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4th July 2006 - For the past ten years, Vanishing Point have built up a reputation of being Melbourne's strongest melodic metal band. They've supported Gamma Ray & Yngwie Malmsteen, played at Wacken and played lots of headline shows. I was fortunate enough to catch up with Chris Porcianko over the phone while he's in the process of writing songs for VP's new album.
>It seems like your latest album has been getting lots of positive reviews, everyone seems like be liking it, has that really surprised you?
In a sense yes it has, but we've always been relatively confident about our music. I think that in 5 years between releases it really gave us the chance to really concentrate on the music so to speak. And we felt that "Embrace the Silence" (and we still do think that) is a strong album. And we're just happy that everyone has really cottoned onto it. I think that it's a clear indication how of Vanishing Point is now, and it's pretty much a step forward for us of where we're going to be heading towards in the future. So with that being said with the responses we've been getting from people we're really happy with it, we're over the moon.
>What about in the popular press, have they picked up on any of it?
Well I guess that in the commercial press we'd never be recognised to a certain degree, but in the major newspapers like in the herald sun we got like 4 or 4 and a half stars out of 5 for a review. And we were wrapped about that because after all this time we've got a distribution deal with a company called "Ride Distributors" in Australia, which is a big metal distribution company, so they do their work really well. And therefore we had a chance to really span out without music, get reviews, and in general just even from people who are not really into metal they like some of the softer moments in the album. With songs like "Embraced", "Reason" they like those songs. But we've actually been surprised that with some of the people who we thought "Oh man, this is too heavy for that reviewer", they actually like songs like "Hollow" and "If Only I".
>So how are you finding the local scene gig-wise for metal bands?
I think that the local scene for metal bands is thriving at the moment, it's really good. In the time that I've been into metal music (a long time), and in the times that I've been going to see bands, I think that probably now is the strongest. I think that there's a little bit lack of venues for Melbourne metal bands, but I think that there's a lot of great metal bands happening. Of course you've got the guys from Black Majesty doing good things, the guys from Eternal doing excellent things - they're really good at what they do.
And then you've got bands like Dark Earth, and there's a lot of younger bands out there. It's just good to see fresh faces, and it's good to see a lot of the slightly younger crowd getting into metal who are coming to the gigs in Melbourne in general. We were surprised, we recently did a Geoff Rule Tribute, we had a lot of people who had never seen Vanishing Point live, so although we have toured overseas, it's also good to expose our music to people here who haven't seen us and probably heard the name, but haven't seen us live.
And weather the people are into death metal or black metal they still appreciate what each band does. So I think that it's pretty good.
>Yeah, I've been very surprised when meeting a lot of younger kids who know who Dream Theater are.
Yeah well in comparison to years ago when I was into Dream Theater (and I still am) but when I first heard "Images & Words" Dream Theater were like a secretive cult type band that all the prog-heads knew about. And now they're just so widely known it's amazing. I never imagined that progressive music in that way would be so widely known. But I think that Dream Theater are a really good example how regardless of what kind of music they are playing, the music can branch out, because there's riffs and hooks of different varieties within the metal genre that appeals to people.
I think that that's where it's worked for them. And that's what we're trying to do, but not so much in a technical sense.
>Well I think that as long as you've got a singable melody I can't see why people aren't going to like it.
Well that's actually the thing with us, we always try to concentrate more or less on the melody. Instead of technicality or blistering solo's or double kick drums it's always been "how strong is the chorus?" We've got a really good vocalist in Silvio, he's really emotive vocalist, and we really feel the song. He puts everything he's got into it, and we're lucky that since that the way he sings it probably reaches out to the crowd in a certain way, and when we sing a chorus people tend to remember it. So that for us, is a very integral part in Vanishing Points sound, being melodic. I suppose that if anyone said to us "you're a progressive metal band or power metal band", I'd probably just simply say that we're a melodic metal band.
>Do you consider yourself a lead guitarist in the band?
Surprisingly we both don't consider ourselves lead guitarist or rhythm guitarists. And I'm not saying that to be modest or anything, but it's just more or less like we just play for the song. It's never been like Tommy saying "I want to do this shredding solo" - it's pretty much whoever comes up with a solo that fits the song, that's how it's always worked.
Tommy on the next recording is going to be soloing on the next 3 or 4 songs, because he's got some really cool ideas that he wants to put forward. So it's never like a battle of the ego's amongst us two guitarists, it's more of a "if it sounds good". And you feel good when you're playing it then go for it. It's never "we'll I'm lead and you're going to be just playing rhythm". It's never been like that and it never will be.
