PipemanRadio Interviews Violent Vira at Louder Than Life 2025

0:04 Hi, you love one too? Yes, that's true. You see why were you you? This is the Pipe Man here on the Adventures pipe Man W four c Y Radio, and I'm here with. Via Anthony and Matt from Violent vera nice. Here at Louder than Life. Is this your guys first Danny Wimmer festival? Yes? It is. Actually our next one is gonna be Aftershock. I believe great one. You'll love that one. Yes. I watched my Chemical Romance there if. That was the first time I had ever been to a festival, and it's really full circle to be able to now play it. Yeah, we're super excited.

0:49 What does that feel like like when you're attendee and then next thing you know, you're performing. A dream come true? Honestly, I feel like I've been almost imagining this moment for a really long time. So the fact that it's happening now so quickly is it quite Like I'm still trying to wrap my head around it. I love it. And so how did it happen? How did you find out about doing Louder than Life? Like, how did it come about? Yeah? So we've been independent for the past like two three years, but now we have like like the past couple our first ever tours. Circling back on that, we're actually booked by Matt our guitarist, and so we did everything ourselves.

1:30 Sick New World was our first festival, and that came about through a DM from the festival itself asking if we'd like to play. That's pretty freaking cool. Yes, And these three festivals that we have this year have been because of our agents and we're super super grateful for them. Well, that's pretty good. Because you've come to the pinnacle the Danny Wemmer festivals. You'll probably end up at all of on at some point. Now crossing our fingers. Yes, So what do you think it is? Festival A from what's out there, but be how Danny Wimmer treats you as an artist. Oh my goodness. We feel like we're guests in a home.

2:11 We feel so welcome. It's just it's so well organized. I was telling Anthony about this, We were having a conversation earlier just outside about how I really have a deep respect and appreciation for just everyone who makes things like this possible. Just the fact that I see them all working so hard and there's so many moving things, like all the time. It's really impressive, and like. You know what, I've always I've never heard anything bad in sixteen years of doing their festivals than ours had to say. And one of the things I always hear is like, no matter who you are, whether you're Slayer or Bring Me to Horizon or the first band of the day, you're treated the same.

2:55 Right. I love that about them. I just I think it makes almost it's the performance better because it's like you're being treated like you belong here, and I feel like every artist does. That's a key what you said, It makes the performance better, and especially too, like a lot of festivals, as you well know, like you can have problems with sound check, you you can have problems with load in, and that just is too much stress before you're getting up to perform, Like you gotta be in the right mindset. So when it's easy and smooth like that, it makes it so much easier for you to perform. Right right, Yeah, I think not a lot of people know exactly what goes into making shows possible, much less festivals, and so it just it really is so helpful. We got it pretty early this morning, like five am, and it's just like it's a constant always moving for these things.

3:50 So Donnie, when we're fucking killed it, I love it. Yeah, because people don't realize what goes into say look at you, and they're like, oh, you're living the dream life because they just see what they see. They don't see what goes on behind the scenes, and how much work you put into this, and how much you don't get sleep. You don't even get any kind of luxuries. You know, you're going on the road. It's a lot of work. This is just the bonus result. It's not the whole. Thing exactly that right there. People don't know that. It's like there's nights where we've had to like go from show to and we couldn't even like sleep at a hotel, like we had to get going to the next city, and like everyone is just like blinking, like on the verge of like collapse. Right we take turns, you know, well I don't. I'm not a very good driver, So.

4:45 You might not make it to the louder in life if you were the one driving. Oh we would, we would. Yeah, we would be a few days late and the best possible scenario, the worst, we'd be playing a show in heaven. Right. We don't want that. No, maybe one day I'll drive a semi truck. You know, I'll get that good there. Yeah, I have faith. Well, by the time you get to that point, you'll have a semi for your shows and you won't have to drive it. Yeah, that would be a better solution, right, Yeah, So all three of you, I want to hear from all three of you, what was that moment in time that you knew this is what you had to do.

5:29 I'm going to start off with Anthony for this one. He gives me Anthony Ketus vibes from the original, like in the beginning. I have heard that before, right, that's not the first time I've heard, Sure, you have. I would say we met a little over three years ago and at the time and that we're in another band and she had reached out to us to Instagram to like work as live members, and we did a tour together with both of those bands. But there was a show that we played in Houston and it was the second show we ever play as a band, and we just like went in there and the people were fair. They were climbing this like giant pole in the middle and just just screaming.

