Who are Van Damsel?

Well.

I listen to new music very reluctantly. I prefer to stay within what I know and already love when selecting a song to dance around to, to get ready to and even to jog to; but the most recent band to earn a place on my playlist (and even that was a while ago) defied all conventional rules for appearing there — and I can't say I don't love it.

Van Damsel first really got my attention when they followed me on Twitter. I was immediately intrigued, and bought 'The Sunshine, Girl'  EP on Play Store. Consequently, now every morning I'm bopping around to the perfect wake up good-vibe inducing melodies of 'August' and 'Sun and Sand'; both of which whipping up images of beach holidays and road trips and everything lovely and summery and-

So, who are Van Damsel?

Sebastien Ste Marie, Richard Bregoliss, Matthew Rennehan (Renny) and Matthew Barron make up the band from Kamloops, British Columbia. Earlier this week, I got the opportunity to ask the band some questions, and miraculously they agreed to answer them!

Q. How did you get to the name Van Damsel? Has that always been your name?

A. So to start, we got the name Van Damsel from a song by a metal band called the Dillinger Escape Plan. Originally, Rich, Matt, and Renny were in a metal band, so there is metal in our roots. While they were in a metal band, I had a bit of a side project with Rich and Matt playing indie rock. This started in about 2007-2008. Matt and I also had a band in high school. Here's our page on last.fm. Look how young and fresh we look! http://www.last.fm/music/Frangiadakis

Q. Do you write your own songs? If so, what inspires the summery theme throughout the majority?

A. Our summery vibes basically came from us wanting to make upbeat pop music. It just sort of happened. We have some dark moments in areas, but most of what we've released is summery and upbeat. However, we are busy working on new material right now and though I can tell you that it will continue to be upbeat (and even more in the pop music realm than our previous material), it won't necessarily be as summery as the Sunshine, Girl or August.

Q. When did you come together as a band for the first time? When/how did you meet?

A. In the summer of 2009, the other three's metal band broke up, so Renny joined us. We decided on the name Van Damsel and since then we've gotten progressively more serious (and better). We kind of stunk for our first 2 years together. But like anything, it takes practice to get good at something (and we still need more practice!). Coincidentally, we all went to the same high school, but I never knew Rich or Renny until afterwards. We basically all met through Matt.

Q. And when can we expect more music from you guys?

A. As you may know, we are releasing a music video on June 20th. The song will be new, though we actually recorded it when we recorded the Sunshine, Girl (so it's old for us). However, we are aiming to be in the studio this fall, with a single  then album release sometime after. It's too early to say. All I can say is, we have new songs, we have a more mature sound, and we are working hard to hopefully make something special. We want to be able to tour the world and play for people like you (who we connect with on social media but haven't been able to actually meet yet!).

You can buy ‘The Sunshine, Girl’ EP and the rest of the band’s discography/merch (designed by Rich Bregoliss) at: 

http://vandamselmusic.bandcamp.com/ 

Madds x

 (Thank you very much to the fabulous Seb Ste Marie for answering my questions - much much much appreciated! x)