Interviews: Tragic Visions

On this new occasion, we have had the opportunity to interview the Industrial Rock/EBM band Tragic Visions from the USA. Check out the interview and follow the band on their FACEBOOK PAGE.

1. Where did you get the idea for the band name, you plan it or come out just like that?

David Buyense: We used to just go by TV. We liked the idea of TV rotting your brain and the idea of how dangerous media can be with its use as propaganda and fear-mongering for profit. The thing is though it’s almost impossible to market with the name TV and confusion with other bands like Television or Psychic TV which we are fans of. We would get asked what the T and the V stand for. So with all these factors playing against us, we had to do something, Tragic Visions was fitting and we could still be TV. A few people have come up to me and were like “I never knew TV stood for Tragic Visions “ I’d just kinda laugh to myself and act like it had always been that way.

2. What artists in and outside the goth/industrial/darkwave genres inspired your creativity to begin with?

David: everything wax trax, early ministry, skinny puppy, front 242, leather strip, my Life With The Thrill Kill Kult, Soft Cell, Depeche Mode, Foetus. Outside lots of 70's punk and glam 60's psychedelic. Velvet Underground and Iggy Pop are some of my favorites.

Jess Gibbs: Outside of the scene I’ve always been a huge Smashing Pumpkins nerd. As a young adult, I was immediately inspired and it’s been fun aging with them.

3. We heard that you have some plans to revive some material from years ago that was never released and release some new material. What more can you tell us about that?

David: We just recently released ‘Dead‘which was an album I recorded sometime around 2005-2006 a lot of the material was very different than the EBM and industrial we were doing. Some of it is more goth, Batcave, or deathrock. So at the time, I wasn’t sure if I should just make it into a different project but what ended up happening is that some of it became the album ‘DKAY’ and the rest was just forgotten till now. Our newest album of new material we are planning for a spring release and after that we plan to rerelease our first album ‘Filth Lust Lies’ which hasn’t been available for about 15 years now.

4. How do the mixing and mastering differ regarding new material and bringing back songs from the past?

David: With the older stuff a lot of them the stems for the tracks are lost and all I have left are the songs themselves so mixing isn’t an option on a lot of the originals so the options are to reconstruct them from scratch or just to send them off to mastering as is.

5. Are your releases thematic or conceptual as a whole or are they simply based on real-life situations in and of themselves?

David: mostly they are just collections of songs that came to me in those moments. There have been a few that were somewhat conceptual like ‘DKAY’ is mostly about life falling apart through mental health issues and substance abuse.

Jess: I’d say several of our individual songs tend to have their own concepts. Our band as a whole is a concept of how influential and scary media can be. We tend to have a TV showing gore or uncomfortable life situations and videos that add to or go with the concept of each song.

6. How did the Covid lockdowns affect you creatively? Was that any inspiration to release older material?

David: Covid lockdowns were definitely a boost creatively. Some of the songs on our upcoming album were written during it in 2020 and my other project 2 Love or 2 Hates album ‘The Lovers’ was written in 2020. DKAY was rereleased in the height of it in April 2020 and SKIN rereleased a year later. It was definitely a push out of the stagnant state my creativity was in.

Jess: After Covid lockdowns, I really just wanted to get out and experience life in general and bring the band out of a bit of a hiatus. Really we can probably all thank the lockdowns for getting our name back out there. I’d like to think it would have happened anyway, but it was a giant push

7. Any of you has ever suffered from stage fright? Any tip for beginners on how to beat that?

David: I’m a very socially awkward person and extremely shy. On stage something else happens though and actually the bigger the crowd the more I’m able to get into it. I’m not sure of any tips I can give just go into autopilot and let it happen.

Jess: I’m not sure I’ve ever not been nervous on stage. I try to just focus on the more technical stuff like timing or remembering parts I’m struggling with. A little liquid courage and adrenaline and I’m usually having a blast before I know it though.

8. If your bus was to break down on tour and a band was to drive by offering a lift for the final week of the tour…who could you tolerate and who would you say, “Under no circumstances would get in a bus with them”?

David: sounds like a desperate situation I think I would gladly accept a ride from almost anyone except any of those guys that are openly maga, racist, homophobic, or sexist.

Jess: Oh man, the opportunity here to really throw ourselves under the “bus” haha. If I choose to be picked up by mid-90s Pigface I could knock out meeting a “bus” load of my industrial influences.

9. What's the weirdest thing a fan has ever asked you for?

David: I’m sure theirs gotta be something much more weird but the first thing that pops into my head is a fan/friend asking if she could design some capes for us.

Jess: I get asked for drumsticks a lot. I don’t have several wooden drumsticks to give. Back in the early days of the band banging on trash can lids or just really hard electronic pads I broke too many of them. So I really only carry 1 sometimes 2 pairs of plastic sticks.

10. Anything you would like to add to the Breathing The Core readers?

David: thank you so much for having. People can stay up to date with us at http://www.instagram.com/tragic_visions99 New album this spring and more rereleases after that.