6:09 They're going crazy, and I was just like that day. I was just like, this feels so like powerful and so like awesome, and everybody loves the music so much, and I like, I just at that point just started playing with her. But I was like, I know this is gonna be right. Like that day, it just like kind of set in for me, and I haven't looked another way. Really, I love it. And when she first contacted you, what is it to prompt you to say, oh, yeah, I want to do that. I reached out. We did a couple of rehearsals, and then we continued staying in the band and for a while just live. And I would say that that second show in Houston was really good, and I'm really grateful to be a part of this project. It's been amazing and everyone is like really close to me and it's been great. But I would say like personally, I never really thought of doing anything else. It's always there's never really been like a question. But with this span, like probably around that same.

7:03 Time, there you go, yes, definitely one more time. What was the question? What was that one moment in time that you knew this is what you had to do? And now that hearing them, I will also want to hear what your vibe was when joining with them and Britain and you all working together. Yeah. Absolutely, So I knew I wanted to be a singer. Actually quite young. I remember being like eight years old and there was a festival going on, but like a small one. It was kind of like a fair, and they were doing a talent show and they said that the grand prize would be like fifty dollars, and so I got up there and I remember like telling the crowd to like put their hands in the air, and I remember that they did, and it felt surreal. I was like, wow, I ended up winning first place, and nice fifty dollars for an eight year old, felt like I had won like the lotter.

8:00 Right, There's a lot you could do at that age for fifty. Bucks, right, especially two thousand and eight, that was like no. Not twenty twenty five. Oh no, fifty bucks probably wouldn't even it doesn't even pay for parking here, man, Can you. Believe fifty bucks probably could have filled or half filled a grocery cart back then? Right? So I just remember feeling like I wanted to do this forever, And so when I was fifteen, I really put my focus into it when I was twenty one or twenty two, actually, I moved to Dallas and that's when I found Anthony and Matt and they had reached out to me. Matt did, and at first I was a solo artist and they were backing band. But we got closer over the years and very grateful to say that.

8:47 Now our debut album is on its way and we wrote it all together and it's absolute magic. We can't wait for everyone to listen to it. The best thing I love, I love that you just said is that your rot. It together we did. Yeah, that's a true band. Like a lot of times there's artists that there's one person in the band that does all the writing. But I think what makes a great band is where you're all contributing because you have different things that you bring to the table which would make your sound unique, opposed to like a lot of bands I find nowadays, they like have this formula that you plug in and so you can't really tell the difference. So unless you have those multiple influences, because I'm sure all three of you have different things that you bring to the table in that songwriting process.

9:35 I love that you say that because it's so true. I feel as though when I was writing by myself, I love those songs, but they're truly so small now compared to the songs that we've written together. I mean, it's just like. I love like something was missing, right, Yes. Yes, it really does. I don't know. I feel as though they're there would be no one else in the entire world who could make this album sound the way that it does without these two, and I'm forever grateful. Nice and well you two have to say about the whole songwriting process. Just that generally you said it before that like writing things with other people, especially who have the same maybe not vision, but the same end goal of making like a wonderful experience, and that we were so it's not like we liked everything. We did the whole way together.

10:31 We challenged each other and it was a hour of attrition and it like it was challenging, and through all of those things we I don't know, we wrote a record that I am incredibly, incredibly proud of, and I don't I just can't wait to put it out. I'm really really excited love it. Yeah, the album writing process was great. We did some of it all in one tripped out to Houston where from Dallas, So we spent a little bit writing it, and we also wrote some songs over time. I'm just out of the spontaneous moment in the rehearsal room, but out of the writing sessions I've been in, it's been like the easiest one by far, because we all see eye to eye on a lot of things musically, and it's just been a really easy process.

11:15 No one like. You know, writing can be very good or very bad, and I think it was like for the first one, it was like surprisingly really successful on how the execution was. Not that I was expecting anything different, but it feels good to be validated that it went so well. I love it. I also tend to think that when different people, like let's say I'm writing something, there's other people in my band and they're giving feedback. I think their feedback is the feedback you would get from the people out there or attending your show, buying your album, And I think that's the benefit of everybody contribute because they almost had the other people almost have an objective, outsider point of view that maybe yourself not seen like, and that goes true of anything. We don't always see our own stuff or how we are perceived. So it's always good for somebody else to show that to us.

12:12 Exactly. I really like this term for when we're writing, like cooking, because it really does feel like that, like we're all so involved and we like taste it. We're like, you know what, it needs a little bit more of this or ooh, like let's let's increase the heat on this. And it just is analogy. Yeah, sure, that's exactly how it. Is, and out of it comes something beautiful and we're just so proud of this dish. We can't wait for the audience to consume it. Okay, So tell us more about the new album how they can get it, and they can also check out your live shows and what tour dates you have and buy your merch because they can't listen to my show. And let's say, buy your merch. Thank you for that, y'all hear that? Make note of it?

