Second Time's The Charm

Joe Kavanagh Looks At Vega4, An Upcoming Band Who're On Their Way To Success In The U.S.A.

Throughout the course of rock n'roll there have been many examples of bands that have succeeded in overseas markets, while remaining all but anonymous in their home countries. Until recently this phenomenon has predominantly involved American acts that enjoyed their fist taste of success in Europe before conquering their homeland. In the past, artists like Jimi Hendrix and the Pixies enjoyed huge success on the right side of the Atlantic before they ever managed to make an impression in the States, but for whatever reason, this trend has begun to reverse itself in recent times. Over the course of the past couple of years, it has been the European acts that have seen their careers blossom in the US as their campaigns at home have stalled or failed to get off the ground. Welsh metallers Lost Prophets are capable of selling out arenas throughout North American but can barely crack the charts in the UK, while former Mercury Music Prize winners, Gomez are currently enjoying huge success Stateside almost a decade after their popularity peaked in their native England. The latest beneficiaries of this curious tendency is Vega4, whose star is presently charting a steady course that looks set to take them to the top of the American music scene, despite the near absurd fact that they would be lucky to sell out a tour of Ireland's pub circuit.

For the band's beginnings, you have to travel back to Derry when a young Johnny McDaid decided to pick up a guitar, inspired by a moment when as a young child he vividly recalls watching Live Aid on television and seeing U2's performance as well as Queen's near-mythical set. In a period when Derry was still in the grip of the Troubles, local people banded together to make their city a better place, resulting in the creation of a musical collective called The Nerve Center, where older musicians shared their time and experience with youngsters eager to learn an instrument. This spirit of solidarity brought in literally a who's who of the local music scene and McDaid had the honor of getting his first guitar lesson from none other than John O'Neill, who had found fame as the guitarist for legendary Derry act: The Undertones. Needless to say, the first lesson involved learning the chords to Teenage Kicks and McDaid was immediately hooked and began spending every spare minute practicing and working on writing his own songs. By 17-years-old, McDaid knew exactly what he wanted to do with his life and, finishing school, he set out for London with his guitar on his back, determined to make a career as a musician. At first, the only gigs he could find were out on the street busking, sometimes pulling in the equivalent of $400 per day, but more often than not struggling with change, rubbish and even condoms that passersby threw into his guitar case. Aside from providing him with money, busking also taught him how to project his vocals and offered him the perfect opportunity to road test some of his own material. He became a fixture on the streets and in the pubs around Leicester Square, where he wowed people with his mix of original compositions and cover versions of songs by artists as diverse as Elvis and Aztec Camera.

The watershed moment in his life came in 1999 when he was introduced to guitarist Bruce Gainsford, bassist Simon Walker and drummer, Bryan McLellan, who were respectively a New Zealander, an Englishman and a Canadian. Although the three came from culturally different backgrounds, they found a common goal in music and when their first jam session together ran for an hour solid without a word being spoken, the four men knew that they were on to something that could turn out to be a little bit special. As the band grew comfortable with each other, they devised novel ways to incorporate the different musical elements each member had to offer and every week rehearsals would begin with the band bringing in what they termed 'homework.' Given their often wildly disparate tastes in music, each member would bring in 5-10 songs from their own collection and the band would sit around and listen before working on their own material. After spending several months honing a set the band played its first gigs around London and began to make waves almost immediately with a sound that linked elements of new wave, pop and hard-edged rock. By 2000, they had signed a recording contract with Taste Media and began work on their debut album at a variety of locations ranging from a studio in Cornwall, England, that was only accessible by boat to more metropolitan surroundings across the Atlantic in New York and Los Angeles. The resulting effort, Satellites, appeared in 2001 to little fanfare and although there were flashes of brilliance contained within, a dearth of exposure and a failure to truly separate themselves from the crowd meant that the album failed to meet expectations. For many critics, the record simply owed too much to acts like Muse and Radiohead although its mixed components also meant that it suffered from a lack of identity. The upshot of this identity crisis saw the band's management make some questionable career choices, first sending them off on tour with dreary rocker Bryan Adams and then out on a European tour with another Canadian act: Nickelback. Both choices seemed ill conceived, particularly given the fact that the latter have a predominantly heavy metal following in Europe and the band found themselves playing to a curious crowd of long hair and leather each night, who greeted them more with puzzlement than enthusiasm. Still taking the 'glass is half full' approach, the band persevered and McDaid looks back on the experience with some affection, claiming: 'If I don't like a dude's hair, it doesn't mean I can't like his music. And I don't believe in making everything generic. Thin Lizzy took U2 on tour with them.'

