Holly Turner
Interviews
VISTA – Witch Hunt
By: Robert Warren
Q) What led to the creation of the name The Bloodlust Tour?
Greg: Hope and I had a few ideas for the name of the tour. Doing one inspired by the lyrics of “Witch Hunt” seemed like a cool idea. She pretty much just hit me with a list of ideas and I picked that one and said I liked it best and she agreed. It was a simple thing, really.
Q) What can VISTA fans be looking forward to most with The Bloodlust Tour as it nears their hometown?
Greg: You can expect a live performance given to you by people who actually want to be there doing what they’re doing and who have good intentions. I can tell you that much! Otherwise, we’ll be playing a bunch of stuff from “Long Live” and the new song, more or less.
Hope: New music, new merch, new set. Lots of energy, as always. We pretty much come off stage feeling totally drained of life because we leave it on stage. We just want people to come in and leave their stressors at the door for the night.
Q) As a band you spend lots of time together creating, recording, touring, etc. Do you have any favorite moments or interactions that have occurred during the music creation process before this tour?
Greg: Hmm. Those breakthrough moments are always sick. Like if one of us is stuck on something and it just instantly clicks with another idea – that is tight. Like when Hope hit me with the first verse of “Hellbent” an hour after me sending it to her, I was like “YOOOOOoooooooooo.” That is so tight!
Hope: We were on the train together going to a photoshoot and I was like, “Hey, I have a lyrical concept for a song called ‘Witch Hunt.’” Greg looked straight at me and was like, “Dude, stop. I had the exact same idea and was waiting for the right time to bring it up.” We had the same title and concept in mind. For me, that was the moment the two of us were the most in sync with each other and takes a lot of trial and error for writers to really be on the exact same page. I was like, “Shiiiiiiiiit, this is gonna be a banger because we both wanted the same concept.”
Q) At what point does the band find the most energy—-is it in song writing, recording, performing? Why?
Greg: I can’t really quantify what has the “most” energy between writing/recording/performing because they’re very different energies. You have to keep in mind that people want to see a show when they go to a show and that’s all it is. You have a bit of leeway to not perform the same EXACT way you did on the recording, but you have to keep in mind that people came to the show because they like the music they heard previously. It’s a catch 22. I try to put in the most energy I can without having the show just get bad, lol.
Hope: I put all of my energy into everything we’re doing. There’s not one thing that’s more or less important. Give all of me all the time and that’s what I’m going to make sure I continue to do.
Q) Seeing your fan base are there any favorite moments where the band may have thought, “Man, that’s a true fan?”
Greg: Of course. I am so damn blessed to have moments like that that I can pick out and remember, especially in the last two years. Like, all me and Hope want is this. It’s nuts how people are catching on, even if it’s not as grand of a scale as other bands. These are just some crazy ideas we have that we would like to see any band do ourselves, so we try our best. [laughs] If we’re talking specifics, I’ve seen some crazy stuff, but I haven’t seen any tattoo’s yet, so I guess it could get crazier?
Hope: Dude, yeah. I always recognize people from Twitter when they come out to a show and putting those avatar pictures to a face in person is the wildest thing. I’ve screamed in people’s faces on accident before when I realize who they are, I’ll shout out their Twitter name on the fly. I just get so excited.
Q) What is the most surreal moment you have had as a band?
Greg: Definitely seeing our song on websites or playing at venues I have been to before for shows countless times. Like Irving Plaza. That was really damn cool. I’ve been to so many shows there.
Hope: Irving Plaza was pretty damn surreal. It was such a platform for us and onstage I just remember taking a second and thinking, “This is exactly what I want for the rest of my life, this feeling, these moments of clarity.” I hope we continue to get opportunities like that in the future, so we can have more of those moments of freshness. It’s a crazy perspective.
Q) On a personal level, what power do you feel music has in the world and how do feel it affected yours?
Greg: It has to power to affect the hivemind, if that makes any sense. I think any art has that same power. Music is so easily accessible though. You hear a song and it’s infectious. It makes you feel _____. That shit only takes three minutes, usually. Movies and TV can do that too, but it just takes a bit longer. Think about when a new song relating to a dance comes out. EVERYONE is on it. Like the “dougie” for example. That affected the world greatly. [laughs]
Hope: I don’t know what a hivemind is. But music has all the power. It can change a mood in an instant and it can set a mood in an instant. That power, that ability; it’s everything. And it’s really everything to me.
