Berlin-based metalcore group Vianova spices things up in the scene with their new titanic single "User Experience."
When people come together solely for the love of music, true magic happens. For Vianova, guitarist Felix and drummer Paul had goals to create something inspiring. Much like the metalcore bands that they fell in love with over the years, they wanted to build something visionary.
“The song is basically about being annoyed and fucked up by modern technology. At this point, we're living in an attention driven economy. There is so much stuff nowadays competing for our attention since it can be directly monetized by all the platforms that are drawing us in. I feel like it's destructive and robs us of our ability to experience life and connection with the world around us.”
Over the years, stronger visions surfaced, but Vianova was ready to replace their usual sound with something heavier and spicier than what they had delivered in the past. While their previous work infectiously calls back to the nostalgic years of mid-2000s metalcore, Vianova wanted something that would challenge their own perceptions of what they were already bringing to the table. Something modern and refreshing to the genre as a whole. Their new single "User Experience" was their answer to that question.
Working with legendary Australian producer Lance Prenc (Thornhill, Alpha Wolf, and more), "User Experience" is not only an experimental piece of the up-and-coming band's history but offers an expansive sneak peek at what's to come for their bright future ahead. Treacherously heavy undercut with towering guitar riffs, vicious percussive energy, and massive vocal delivery, Vianova takes their sound in the heaviest direction we have seen from them to date.
What was the whole idea behind Vianova? What made you want to get the band started?
The band was originally started by brothers Felix (guitar) and Paul (drums) when they came to Berlin back in 2015. Both of them kinda just wanted to write some songs inspired by their favorite Metalcore bands. The rest of the band came along over the years since to perform all the songs you obviously need more than two guys. It was a natural progression, I suppose. We just really loved Metal. However, over time we developed a stronger vision of our identity and what we wanted out of music leading to what Vianova is now and what it will become as time goes on.
What are your musical influences? How did they make their way into your latest single, "User Experience?"
Our influences are kind of hard to pinpoint since they vary quite much on an individual level. With our newest releases, we made the conscious decision to deliver more of a modern metal sound, since the songs we have written before were quite reminiscent of classic 2010 era Metalcore. Our goal with "User Experience" was to write a short and aggressive “banger song”. I do feel like it has a strong Alpha Wolf influence but we still tried to keep it fresh, especially with the vocals. I (Alex, vocalist) was listening to a lot of Tyler the Creator back when I was writing the lyrics and I feel like the hip hop influence is quite apparent in a few parts of the song.
I want to talk about the creative process for "User Experience." The online exhibition you launched as part of the single. It was cryptic but unique! We come to this experience that turns into a meditation that questions our relationship with modern technology. How does this all coincide with the lyrical context of your single? What made you want to launch it in this way?
The song is basically about being annoyed and fucked up by modern technology. At this point, we're living in an attention economy. There is so much stuff nowadays competing for our attention since it can be directly monetized by all the platforms that are drawing us in. I feel like it's destructive and robs us of our ability to experience life and connection with the world around us.
So when I was thinking about ideas to promote the release with our promotion agent Chris from Noisekick, we came up with the concept of a space that acted as some sort of antidote.
I liked the idea of a website where nothing really happens since it's the direct antithesis of social media, which is constructed to always offer new content.
How is this different from other work you have released? I know some time ago you had a full EP back in 2018, A Place I Want To Live In But Don't Want To Die, along with some singles you've released over the past few years.
The songs on our EP had this kind of a 2010 Metalcore vibe, so our new stuff is drastically different and more on par with what is happening now in the metal scene. Even though the two singles we released after that were more modern, looking back, they still feel like steps towards a more mature sound. We'd like to imagine that "User Experience," as well as other songs that we have been working on are just better and more with the times in every regard. Both musically and in terms of production.
I know you guys worked with Lance Prenc, who's worked with bands like Thornhill, Alpha Wolf, and other bands in the scene. What was it like working with him for this single?
Lance is a very cool, very chill guy that is very easy to work with. It seems like he just gets modern metal. He manages to make stuff sound both massive and transparent at the same time. Since we mainly kept in touch via email, the process really wasn't that exciting, so there is not much to say there. We sent him the tracks, had a few revisions, and BOOM! He made our song sound killer!
What have you taken from this single personally that you want other listeners to take from this?
Your phone is killing you, breakdowns are fun, and a lot of stuff can happen in 2 minutes and 28 seconds.
What is next for you guys this year?
We have two more singles that we will release shortly after "User Experience." We are also working on five more songs that we will be mixing in May. After that, we will hopefully be discovered by some successful Hollywood agent that gets us a support slot for Ed Sheeran, so we can finally become the metalcore millionaires we deserve to be haha.