What inspired the name of the band? What are your influences?
The Name: We were kicking around potential band names at an early practice and Anthony, our bassist, suggested “Versa’s Vice”. I [Matt] thought it sounded a bit too early 90s grunge/alternative and suggested we shorten it to just “Versa”. Unfortunately the Nissan Versa car came out right around the same time, ruining our Google SEO forever.
Influences: Early-2000s post rock like Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Sigur Ros, and Explosions in the Sky, the 70s symphonic prog of Jethro Tull, Genesis, and Gentle Giant, with a smattering of the indie folk of Sufjan Stevens and Grizzly Bear thrown in for good measure.
How do you approach songwriting and are there any themes that you are keen to explore when you start off?
It really depends on the song. My goal in writing music for Versa has always been to try and find the intersections between post-rock and progressive rock. Some of our music is written by Hollas (our violinist) who approaches it from a very different direction, and some of our music is developed through band jams (for example, “Breaking and Entering”, the second track off of our new album, “A Voyage / A Destination, Part 2”).
How do you approach songwriting and are there any themes that you are keen to explore when you start off?
It really depends on the song. My goal in writing music for Versa has always been to try and find the intersections between post-rock and progressive rock. Some of our music is written by Hollas (our violinist) who approaches it from a very different direction, and some of our music is developed through band jams (for example, “Breaking and Entering”, the second track off of our new album, “A Voyage / A Destination, Part 2”).
Why do you write the sort of music that you do?
I try to write the kind of music that I want to listen to. I listen to and love a lot of different music, but the music I keep coming back to, year after year, is symphonic prog, post rock, and early 2000s indie, so that continues to influence the music that I write.
How do you decide what songs to perform live and how do you transpose them into that live setting?
This is a hard question to answer since we haven’t played live since 2017 and we’ve released two LPs since then!
We are rehearsing to play some shows to close out 2024 and start 2025, and the main considerations are “what’s fun to play”, “what will an audience enjoy”, and “what can we practically perform in a live setting”. A song like “Artemis” off the new album, or “Voyage”, off of the last album, are very long and have a lot going on in them and we’re not in a place where we can play those songs live right now (I’d love to eventually, though).
How do you decide what songs to perform live and how do you transpose them into that live setting?
This is a hard question to answer since we haven’t played live since 2017 and we’ve released two LPs since then!
We are rehearsing to play some shows to close out 2024 and start 2025, and the main considerations are “what’s fun to play”, “what will an audience enjoy”, and “what can we practically perform in a live setting”. A song like “Artemis” off the new album, or “Voyage”, off of the last album, are very long and have a lot going on in them and we’re not in a place where we can play those songs live right now (I’d love to eventually, though).
What plans do you have for the future?
Get the new album, and some music videos in support, out, get back to playing live semi-regularly, and get recording something new! I think we’re going to do a covers EP, and we’ve started sketching out ideas for LP 5, which we’ll likely record in 2025 and release in 2026.