Q) What do you see of the music industry? Do you think it is growing, dying, becoming more competitive or evolving in its form?
Greg: It’s definitely evolving. I don’t have a crystal ball to figure out how yet. But it’s definitely already way different than when I started. Things become more and more niche nowadays and even more accessible. There’s still way to do whatever it is you need to do, it just might be too hard and take too long for some artists.
Hope: Definitely not dying. Maybe it’s a competition for others, but it’s not a competition for us. We are focused on personal growth and evolution, while supporting our friends and artists we admire. The industry is not what it was in Y2K, when I was a kid and rushed home after school to catch the Backstreet Boys promoting Black & Blue on TRL. There was no social media, artists weren’t as easily accessible. The industry now revolves around digital numbers; streams, likes, followers. It’s most definitely evolved into a nearly 100% digital platform. I miss the simplicity of the industry before this decade, but you have to focus on the now, evolve and grow with the times, and find ways to benefit from all the current digital tools available to artists. I don’t know if that answered the question or made any sense; this is a topic I could chat about all day. But to go off what Greg said, it’s 100% evolving.
Q) What is the band’s process when creating a new song?
Greg: Every time it’s different. Sometimes we have individual ideas then work on them together, sometimes we start from scratch. There’s no definitive way yet.
Hope: Yeah, it depends. He could have an idea and send it to me first, or the other way around. Or we could sit in a room together and write, or a co-writer could be with us.
Q) Can you please tell the message behind new single “Witch Hunt” and how it came about?
Hope: On a large scale, it’s about the hysteria and lack of trust currently plaguing both the entertainment industry and the political world. It’s not about one event in particular, but more so about wondering who you can actually trust in the midst of this hysteria. It came to be on the train like I mentioned earlier! We co-wrote it with Zack Odom and Kenneth Mount of ZK Productions, very good friends of ours. We wanted to really hone in on a modern electronic alt rock sound that had a bit of a sensual type of undertone to it, something to match the frenzy.
Q) What general location did you work on the lyrics/sound to the song “Witch Hunt,” (home, coffee shop, etc?) and does this location usually boost creativity?
Greg: We actually wrote this entirely in the studio down in Atlanta. It was pretty damn cool doing that. I believe the lights were definitely off/dimmed when we were recording the vocals. That boosts the intensity for sure.
Hope: Oh yeah dude. I cannot record vocals with the lights on. I need to be in the dark, so there aren’t any distractions and I can just get into the zone and focus on the task at hand. I was down at ZK Productions with this production team a few years back and it completely changed the path of my career, my outlook on recording and how I felt in a studio setting. It changed my life. Being back at this studio set such a natural, comfortable tone.
Q) What is your favorite song as a band that you’ve worked together to create and why?
Greg: I cycle through these all the time. Some of mine are unreleased. I really playing dig “Inside Anxious” live, ‘cause it has a cool vibe. “Hellbent” was also a really fun song to make, it has me feeling baller all the time.
Hope: Potentially one we haven’t released. I loved doing “Inside Anxious,” as well. We did that from scratch as well and building that up from the bottom was interesting, frustrating and intriguing. Very out of the box, but it really set the tone for a lot of future work. I cycle through though, too.
Q) What else would you like to tell your fans that they might be excited to know?
Greg: Nothing concrete yet, but just know we’re always working on stuff. [wink]
Hope: We just filmed a music video for “Witch Hunt,” but we have no clue when that’s going to come out. I’m hoping it’ll be before The Bloodlust Tour or right towards the beginning of it?
Q) What do you hope listeners take away from playing your music?
Greg: I hope that listeners want to figure out the bigger pictures to us. I hope they want to come to the shows when hearing it. I hope they want to listen again after listening. I love our fans.
Hope: I really, really want people to feel safe when they listen to our music. Feel safe and comfortable at our shows, know that they have safety in us and that we’ll always fight to be our best.
“Witch Hunt”: https://open.spotify.com/album/5LyLct89RqZGxRTnlU9b3M?si=Lee3MfOeQ7qRL4cIJgb7Fw
https://open.spotify.com/artist/2kB0EAn1CFaf8CVMScxF8q?si=-S75moC0QEKbvs-tAhzP5A
Greg: @grooglesVISTA (Twitter/Insta)
Hope: @hopevista (Twitter/Insta
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