VinTri Hill – Thanks for Asking!

VinTri Hill – Thanks for Asking! – by Liam Sweeny.

Vincenzo Baldwin-Guitar and Vocals, Dimitri Cerrone-Drums, Tyler Munson-Bass

RRX: What would you like fans to know before they come to see you play? (No basic stuff; get specific.)

(Tyler) They are in store for a unique and highly energetic set-every time we take the floor. Whether it’s a small crowd, or a ton of people, we are consistent, and every note hit, and movement, is going to be emotionally charged in a way not many other groups can really match.  We each have our own little antics we pull during the show, whether it’s Vincenzo’s high jumps, or taking a random break during a song and going into the crowd to visit, or Dimitri drumming with a blindfold on, or even getting up from his kit to come watch me run a bass solo. Most shows you will see me shirtless by the end, and hanging off the edge of the stage playing upside down!!!

RRX: “The best laid plans of mice and men…” I don’t really know the quote, but I know this one; sh*t happens. When we least expect it, calamity befalls us. Sometimes just comic inconvenience. Please tell us a story about some comic inconvenience that happened to you whilst performing?

(Dimitri) So we did an outside summer show up at Silver Factory, and the weather outlook initially wasn’t bad. But, the second we started, like the first note we played, the rain drops started falling. It was a great memory for us because it shows a lot about our adversity. It rained for an hour straight, and we played as long as we could-everyone was absolutely soaked and stomping around in the rain. Vin was in the crowd shirtless, and we were not stopping, we just beat the piss out of our shit! It was funny to be defiant and overcome the weather.

RRX: How does practice go? Is the road practice enough, or do you have a practice shack? If so, how does it look? What’s on the walls? What cool sh*t is in there?

(Vincenzo) Dimitri and Tyler come over to my place, where we have a practice space in the basement. It is quite the fun set up, we have a plexi drum shield and foam pads on the walls and corners to contain the sound-that being said, all volumes at 11 and no earplugs allowed. Aside from the guitar racks, amps and gear, we have some band posters from our favorite records, a few keep-sake show posters from some memorable shows we’ve done (FC Inc., Kool Keith, The Fleshtones). We have stage style curtains that close and block off the band space from a lounge area-there we have a futon, tv, games, a couple diy end tables, and a fake window-which has an inspirational poster in it of one of our favorite local bands-looking in on us. It helps us not feel agoraphobic.

RRX: We have to play somewhere, and sometimes those places have more going for them than a stage and a power outlet. What is a memorable place you played, and bonus points if it’s not a well-known place.

(Tyler) I definitely have to talk about a place we hit on our mini-tour down South in October. There’s this sick DIY venue in Richmond, Virginia called ‘The Kitchen,’ and the people that run it are so cool. It’s in this backyard of a house in this awesome college neighborhood, simple, but with great aura-carpets for the stage area, lights running along the porch and stair rails, and hand painted sheets that block off the yard from the alleyway. It draws a wide variety of genres and groups that perform in front of young and energetic crowds. The night we played, we were with three bands from the area, Mega Fauna, Gap Tooth, and Squish, and they were all so welcoming and amazing, but that crowd, mixed with a little wind and rain whipping up from the incoming hurricane…..it was absolutely off the charts, high energy, and good times!!

RRX: Tell me about your most recent song, album, or video (you pick.) Tell me a story about what went into making it. Not a process, but a cool story that took place  within the process.

(Dimitri) We made our music video for ‘Without Me’ in the basement of a local college. Now don’t get me wrong, we are so appreciative that they let us use the space, however, it was like a fucking oven. So, it’s like forty-five degrees outside, and a hundred and ten in this room. Now, this might not be considered cool, but we learned we were right next to the boiler room, and there was this neat pathway that leads from the room we were in, to the boiler area-it had this wild underground tunnel vibe to it-brick and dirt, random supplies along the way. Back to being cool, the room we filmed in was so hot, we all had this gloss on us from our sweat, and it made the video look sick-we were shining!

RRX: We let it out differently when we play music. The happy, sad, good and back; it can all be put out musically. Overall, do you feel better when you sing about the better times, or the worser times? Is there a difference you can describe?

(Vincenzo) Overall, I feel better when I sing about the worser times, because it lets me get things off my chest. When I’m happy, I don’t feel as much of a need to write about it or sing about it, that’s why it feels good to sing about general discontent, or things I’m stewing on, because I feel like I’m venting or doing something about it, in a creative way. I’ve written a handful of songs regarding happy topics too, there is a circumstance and emotion behind each song that helps fuel it as we are playing it. It’s fitting, us being a Punk Rock band, we aren’t singing about unicorns and rainbows.

Photo provided.

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