The Vindys Move Into New Territory

The Vindys Move Into New Territory

Photo By: Brian Herman

Sara Busone chats with Jackie Popovec from The Vindys to discuss the evolving sound in their new album, “Trap Door”, the new tour, getting their music video screened at Tribeca and more

RRX: So before we get started, I am a huge fan. I saw you guys open for Fantastic Cat a couple of years ago in downstate New York on the beach. That was so fun!  Thank you for taking the time to interview with me.

JP: Oh yeah! Thank you! This is really cool. I’m glad that our travels up to New York have been for something! I’ve met a lot of cool people up at the beach house there.

RRX: Oh, that’s awesome! So the new album… congratulations! I know it just came out in April.  I read in a recent interview that you were more “inbox” focused with this album. So you’re kind of focusing on not just perfecting songs in public but rather, trying to recreate the magic of your live sound in the studio.  I was wondering if you could expand a little bit.

JP: Yeah, it’s something that we’ve always been told by our fan bases. “Hey I love your music when I hear it… but you guys live is a whole other level.”  So I have always been chasing what we can do in the studio to elevate the sound and make it  an experience where people want to come and listen to our stuff not just in a live setting, but also they want to replay the one or two songs over and over and over again.   And to me that was something that was important when we started in the studio.  Me and my producer Mike Estock from Court Street Recording Studios, who is literally two blocks from my house, sat down and we really tore apart each of these songs and discussed what we wanted sonically out of each of these songs.  So what you’re gonna hear on the production of the album is going to be a little bit different than what you’re gonna hear in a live space and we’re OK with that.

RRX: Yeah, I definitely would attest to that. I just think that’s a really cool angle that you’re going with. So you had that big Pat Benatar tour, 2024 and 2025, I believe. It was like a two-year schedule. And you said that you guys have more freedom now to go to new places that that tour took you on. So, the tour kicked off in May. What are some of the places you’re excited to revisit?

JP: Yeah, so, some of the cities that we will be revisiting from the couple of tours that we have been we are very excited about visiting… but doing it in our own capacity is going to be sort of an experiment to see how many of those audience members that we gained a following from are going to come out to the shows. So this is kind of new territory for me, in some capacities, but in others it’s kind of just building off of the momentum that we have already built for the last 10 years. This band, and everything that we have done has just been building that fan base, one person at a time.  I feel like everything’s gonna happen at once. I’m very much excited to get these rolled out and, and also a little anxious because I really need to get my logistics in order.

RRX: Sure, that makes sense. It’s all very, very exciting. One thing that I remember hearing was, I think you, there was a recording of you playing live. The song “Bugs”… the video got a nod, an entry at the 2023 Tribeca Film Festival, which I thought was so cool. Was getting one of your videos a Tribeca nod on your bucket list?

JP: Absolutely not,  but it was definitely probably on the bucket list of our director, Peter John Campbell!  Because he had not told me that he applied, and when he called me he was like, “Are you sitting down?” I’m like, “what happened?” He goes, “I applied for Tribeca.  And we weirdly got it. I wasn’t gonna tell you, but we got it”.  And, it was pretty insane to be one of only 8 music videos that were chosen. I think this was like the first year in 2023 that they decided to involve music videos and so this is among, a couple of nationals like Lizzo and the Black Keys… and then some international ones and for us, you know, this band who’s been doing it the way that we’ve been doing it on a low budget… to have our tiny little music video make it to the big one of the biggest stages of film is just unheard of, and immediately I said, “what am I gonna wear on the red carpet?”

RRX: That’s what I would wonder too!

JP: What am I gonna wear and what if and if I’m going to meet Robert De Niro!

RRX: And you have a song that became an ESPN commercial too, correct?  “Are You Ready”?

JP: Yes!  So being from Youngstown, we sit right between Cleveland and Pittsburgh, so we’re in a little bit of a cross hairs between Steelers and Browns fans.  However, I will take whoever is wanting to work with us, especially in the baseball realm.  The Pittsburgh Pirates called and said, “well, they have this thing called Friday Night Rocks where they profile a local regional band, and they have only done this a few times”, but they tapped us to potentially do a song and they wanted to recreate (and) change the lyrics of a song that I had already put out and I go, “wait, I think I have something in my voice memos that is perfect for this sports anthemic thing that they’re trying to go for”. And that was “Are You Ready”.  That became the song that they used and not only did they use it… it just started to grow legs! The Pittsburgh Penguins started to use it for their commercials.  The Pittsburgh Steelers, during their training season, used it in their commercial. And then I got the call from ESPN saying, “hey, we love this song. Can we put it in for ACC Network for softball?”  And that was just like what I had in my head for this song…and I was like, “this is amazing!”

RRX: That is awesome. What a great opportunity. I love that story. So, what are some upcoming dates nearby on this tour?

JP: A couple of dates that are coming up for New York that would be Buffalo, which is on Thursday, June 11th.     The opening act is Jessie Elizabeth from Syracuse. Oh, OK. And then we have Pleasantville Music Fest.  We’re opening up for OK Go and The Fixx.

RRX: Cool. And that’s July 11th, I think

JP: Yeah. The 11th!

RRX: The last question for you is… I’ve heard your music described in so many different ways. I was just curious. This is something I like to ask musicians. Do you agree with the way people have described your sound? Do you feel like people get it? Do you feel like they’re  close, or not even close?

JP: This is, it’s something still that I grapple with, and I can’t lie, I have so many different genres that I’ve always grown up with, so I kind of lean in many directions.  I hear a lot of people comparing my vocals to like an Amy Winehouse, I feel like that’s too high of a bar that they have set and that’s a great compliment.  I can go into any supper club venue and be like, OK, I know what kind of set list I wanna do tonight. I can go into a Pat Benatar show and say, “you know what? we’re gonna go a little bit more rock forward on our tunes.” So it really depends on my mood.  But, however, I take it all, I really appreciate all the things that I hear from people vocally. I have always leaned more, into the power pops and just (the) big sounds ever since I was little.  I mean, there were huge voices on the radio like Mariah Carey, Whitney Houston, Celine Dion. And then, going into more melodic things.  For me it was going into jazz, but maybe Nelly Furtado, Norah Jones,  so playing with the inflections of, of the vocals were, were really something that I became interested in. And I do like to punctuate with my drummer – we have to be tight on that stage and everything else will fall into place, I feel.  So it depends on the mood, but yeah… I welcome it all! Whatever people want to put us in, I’m OK with that.