The band went on to sign several licensing deals with smaller labels overseas in order to get their music out in such countries as Japan, Germany and Australia but their joy at signing a US deal with Capital Records was short lived when the label made a u-turn and decided that they would not release the album after all. With album sales flagging, their career floundering and the acrimony growing between the band and their label something had to give and by 2003 the group became embroiled in a bitter legal battle to wrest control of their music back from their label. The bitter dispute would last 18 months, during which time the band continued to work on new material even though they barely performed live.

By 2005 they had turned a corner and signed a management deal with Big Life Management, who also counted Snow Patrol amongst their clients. Through the company's contacts, McDaid was introduced to award-winning producer, Dubliner, Garret 'Jacknife' Lee, who expressed an interest in working with the band. After a brief conversation, McDaid was convinced that Lee was the man that could re-launch their stalled career and work finally began on their second album. Lee's burgeoning reputation meant that he was already tied in with several other projects so he was forced to use whatever spare time he could find on Vega4, which essentially became his own personal labor of love. Each session would begin with Lee making the band listen to a whole slew of new music as he attempted to articulate exactly what he wanted to do with their sound and although they frequently argued, the synthesis of ideas reaped superb results. McDaid now credits the producer as the only true genius that he has ever been exposed to in the music industry and claims that he "had a way of making us focus on the world and our music from an entirely different perspective. Jackknife forced us out of introspection by whatever means necessary. Whether it was going out to a field in the middle of the night to throw eggs during a vocal take, or climbing into cupboards and kitchen appliances, he managed to show us that beauty and interest exists in the ordinary. He showed us that it is everywhere." Forgoing the temptation to employ a host of electronic components, Lee concentrated instead on song structures and exhibited a remarkable amount of attention to seemingly tiny details in order to allow the tracks to attain their full potential and create songs that truly connect with people. Work continued on the album for nine months but it all appeared to be worth it when the band reemerged in August of last year with the positively infectious You And Me, a track that has a hook so profoundly catchy that it will remain in your head for days after only one listen. Although the song did not quite set the airwaves alight, due mainly to a lack of exposure, it was a significant opening shot and expectations were high as the album release approached. (In fact, You And Me is only now appearing on the Irish rock radar, having been used on a commercial for national radio station 2FM, and it is currently one of those songs that has virtually everyone who hears it asking: 'Who sings that?' as soon as it is played).

The album, You And Others, appeared in Europe on October 30 of last year and has been selling steadily ever since, achieving critical praise and drawing favorable comparisons to Snow Patrol, Travis and a harder-edged Coldplay. The months after the release saw the band tour with Maximo Park, James Dean Bradfield and Boy Kill Boy, with many commentators claiming that Vega4 blew the latter act off the stage every night they played with them. The workload became such that McDaid was actually treated for exhaustion in December, forcing the band to take a break. The band also found themselves in trouble when bassist Simon Walker, left suddenly for 'family reasons' in the same month, jeopardizing the their arduous touring schedule. They were lucky enough, however, to retain the services of another Irishman in the form of Dubliner, Gavin Fox, who had previously played with Irish band Turn and Scottish rockers, Idlewild.

While the European market has proven to be somewhat of a slog, the band has already seen significant success in the States. The catalyst came with the selection of their ballad, Life Is Beautiful, for an episode of Grey's Anatomy last November, the hit US show renowned almost as much for its soundtrack as it plotlines. The song was played almost in its entirety at the end of one episode exposing the band to the 20-plus million viewers that tune in and giving them a vital foothold in the American market. Their star has been on the rise ever since following a tour earlier this year with US act, Augustana, which took in venues across the country. Again, many critics on hand for the shows would later claim that Vega4 were the true star of the evening, with their strong set and McDaid's effortlessly entertaining stage patter often going down better with crowds than that of the headline act. Now comes word that the band has been picked up by Epic offshoot, Original Signal Recordings, who intend to release the You And Others Stateside in the coming months, though a release date has yet to be set in stone. With major label money behind them and an obvious interest level already apparent in US audiences, there is little doubt Vega4 will be headlining their own American tours in the coming months and years, which can only be a good thing because if they continue to blow headlining acts off the stage at the rate they have in recent times, there won't be many bands brave enough to take them on as a support.