>A lot of guitarists have problems putting their ego aside and not soloing.
Well, years ago I used to have a guitar teacher and I was really focusing on technique - shredding, arpeggios and all that. Then when he went overseas I didn't really have any lessons during that time for about two and a half or three years. And in that time I really started developing my song writing skills to a certain degree, and I started concentrating more or less on riffs. Different timing, picking timing, not only on the electric guitar but also on the acoustic. For me it's always been if the songs good you can have a lead break that's got 50 million notes an hour, but really at the end of the day is it going to mean anything? To me I'm more into the guitarists who play with feel who do a few bends. They can make more meaning and more sense and portray more of a story with a few string bends instead of playing 50 million notes. That's the type of players that I enjoy.
Well, put it this way I've got a lot of Gary Moore in my vinyl collection and I really enjoy his music. His "Run for Cover" album and "Victims of the future", that's the type of stuff that I really got into. And I suppose like many guitarists out there like Yngwie Malmsteen also inspired me when I first heard "Far Beyond the Sun". But I just try to focus more on songs.
>Are you still practicing daily? Do you have a practice regime?
No, actually surprising enough I haven't really had a chance to sit down and practice. As embarrassing as it is I wish I had more time to practice! But for me if I get an idea for an original song, I envision not only the guitar, but the drums, the keyboards; everything. But that's not to say that I don't practice because I wouldn't get any better. Of course I'd get better, and that's one thing that I endeavour to do in the future. But I've got to say too without sounding arrogant, because there's a lot of things in my playing that I can improve upon, at the same time I'm very content with where I am with my playing. When I play a solo, I'm happy with the solos that I've been playing. It's not like I listen to a solo that I did 2 years ago and think "Geez that solo sucked", I'm happy with my solo's.
With "Embrace the Silence" all of my solo's were recorded in ten hours. It was just that day, I was switched on. My sound was good, my playing was good, and I just did em. Of course here and there I had to fix bits up a couple of mistakes but in general I'm pretty happy where I am guitar playing, individually speaking as a musician. I'm also very happy playing in the context of Vanishing Point, because I think that not only am I progressing as a musician and as an individual player, I think that the bands progressing as a whole. Which for me is more exciting.
>So you've just taken up an endorsement with ESP guitars?
Yeah, Tommy and I are endorsed with ESP guitars, they play really well and we are happy to be endorsed with a company that makes great guitars. Tom uses an ESP horizon, which is a really nice guitar, and I'm using ESP Ltd guitars. I've got two MH300's, which are stock standard, and come with EMG non-active pickups, and a floyd rose tremolo. They've both got reverse headstocks, but they are neck-throughs, with mahogany body and a flame maple top on them.
As well as our endorsement with ESP Guitars we are also endorsed with Dean Markley guitar strings in which I use the Blue Steel strings with a pretty heavy gauge because we are tuned to E Flat , so I wanted something that holds well and is firm without the fear of over bending the high E and B strings over the neck when I solo :)
We have a cool endorsement with DSL guitar straps from Sydney which is awesome for us because they make hand made guitar straps that feel great when we play live, plus they don't slip, and are made from soft leathers. The front of the straps that we use are snakeskin which looks damn cool :)
>So what exactly is your entire guitar rig setup?
My setup is really cheap. I'm planning on in the future of getting a Hughes & Kettner head, there's a new head called a Switchblade which I really want to try out. But at the moment for live applications, all I've used for the past ten years is a (shock horror) a MosValve bi-polar solid state poweramp, which is 80 watts per channel stereo, and that's been running into a Behringer V pre-amp processor that's rack mounted. And I've been using my old ART SGX2000 as the bypass to power the X15 ultrafoot, which matches the SG pre-amp processor to change sounds. This then runs into two sovtek quadboxes that haven't got celestions in there, they've just got the normal eminence type speakers.
For me as a guitar player, even when I'm using distortion, I've never really liked that overly gritty type of distorted sound. For me I can't handle that, the distortion sound that I like to have is not clean, but smooth around the edges. Even when we recorded our album when I did the solo's through a Mesa Boogie triple rectifier, the solo sound that I chose was actually through the "classic" setting. The modern recto sound was too modern and too gritty. It's not to say that Mesa Boogie aren't killer amps, if I could afford one I'd buy one .
>They seem to be pretty obscenely overpriced here.
