The Vintage Caravan interview (Alex Orn)

I do remember Cindy Lauper and her hit "Girls Just Want to Have Fun". Do you remember as well the counterpart hymn for us men? No, because there wasn't one...until now. Well, The Vintage Caravan have composed  one for us and it's called "Midnight Meditation", or "Know Your Place" suits better? Alex Örn, it's up to you...

Good evening dear Alex. We'd really like to know how the three of you met at the first place. You were like 12 years old then?
Good evening to you as well. It all started out when Oskar (guitarist/singer) got the idea to start a band at 9-10 years old. It was an epiphany that if anyone can start a band then I can as well. So he started gathering together some of his school mates and after a while trying to find someone as serious as he was about this he found Gaui (drummer). So they started playing together at the age of twelve and did their first gig a year or two later at a local bar we still hold very dear. After splitting way with two bassists, I finally joined the band after having been asked a few times and things have been going great ever since.

Your first album was released in 2011 and one year later came your second album. Did it get a European distribution or was it heard just by your fellow countrymen?
Until now it has just been in circulation here in Iceland. Apart from the hordes of tourists that come here every year it has really only been heard by Icelanders. Then the time came to try our luck overseas after we had all finished school and we set out for a record deal which we got at the great Nuclear Blast. So now the album will finally be heard in Europe and the rest of the world.

Have you arranged the songs from the beginning just like the album cover or not?
The album actually has changed a bit since we released it in Iceland. The albums opener had to be removed and we re-recorded a song from our first album instead which ended up as the bonus track. So the international version's opener was originally the second track of the album. As for the cover, the Icelandic version had a different cover. To meet the needs of Nuclear Blast it was changed and we think it came out perfectly, it didn't change our vision of the album too much and it's an eye-catcher for sure. Props to artist Alex Matus for doing an awesome job with the cover.

Speaking of which, what the fuck happened to my favorite "Know Your Place"? Too sexist (because of its lyrics) and got censorshiped?
Basically yes. It was playing with fire I guess and it would have weighed the album down in the long run because some people had a problem with it. The lyrics certainly do not depict our opinion though. It was supposed to be understood as sarcasm but it apparently did not come across that way. So it was easier to just cut it out than having to deal with the fallout that would come with it.

Is it safe to assume that your parents have a strong influence to your taste of music?
Yeah we all grew up listening to all these old classics like Deep Purple, Jimi Hendrix, Yes, Frank Zappa and so on.. So yeah I guess our main influence is our parents haha.

Did your parents also taught you everything about mushrooms and rabbit dust? I mean, some may think that you should be playing with your video games for example and not with hallucinogens on your video clip.
Haha, I think they just choose not to see the video that way. We are not junkies you know and they know that. But I have to be kind of boring with this question because when we started to do more interviews we chose just plainly not to discuss drugs, sorry. It's kinda funny though none of us play any video games.

Speaking of drugs, is Cocaine Sally a real person? Maybe someone you used to hang out back in your school days?
Not really you know, it's more fictional than true, sorry haha. But we know a lot of these kind of people, especially with playing music in places like dirty clubs where there are many shady people. I think it's safe to say that we have seen a lot at our young age.

One of your best lyrics is "Do you remember when we used to listen to Simon and Garfunkel". Are you fucking kidding us??? I do not even remember them. Is this one for your parents?
Haha, yeah I would say so. If you haven't heard Simon and Garfunkel you should check them out, they're fucking awesome, haha.

I also think you should get a great lawyer because if Black Sabbath and Led Zeppelin listen to "Midnight Meditation" & "The Kings Voyage", some lawsuits will be on their way, hahaha. A homage to some of your heroes?
Haha, bold question. Yeah sure it can be interpreted as an homage, in fact you can interpret it any way you want. It doesn't really matter to us, we didn't set out to rewrite any songs. We just want to have fun and play fun music and think we've done that pretty well so far!

How is a normal day for a teenager that lives in Reykjavik? How do you usually spent your free time?
We like to hang out together and of course of the small size you can't help to meet everyone when you go out. We all have day jobs so our day is not always like a normal teenagers. Most of our time goes into doing band stuff really as there is a lot to do these days. But there is not much to do normally in Iceland so it all comes up to the weekends when we usually go partying. Like I said, we love to have fun!

Let's talk about women now. Assuming that there is a girl who didn't liked you at all and now that you are famous, comes and asks you for a date. What would your reaction be?
Haha, it wouldn't bother me. Sure, I'd never make her my girlfriend but it doesn't hurt to play around a bit. There really isn't any dating in Iceland so either you get with the girls or you don't. But these days I can tell you we're not exactly complaining about the lack of girls in our life, haha.

You are supporting Grand Magus in March, alongside with Zodiac and Audrey Horne. Tell us your first feelings and expectations of this upcoming tour.
I think it will be awesome! The bands we are touring are great and we very much look forward to meet them. We  are just excited to get to play so many gigs and meet so many people. It's what we love doing.

And one for the road...When are they planning to join you and grow some beard?
Haha, I think they will... when they can grow beards hahaha. I can't really boast too much, I can't grow a nice beard anywhere else but a goatee.

I wish you all the best, keep it cool and stay as modest as possible, because the future belongs to you.
Hey thank you very much for the interview. Follow us on Facebook and check us out on tour. I hope we get a chance to get to Greece soon!