Please list all of your band members and their roles in the band.

Harrison is the singer, songwriter and guitarist, Nathan the bassist and backing vocalist and Carlo is the drummer.

For starters, what bands were you guys a part of prior to Victory Kid? How long has the band been around?

Nathan and Carlo both make a living as hired guns, so they have worked as backing musicians with a ton of bands, including Heffron Drive and Saint Motel. When it comes to bands that they were a part of, Carlo has played in the feminist LA underground band WASI, Warped-Tour veterans Westland and a curious Swiss band called the Dorks. Nathan has played with dynamic rock collective The Ten Thousand, americana river-rock group AMBL, and his own jazz-fusion project. Harrison was a solo artist with a different producer, and was looking for a band to transition his sound away from pop and back towards his first love of pop-punk and ska. Victory Kid is actually his first band! In middle and high school he travelled the world with the Ragazzi Boys Choir.

We have been playing together for a few years, but we only fairly recently named the band and put music out. I’d put the birth date around January 1, 2018.

What’s the origin of that name and have you changed the band’s name before?

Our friend Keaton from Raised on TV was musing about what to name his band one day while driving from Las Vegas to LA with Carlo and mentioned the name Victory Kid. Carlo fell in love with the name and got the permission to use it for his own unnamed project, while Nathan and Harrison cowered in submission.

Victory Kid is actually a Star Wars reference, which is a huge creative  influence for Harrison. The Victory Kids are the generation of children born after the Rebels defeated the Empire during the battle of Endor. These kids lived without the tyranny of the Empire.

Who writes your songs? What are the main themes or topics for most of your songs and do you think these topics will change over time?

While they come with different levels of completion, Harrison brings the bones, Carlo and Nathan make the meat. Harrison uses his colorful lyrics to paint pictures and scenes, while using the interaction of the melody to the chords to evoke sincere vocal performances. Carlo as a drummer is responsible for a lot of the structure and rhythm, keeping the beat and song progressing in complexity and energy.  Nathan is an incredibly melodic bassist, since his main instrument is actually Sax, and will often use his bass parts to reinterpret the voicings of the chords to give them a different meaning. 

The songs range in topics, from current events described the way we see them in Clownin and Tuck Frump to very personal experiences that convey Harrison’s state of mind at the time.

What bands are currently inspiring the music that you’re making?

We are so disappointed to hear that 2018 will be the last Warped tour. It’s such a stepping stone and growth experience to so many mid-level bands looking to get to the next level. Some of the bands making music now we look to for inspiration are Neck Deep, Knuckle Puck, The Dirty Heads as well as the OG’s Rise Against, Blink-182, Sum 41 and Green Day. A more in depth list of inspirations can be found on our spotify playlists!

Was there a particular band/artist or concert that inspired you to start a band?

Not so much a single event or artist.  But for Harrison, playing shows and releasing music as a solo artist made him realize that he needed to be in a band. When you have other people to stretch your imagination and challenge your opinions the ideas in the room are at a higher level, and it’s so much more rewarding than to do that by yourself.

What do you do to prepare for a show? Any flexing, exercises, etc …

Carlo’s flexing consists of setting up the drums and warming up a little bit (with or without sticks) in the car. Harrison likes to surf that morning, do some yoga and then warm up to singing as loud as he can. Nathan lifts his bass amp a couple times and is ready to go.

What has been the biggest highlight of the band’s career so far?

We’ve recorded our debut album with Allen Hessler and we think it sounds stellar! Harrison co-produced it with him, and we really feel that this record has potential to go far. Harrison and Allan found a working rhythm that allowed them to come up with some great creative ideas. Allan also mixed and mastered, which kept the vision and sonic quality that was developed during recording intact.

If you could tour with any bands, past or present, who would they be and why?

We’d love to open for Blink 182 or Sum 41- I think their audiences would understand our music immediately. It would be cool to tour with Sublime with Rome, because they progressed reggae and ska by incorporating rock elements and it would be interesting to see if the direction we took those genres would be accepted by their circles.

Is there anything else you would like to add?

Thanks for reading this interview until here. You seem really invested in our band! Check out our website victorykid.com for more in-depth information and news!  We have three music videos and three singles coming out between now and April and our full length debut record ‘illenials’ drops in May 2018!