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VHS Or Beta.
 As I start speaking To Zeke Buck, I check to confirm his status in VHS Or Beta as singer/guitarist/songwriter. "Actually, we all write all the songs together," he explains. "We're probably one of the few groups left who are fully collaborative. Every aspect of the band is collaborative. Nobody writes just for their instrument, everybody writes for all instruments."
As we speak, they're is just about to hit the stage of New York's Bowery Ballroom for the second night in a row. VHS Or Beta are touring the US with Ambulance Ltd and the New York show sold out so quickly, the bands were quickly asked to play another show the next night. It's yet another highlight for the band, which has recently completed tours of Europe, and just finished touring as support for Duran Duran. "It's exhausting, but great. We just feel fortunate to actually be busy. It's very surreal," Buck sighs. "I don't think anybody's really realised it's happening at this point."
The recently released 'Night On Fire' is actually the band's fourth record, but because they didn't have major label backing, none of the previous albums got much international exposure. "We pretty much said we'd do it as long as we could on our own, unless something better came along," says Buck. "And we got to that point pretty much after we released our last record, 'Le Funk'. We had reached the ceiling where if we wanted to go any farther, we really had to have more people on board."
One of the labels that had courted with VHS Or Beta, Astralwerks, had just started to change, including more crossover artists on their previously electronic dominated artist roster. At just that time, VHS Or Beta had reached a pivotal point where the members were either going to pack it all in or give up their jobs and lives to see how far the band could go. "We came to that crossroads, and we went for it, and we've been lucky enough that people accepted things with open arms," Buck explains. "The 'Le Funk' record went over great, it got great reviews, and a lot of people really liked it. We weren't really ready for that, actually. We've been very fortunate."
For those that think the VHS Or Beta sound is an attempt to jump onto the 'eighties revival bandwagon, Buck would like to explain that the album is built on top of the band's extensive and varied history. "This record was fully conscious, in that it was wanting to be a culmination of all our other records," he says. "Our first record was a VHS only release. We hand pressed them on VHS tape. There were probably only a hundred released. I kinda think of it as very experimental noise, mixed with maybe a cross between Sonic Youth and Merzbow, and the whole kinda Skingraft sound, crossed with Blonde Redhead. The second record was very post-punk without meaning to be post-punk. We didn't even know what post-punk was when we made that record. We had a song called Easy Street on that record that really made us what we are today. It was more a disco song, in that angular, post-punk fashion. It got compared to Gang Of Four, Mouse On Mars, Daft Punk, Melt Banana, and Kraftwerk. And then 'Le Funk' was definitely more strongly in French house sound and even techno. We really wanted to bring all those different avenues into the one record. Hopefully it's evident."
Eventually the conversation turns to the plethora of angular, 'eighties-styled bands out now, and Buck reveals that while the band was recording 'Night On Fire', their greatest fear was that their album would be pre-empted by other like-minded bands. "And that's what happened," he says. "You know, The Rapture came out with their album, and then along comes ours. It's kinda like The Nappy Roots. They waited forever on their album, and then of course it got compared to Outkast."
Buck has found his silver lining, though. One of the happy results of the appearance of all these bands is that now there are plenty of suitable acts to tour with and that people have gotten better at billing the bands. Plus, they've gotten to befriend a lot of musicians. "There's a lot of unpretentiousness that's going on right now," he smiles, "and it's really great to be a part of it."
Eddie Chan
 | 'Night On Fire' is out now through EMI. |
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