Vigil Of War is a Los Angeles based hard rock & melodic metal band. When my friend, Maryline had sent me a link of their music after only a few seconds I already knew VOW is something very different. Since then I’ve listened “Bite the Bullet” for thousands of time!  Thanks to my dear friend I had an opportunity to do an interview with the voice & bassist of the band, Alicia Vigil. 

“VOW was created as a brainchild of mine once my last band, She Demons, ended. Kiki, who’s playing rhythm guitar for us now was actually in She Demons with me! Shane, I’ve known and have jammed with for years and Chris I’ve also been friends with for years. It’s awesome to be in a band full of genuinely good friends of mine who are all so talented and just fun to be around. 

I knew – when I started the band – I wanted to use my last name “Vigil” somehow.

It’s a proud name because I love my family and it’s just a cool word in English that has a double meaning. I’ve always worn military hats live, so the war part was a good connection and the initials for the band was VOW. Our artist and good friend, Richard Villa III was actually the one who helped me come up with the full name “Vigil Of War” after some brainstorming back and forth. 

The rad thing about all four of us is that we each love all kinds of different music styles and genres, which I feel plays into a big part of our sound.

You can hear the range of influences such as punk, melodic metal and classic rock – but we’re also suckers for good pop hooks. When we toured the UK, our playlist was all over the place. (laughs) We went from listening to The Darkness to Lily Allen to Eminem. We appreciate a wide variety of tunes! 

Everyone in the band is extremely talented on top of being just such good and fun people! It makes it totally easy to get along and move forward! 

If you’re able to hang out with any of the band, I guarantee there will be laughs! All of them are super funny in their own way. Shane has some great one-liners, Chris has some amazing dance moves and Darkness impressions, and Kiki has some quirky little sayings and reactions that are priceless. Really adore each of them!

Originally, I wrote pretty much everything on the EP, but since then, now that we have a solid lineup, we’ve all pitched in on writing. We’ve started getting together a couple times a week to just brainstorm new ideas. It’s nice to have a band that actually feels like a band!”

As you can also see Alicia has a really unique style (well, you know, I’m a girl – editor’s note), and as she mentioned earlier she was quite explicit about her style on stage, but – surprisingly – she has never designed any of her stage costumes. “I do style myself and totally love finding unique pieces whenever I come across them to put together for shows.

I just think it’s cool when a band has the full package of sound, performance and a cool look. 

Believe it or not, Vigil of War and Alicia toured and shared the stage with pretty big names – for example, last time they did that with Nita Strauss. I was curious that which show and artist was the most special one for her and why? “I don’t think we could possibly name a favorite, as we’ve worked with some amazingly talented and cool people! It’s been cool to just become friends with a lot of these people, learn from them and of course be inspired seeing them all.

We are definitely grateful for the amazing experiences we’ve gotten!”

And where would you be able to see them? “Next on the list is Warped Tour! We’re super pumped up for it and until then, we’ll be in the studio putting out some new tunes!”

Interview: Afrodite Szeleczky
Photos by and special thanks to Maryline Stein

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