12:53 There it is otherwise they can't get to the next gig. That's how you get to the next gig nowadays. And listen. I don't want to brag or anything, but it's really coffee. You're gonna love it. So the concept of the album follows the story of a girl and the hallucination of a ghost that she names Lover, And it's a story about the process of grief and what would happen if we didn't come to the acceptance stage. It's loosely based on some grief that I experienced in my personal life. So I just hope that everyone enjoys it and can take something personal from it and carry it with them in a positive light.

13:34 I love that. And how did I connect to you guys on socials, on the web and all that good stuff. Yeah? Absolutely, So we're violent, as in the word violent, like rah, you know, yeah, you. Don't sound very violent right now. Oh, you know, we just got all our violence out on stage, so now we're all in mel I love. That you said that, by the way, because that's what people don't get about this type of music is we're we're violent on stage or in the pit, so we're not violent in the outside world exactly. We were just talking about that how metal heads and like hardcore people and just like emo and punk and all sorts of our alternative individuals in the scene. I think we're some of the most sincere and isist people around.

14:21 It's so true. Yeah, like a big family, right. Like, who else is gonna shove you and then pick you back up? Right? Exactly. It's funny because you'll appreciate this story. One one year, I had to do two festivals in one weekend. Obviously I can't do that, so sending somebody at work for me, I'm like, you're gonna cover this festival. She had never been to a rock festival or a rock show ever. She was a country girl. Okay wow, And so the way I explained that to her was, listen, it's not like your country shows where a bunch of rednecks are getting drunk and game into fights. De Mashpit is not about that. Looks like it from an outside perspective, but it's not.

15:03 We're one big family. You're gonna go to this thing and you're gonna be and this is so relevant to this Louder than life. I'm like, you're gonna make all new friends. You'll probably like meet some guy, and and you're gonna probably see that we are the nicest people and that there'll be no fights. You think there is because of amash bit, but that's not what it's about. And you'll have the best time of your life. It's all love exactly. She comes back after the weekend. Oh my god, you are so right. I have all these new friends. I now have a boyfriend. In fact, the quote she said, I bagged him and that now he's my boyfriend.

15:49 Oh romance. See that's beautiful right there. Right, And then she goes, and I have this new favorite band. I don't know if you know them, but they're called Bring Me the Horizon. Just underground. I'm like, yeah, I think I know who they are. And that's why it's relative to latter in life because they're headlining Sunday Night and I'm stoked absolutely because they're one of my favorite And talk about songwriting, I think Olie is one of the best songwriters ever. Next to you. Oh shucks. Well, actually, Matt over here loves Bring Me the Horizon. It's one of his biggest inspirations. I think Anthony too. But yes, I love Bring Me the Horizon.

16:29 Yes, I do love them. I went to work tour. It is either twenty eleven or twenty twelve. I was like fifteen sixteen and they had just put out Superjournal. Yeah, and I had never experienced like metalcore, Like is any music like that at all? And they walked out on the stage and they started to play antivists and he was like middle fingers up and like, I just shot straight up in the air and I was like, this is history. From there. I'll tell you what to my favorite lyric of any song ever in history. He's my favorite lyricist. But my favorite lyric is it on that album and can you feel my Heart? Where he says I can't drown my demons. They know how to swim. And I'm like, this is the most brilliant shit ever, and I relate to that.

17:12 His pen was on fire when he was writing that down. And he was actually in rehab when he wrote that song. I heard, actually, yeah, briefly, that's It's really incredible how he was able to transform that difficult period of his life into something so beautiful. That's what music is, though, it's to me, it's the best therapy there is, both for you, the artists cathartic get that shit out of you, and for us the listeners to relate to it. And like, like I listened to that song and thrown and both of them are like me one hundred percent, and I'm like, wow, has he known me so well that is the key to a good song. It's where you put your meaning to it and other people put their own meaning to it.

17:56 And I think that's what you do, and that's what you're gonna do with this new album. Oh for people. Last track especially, can't wait for that one. I feel like it's going to connect to a lot of people. I love it. Any final words you want to tell the listeners that we haven't covered already. We hope you enjoy Lover of a Ghost and we hope it comes out this year, crossing our fingers. Thank you for listening and supporting us, and thank you for having us here and talking to us. I really appreciate it. Thank you for the support and listen to Lover of. A Ghost well. Thank you for being here at louder in Life, and thanks for being on the Adventures of fight Man. Absolutely, and we're Violent via I forgot to say our full name. Thank you so much for having us.

18:37 You did a couple points so, but it's always good to end up that way. Right, Absolutely, Thank you. So everybody check out Violent Vera or else you're fan for my show. Thank you for listening to the Adventures of fight Man on w for CUI radio