Answered By: Luke & Gus from VOILÀ
LUKE
GUS
How did you guys become a band?
We bonded over a love for the late great Avicii. I’m pretty sure we started making music the day we met actually if I remember correctly.
What’s the meaning of the name VOILÀ?
It literally can be interpreted as ‘Here We Are!’. But for us it started from a fascination with magic and that then evolved to realizing that VOILÀ was a representation of the rawness of our lyrics. Every song uncovers something very real to us and relatable to everyone else.
The other side of the coin is it can be interpreted as “There You Are”. This echoes the sentiment that we want others to find themselves represented in the music. We always want our music to be a mirror not a megaphone.
Can you tell us a little something about each of you?
I used to sing Jazz music in the West End and once upon a time wanted to be a professional golfer!
Gus is a ridiculously talented golfer, but he has yet to take me on at the putt putt mini golf courses. I suspect this is out of fear. As for a fact about me, I’m a massive Harry Potter fan. For those wondering, I am a Ravenclaw.
What is it like being in a band? And Whats the difference from going from being solo artists to becoming a band?
We were actually just talking about this the other day! We were saying how difficult it would be to do this alone. There’s such a nice system of accountability and second opinion on stuff that makes both the creative and business side of this endeavor streamlined.
How would you describe your musical style as a band?
The Rockiest thing you’d hear in Pop! We want to be able to bring a level of relatability and rawness of emotion to pop music.
What artists/bands are you influenced by?
I’m mostly influenced by lyrics. So I take a lot of my muse from literature, poetry, and bands who are good storytellers. I like this because it doesn’t anchor my musical taste to a genre. Just today my playlist was Sam Hunt, Fall Out Boy, Sinatra, and Elliott Smith.
What’s the difference from your band and all bands that have come before you?
Our band has two frontmen! Conventionally it’s the lead singer who fronts the band but our dynamic is such that we both are very active in the live show experience! (Luke thinks he’s a comedian)
Very funny Gus… But wow this is a really good question! I don’t view music as a competition personally so I don’t focus on what makes us different. We will always be unique as long as we are honest because no one else has the same collective experiences and perspective as another person. It’s the whole concept of no two hearts beat the same. So as long as we write from the heart we will always be ‘different’.
You guys recently released your new single, “Anyway”. Can you tell us how this song came about and the meaning of the song?
Happily! So for me the song was centred around the concept of living in the moment. Without judgement, without distractions. I really believe that our generation makes assumptions that lead us to doubt ourselves. “You Will Find A Way” is a lyric that I’d cite as something that sums this up! Luke took it a step further and developed the idea into a fully fledged story. Anyway was born!
I was inspired by forbidden romance from two lovers on opposite sides of the tracks. It comes from my love for stories like “The Notebook”, and “Titanic”.
Do you guys have a creative say in your music and videos?
Yes! We are overwhelmingly fortunate to work with a team of people who are on the same page as we are with what we want things to look and sound like. It keeps things honest and authentic and I think that is really important when making music that connects with people. We just worked with Kevin Kobori on our “Stand Tall” music video and he inspired us to tell the true story about the meaning of the song. We even flew my real father in to be in the video!
What do you hope to gain out of your music careers?
I want our music to serve as a platform to then make people aware of what we believe in. I’m an avid advocate of every measure being taken to preserve our environment and ultimately want this awareness to be something that comes to the fore as a result of our musical endeavours!
I’d like to help with the issue of domestic violence especially in my hometown of Milwaukee. No woman’s golden years should be black and blue.
What’s the feeling you guys get when performing in front of your fans?
It’s an honor! They are collectively our boss. They are the reason we have jobs and can make a living. It’s kind of like getting called into the bosses office for a performance review (no pun intended). It is super exciting!
We haven’t played a huge amount of shows yet but the feeling of someone knowing your song word for word is one of the best I’ve ever known.
Does your fanbase have a name?
Hmm, interesting, well even though we’ve got a lot of work to do to make it a thing, we’ve always thought that our message aligns with those who find themselves in a state of disillusionment. The term is ‘The Branded’. We wrote a song called ‘Branded’ that we hope to put out someday and the term kinda stuck!
How do you want your relationship to be with your fans?
Extremely open! We write these songs for us, but share them for you. These songs have helped us get through things in our own life so now we want to play pharmacist and pass the medicine along to those who need it. It inspires us when we hear from fans!
What social media platform do you use most to stay connected to your fans?
Instagram! We do our best to reply to everyone who messages us. Although we are both so bad at social media we just only recently figured out that there is a seperate tab for message “requests” haha! Embarrassing, but we are learning!
What was the craziest fan encounter you guys have had?
I think what is always crazy to us is to connect with fans who live in places we have never been! Same goes for where english is not their primary language. That is so exciting for us! Life is too short to travel everywhere so it is really nice when your work does that for you.
Will there be an ep/album out soon?
Now that is something we hope to confirm very soon, watch this space. Our turnover of music is such that we’re constantly cutting new songs so we’ve always felt that we can be putting out a lot of music: right now we’re getting that plan figured out!
What’s an average day for “VOILÀ” look like?
I’m a morning person: I’ve been in the gym, had breakfast and am ready to go by 8:30 every morning. Normally the first couple hours are consumed by sending off emails and links and making sure that people have the latest versions of demo’s that we’re updating pretty much every day. Then if we can get away with it we will cut something new and we normally take turns either starting with a melody I am excited about or a guitar lick that Luke comes up with. Our problem comes when we have to stop to give our ears a break or get some rest. That normally comes a little bit closer to dawn than we had hoped.
I’m a night owl, usually up until around 4. Gus is more the routine oriented person, I never do the same thing twice. The chaos inspires me. I like reading different things and writing different types of poetry that I keep in lists on my phone so we can pull them for lyrics when the opportune moment strikes.
Where do you guys hope the band is in 5 years?
In the UK to play Wembley arena for the fourth time!
Doing a five year recap interview with the lovely folks at Teen Music Insider.
Do you guys have any last things you want to tell your supporters?
I’d like to tell them a joke! What do you get when you drop a piano down a mineshaft? …. A-Flat Minor!
My jokes aren’t quite up to scratch so I’d just say thanks for listening and that it’s about to get exciting as our live show is now fully operational and we have a tonne of new music to put out!
Thank you guys for taking the time out of your busy schedule to answer these questions.
Thank you for having us it’s been a pleasure!
