Who is this band that’s gaining great buzz? A band with an impressive stage presence and well-established delivery? A band that can combine eccentric energy with soft and flowing lyricism? Their names are Visenya, and they’re a four-piece Alternative/Rock Post-Hardcore band from Piscataway New Jersey. This quartet released their debut single titled “Tides” at the end of 2017 which sent them into great heights. This record blended together energetic and technically impressive instrumentation with catchy and intriguing vocal melodies to showcase the band’s unique twist on the post-hardcore genre. Although they’ve been playing at numerous shows in and around their local scene, Visenya has also been working hard at promoting their debut EP, “Common Place”.
"Common Place" has great meaning and substance behind it. This project touches on specific situations that the singer James Perry has personally gone through. Visenya is a promising band with a riveting sound that will move their listeners into an explosive dimension that they will not want to escape. If you’re longing for a band to create exciting endorphins and electrifying energy for you to come to indulge in with every aspect, then Visenya is truly the band for you. Their trail-blazing instrumentation and multi-faceted vocal textures create an unforgettable experience for their listeners that will serve as memorable.
Listen to the soundings of Visenya here.
Welcome to BuzzMusic Visenya! What’s the story behind your super cool stage name and what inspired this?
Thank you for having us again! I hope you like super nerdy explanations cause our name comes from Game of Thrones. Not so much the show, but in the lore of George R. R. Martin's book series that the show is based on, Visenya Targaryen was a badass warrior queen to the first king of Westeros. Our drummer Nick was rattling off names from the series one day while we were trying to come up with a band name and that one stuck. That's it, it just sounded cool to us haha.
Let’s talk about your EP “Common Place”. What was the biggest challenge in creating each song on this project?
For me, it was writing the vocals. At first, I wasn't very good at it and not confident in my abilities to make the parts as good as I thought the songs' instrumentals were. While in the studio doing pre-pro, we were all apprehensive to change parts because we had grown so accustomed to how we were playing them, so getting over that hurdle of letting go of something you were so attached to was a big challenge, but it gave us a better idea of how the creative process goes in a professional studio setting. I think by now, we all know each others' strengths when it comes to songwriting, and how we each write individually, and I don't think that's something we had completely figured out while writing this first EP, so that was another challenge. It's good though because it was a learning experience, and I think we became stronger as a unit and found a more common ground to work from when writing.
What is one element you found surprising from your own artist perspective on your EP “Common Place”?
I was surprised by how catchy I was able to make some of these songs. Obviously, as musicians/artists, we're our own worst critics, and it's hard for me to find a piece of music or a vocal line "finished" because I'm always thinking of ways that it can be better. For some of these hooks though, I was just feeling myself, and that gave me so much more confidence to better my writing as well as my technique.
How would you describe your creative process in creating what came to be your EP, “Common Place”?
With the exception of 'Simple Conversations,' I think every song started out as an instrumental with the vocals added afterward, which is a formula we're already changing up for some of our new material. A lot of the focus was on making the instrumentals ones we would enjoy listening to even without vocals on top of it, so the vocals kind of became an afterthought. It made it difficult for me to write over the instrumentals at first, but I overcame it by focusing on which part was what and solidifying the choruses first and making sure they were catchy enough to stand on their own, and then building the rest of the vocals around that.
Let’s talk about the lyricism of this project! What aspect of the songwriting did you find to be most inspiring for this project and why?
Like any songwriter, I channel my emotions into words and try to paint a picture with the lyrics around a common cohesive theme. For instance, the second track on the EP, 'Enchiridion' uses a lot of symbolism of books and stories because the main takeaway of that song for me is that there's no tangible guidebook to living a "good life" or living the right or wrong way, so you have to find your own meaning of happiness and strive to make the story of your life one that you yourself would enjoy reading.
What’s next for Visenya in 2020?
We're still pushing the EP as hard as we can, delving into Spotify and Instagram marketing every day to reach new friends. We have some video content to release in the upcoming months, like some acoustic sessions, and we're trying to branch out into other local markets like NYC and Philly. We might have some bigger gigs to announce in the near future. You can still expect a silly promotional skit from us whenever we have something like a big show or new music to push, or anything else that we deem worth the time to shoot and edit a video for that'll get 12 views online haha.
Oh, and we're writing new music.
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