scene in Australia compares to other places you’ve been to?
There’s previously been more of an underground scene for DnB here in Aus and while it’s been finding it’s way into venues & festivals, we think the time is right for a full blown take over.
As for the community there is definitely a lot of consistency when it comes to the drum and bass scene world wide.
We’ve found during lockdown we’ve made so many new friends and connected with labels through streams and online DnB groups. The appreciation for a solid roller or disgusting half time is truly the essence of happiness.
Australia has definitely become a hotspot for drum & bass in recent years alongside New Zealand – who are some of your favorite local artists we should have on our radar?
Now that’s a tough one! We’ve really been getting around Dead Zodiac, Blaine Stranger, Defyre, PHDNB, OhQ & we saw the most insane scratch DJ recently on a Remedy stream called Lickweed who has the legs of the Tasmanian Devil for hands.
So you started out as two separate acts, CARZi and Tevlo – how did you two come to meet and eventually work together as a duo?
I (Caroline) was hosting a radio show on Fresh 92.7 and invited Tom to come in for an interview because I loved one of his other tracks and wanted to know more.
He mentioned he was having a hard time finding a vocalist to collaborate with so I promptly invited myself to his next studio session haha
After working on our first track together called "Armour" we realized there was a lot of chemistry in the studio and accidentally made another 8 tracks in 3 months – we were a band whether we liked it or not.
V O E
Photo credit: @creatively.jessica.b
What are the main advantages of working as a duo?
One of the biggest things is having someone there to have your back, any questions or ideas we can always bounce off each other. Also half the workload! Haha
While Tom is mastering our vocals or making the next whopper instrumental, I can work on a live mix or keep up to date with our promo.
And can you tell us about the name, V O E?
The name stands for "Vision of Empire." Back in 2018 we were scheduled to release "Asking For It" but didn’t have a band name yet. So for 2 weeks we googled names, rinsed thesauruses and had our friends and family on task as well. One of our friends Nick burst into the studio one night screaming "VISION OF EMPIRE" after he played the move on League of Legends.
He explained it as a flash of light that wipes out all enemy forces & we thought that was pretty fitting for what we had planned for the future.
How would you describe V O E’s sound to someone who had never heard you before?
If you’re listening for the first time you’re going to be hearing our insides – heart, soul and guts translated sonically into emotive filth.
Male & female lead vocals on our tracks, belting harmonies and bass heavy drops with music moods that range from liquid to techy neuro funk, there’s a song for all occasions haha
You’re the winners of Koven’s recent Track and Build 2.0 Competition and are now releasing the winning track “Giants” with NCS – congrats! Can you tell us a bit more about this process?
Thank you so much!! We are honestly over the moon about the release and can’t wait to see how the NCS fanbase responds to it!
We had seen the Track and Build 2.0 competition online and instantly had ideas of which tracks we could submit. Going through our demos and a few new ideas trying to imagine what might work well with Wreckout, we ended up sending through 5 demos and then the wait began. When we were contacted to say we had gotten through to the next round and hearing the other contestants, we thought honestly this could be anyone’s game!
After the announcement was made that we had won we worked hard to finalize our master with Koven & the team (Move some harmonies and clean up leads, etc), organize our social media content and even prepare a mix for the Track & Build 2.0 EP.
How did you celebrate when you found out you’d won?
After crying in public we organized a special night out with our mates starting with Pho and cold rolls and ending with a few too many cocktails haha.
And are there any other labels you’d like to release with, or have plans with already, after this?
We might just have a few things in the works… *Winks suspiciously*
December/Jan is going to be a huge month of releases for us starting with NCS which has been a huge goal of ours, Aus label ProtoCode with our tune "Where You Belong" (Shout out to Altitxde for creating an incredible Xenomorph for our artwork).
These releases will be followed up by our ultimate dream labels Viper, RAM, Liquicity & Blackout, but you’ll have to wait to find out more.
If you could collaborate with any artist, living or dead, DnB or otherwise, who would you choose?
We actually started putting together a list the other day of artists and for most accounts we are pretty aligned – huge influences/inspirations would be Joe Ford, Noisia, Prodigy, Nero and Koven.
Out of left field we’ve seen Dillon Francis thrash a 175bpm live stream recently and send it like post, so we might have a shot at a collab there haha.
What are your goals for 2021? And what have you already got lined up?
First goal would be to get on one of the Rampage/Viper/Liquicity events once we can shoot over to the UK – live events where we can belt out a tune and shred the keytar!
We do have some live shows planned for 2021 in Perth with ProtoCode and in New Zealand once borders are lifted, then it’s just preparing the next batch of tunes for the masses!
Thanks so much for your time today, really looking forward to seeing what you have in store for the new year!
Thank you so much for having us!! Hope we can chat again soon & if you’re ever in Aus share a few tunes and a boogie!
Tracklist:
- V O E – We Go On
- Sub Focus & Dimension – Desire
- Delta Heavy – Kaleidoscope
- Futurebound – Dangerous
- Dead Zodiac – The Fall (V O E Remix)
- V O E – If You Want Me
- Laminar – Osiris
- Maduk – Come Back To Me
- Pythius & Black Sun Empire – Kepler
- V O E – Where You Belong
- Muzzy, Koven & Feint – Worth The Lie
- Magnetude – Falling
- Harriet Jaxxon – The Sound
- Giganti – Olympa
- Telomic & V O E – Not Thinking Straight (V O E Heavy VIP)
- Dimension – Saviour (ft. Sharlene Hector)
- Koven – Followers (A.M.C Remix)
- Halflight – The Body Snatcher
- V O E – Giants
- Blaine Stranger – Rock with It (ft. Coppa)
- Shockone – Follow Me
- V O E – Revenant
- The Weeknd – Blinding Lights (V O E Re-Drop)
- V O E – Sirens
