Vito Interview and Review @ Club Underground Launch Night

Vito are: Tom Conway (lead vocals/guitar), Andy Bell (lead guitar/vocals), Jasper Watson (bass/vocals), Dom Willis (drums)

Genre: Indie/rock

For fans of: Catfish and the Bottlemen, The Strokes, VANT

We were lucky enough to catch up with Vito last night before they headlined at Think Tank Underground’s new late-night gig event. The guys kindly took the time to chat to us before their set and genuinely seemed grateful that we were willing to interview them too. Clearly their new-found fame after being signed to End of the Trail Records hasn’t gone to their heads just yet…

Surprisingly for a band so young, Andy (lead guitar) enlightened us that: ‘him and Tom (lead vocals) have been together for about 10 years now in another band (Atlanta) which fell apart with people going to uni’. Vito itself only formed back in March 2015 when Tom met Dom (drums) at college, but bassist Jasper was trickier to find. ‘He’s only been in the band for 3-4 months’, Andy told us, after they scouted him out on Facebook and realised that he gelled really well with the rest of the group. It’s encouraging that, even after all these years, being in a band together has remained a priority for Andy and Tom.

It can’t have been easy maintaining this drive whilst growing up in the North East either as Tom informed us that ‘he’s only really noticed a music scene emerging in the last few years’. Indie music has become especially popular in the area recently, but the band are keen not to become too ‘gimmicky’ when associating themselves with this genre. When asked which bands have influenced their music, they suggested ‘The Gaslight Anthem, The Strokes and Catfish and the Bottlemen’ – pretty strong artists to aspire towards. Vito do however hope that they’re doing something special and aren’t just playing guitars without it holding any true meaning.

Vito’s debut single ‘Masquerade’ was released last month and, according to Andy, the reception has simply been ‘mental’. Tom ‘did not expect it to be like that at all’. After ‘sitting on the track for 18 months and putting it through several changes, we started to doubt how successful it would actually be’, but with over 6000 Youtube views on the video already, it seems like the boys did a good job.

Now that their potential for greatness has been confirmed, the band are just super excited to unleash more music. A new single is expected in March and they’re also working on their debut EP for release around October. Once these are out, there’s no doubt that plenty more touring opportunities will arise. On Wednesday, they’re off to play one of their biggest shows yet in Camden and, already, they have some big festivals lined up including ‘The Canny Fringe’, ‘Liverpool Sound City’ and ‘The Great Escape’ which proves that they are managing to break out of the North-East scene too.

Despite all the media attention they’ve had lately, Vito are most looking forward to just getting out on the road in their new van which even has ‘real curtains!’. They plan to stock up on a load of staple touring snacks before then though including: Maltesers and Quavers for Jasper; a chocolate orange for Tom; Dairylea Lunchables for Andy and, of course, beer for Dom.

So, after getting this vital information out of the band, they were asked to describe the Vito live experience in just three words. Tom chose ‘loud, fast and interactive’. After quickly getting to know what genuinely nice, down to earth, honest guys they are; we were extremely hopeful.

Support band ‘Face Wax Twins’ performed an admirable opening set due to carrying on strong even following a guitar string malfunction. They’d clearly brought a lot of fans with them as well since the crowd was going wild throughout. Vito stole the show though. They definitely weren’t bluffing when they said that they were aiming for ‘big tunes all the time’. Not once did the fun, bouncy mood mellow and it was clear that the band were constantly feeding off the energy of the crowd. They grew in confidence as the set progressed and by the time they reached the hit single ‘Masquerade’, the whole crowd were jumping up. After this, fans couldn’t help but beg for an encore and, of course, it would have been rude not to oblige.

Overall, Vito seem to be a band that have their priorities straight. They don’t want to mess about with gimmicks when they could be perfecting the music and playing more shows. If they keep performing like they did last night then they will inevitably receive a lot more positive attention at this summer’s festivals. With their well-grounded attitude, no one can claim that they don’t deserve every success in this.

Reviewed by Dana Wilson

03/02/2016

Catch Vito live in London on 08/02/2016 at the famous Camden Monarch and listen to their hit debut single ‘Masquerade’ on Soundcloud, Spotify, iTunes and YouTube now!