Yeah that's one thing that hard for musicians in general, a lot of gear is very expensive here. Hopefully in the future that might improve, but I'm finding that there's a bit more gear that is reachable for the younger guys and kids. Whereas when I started out, the ART processor, which is 12 bit digital technology was something like $2,500. Whereas now it's not worth anything.
>So what's the next step for Vanishing Point?
September we're booked to go back into the studio for album number four. At the moment we've been writing. That's the reason why we haven't been gigging in the last three months, we've been writing the album. We've got something like 10 or 11 songs close to completion, lyrically about 4 or 5 have been finished. So there's a little bit of work to be done, but the songs are coming along pretty well. Some of the songs are going to be more riff orientated in a way, there's a few technical passages here and there. Not as many ballads as yet. There's one song on there that's pretty much the fastest song we've ever done, there's another one that a real riffy kind of song, and very symphonic at the same time. It's typical VP. It's just another step forward. There's a couple of songs that we've been doing with drop-tuning, but nothing that we've really consciously set our minds on, it's just more or less that we've just jammed the songs out and that's how it's happened.>Are you going to be recording with Endel Rivers?
Absolutely. Endel is like for us is like the Bob Rock of Metallica. The guy's really easy to work with. His knowledge is fantastic, and his ear to music is fantastic. He's got a very expansive knowledge of music in general, and what works and what doesn't work.
Sometimes there are pretty heated discussions (or debates) where we've got something that we really believe in, and he goes "well, it's good, it sounds good, but in theory it's completely wrong". But why did we employ a co-producer to produce the album? These are the things that have to be worked out. Working with him is a pure blessing - the thing is about Endel is that with all his experience he's not only one of those producers who works with the band, but he's also one of those producers who doesn't take away from the band. He actually enhances what the band puts forward.
Especially being in Melbourne - if we've got talent like that then why not record with that instead of going overseas?>What albums do you think every guitarist should own?
Woah. Let me think! Personally I love the first two Malmsteen albums, I love Tony Macalpine's "Edge of Insanity" - it's his first solo album, and his "Maximum Security". Vinnie Moore's "Mind's Eye" if you can get it it's awesome. Anything of Racer X. If you want something that fun with a lot of feel try "Corridors of Power", "Victims of the Future" or "Run for Cover" from Gary Moore. When Moore did his blues stuff it was alright, but when he did his hard-rock stuff he was just such a great player. Not to say he's not now, but back then he really did something for me. Of course Dream Theater, "Images and Words" and "Awake", definitely Symphony X, I mean Michael Romero is just a scary guitarist.
Definitely Surfing The Alien by Joe Satriani and some Dream Theater for John Petrucci's playing , that guy is awesome.
On a musical sense, bands, I think that the guitarist from Soilwork, they're pretty much shred-heads. There's a band "Scar Symmetry" from Sweden and there like if you can imagine Soilwork, meets Meshugga meets Death meets In Flames meet something progressive, with growly vocals and clean vocals, and some killer chorus's. And the guitarist in that band is just awesome. I don't know the guys name but I want to get in touch with him one day and say "man, you're playing is ace". But not only in his solo's but in a lot of the rhythm playing it's so tight and intricate. You can't help but crank in up in the car.
Other players on a local front I really like Brett Garsed's playing, the guitarists from Black Majesty, Stewie from Dungeon I really like his playing, a friend of mine Ritchie, the guitarist from Enter Twighlight. Some of the stuff he does I won't ever do in solo's, and I said to him "man you just blow me away", but he says the same thing about me. So I suppose there's mutual respect, but I really enjoy his playing. And Tommy the guitarist in my band as well.
>Any chance of a solo album?
No chance as yet for a solo album, I really haven't had the chance to think of doing something like that. Maybe in the future, but for now I see any creative ideas that I have for Vanishing Point in which everything I like to play, I actually do within our music. If I did a solo album it would probably be a mixture of AOR, prog, death metal, black metal and classical music just to screw with people.
>What about a tour?
Hopefully in the near future we will be back in Europe, not sure when. But that's the aim for us with the next album to hopefully take it back onto a full tour. Nothing is concrete yet, it's too early to say, but yes we definitely want to go back to Europe and if everything goes well we would like to tour Japan as well.
>Thanks very much for your time Chris, any final words?
To anyone who is reading this, thanks very much for the support, for anyone who has brought the album, and I hope they check out the next album! And if anyone is reading this overseas, hopefully maybe, fingers crossed we'll be in their territory one day soon!