Interview by Alex Lindsay
Three years since its inception, Vaultry has gained swift popularity within the Canadian provinces. The five-piece rock group, hailing from Victoria, British Columbia, wanted their music to tell a story. Their most recent release, dubbed “Eulogy”, delivers exactly that, but with heartbreaking context.
On January 12th, 2016, the band’s guitarist Chasen Fraser passed away while valiantly fighting Lymphoma. Prior to his passing, Fraser and Vaultry were in the process of writing “Eulogy”. According to front-man Leith Hynds, time was against Vaultry to cement Fraser’s musical legacy in the album due to his declining health.
“We tried to cram in as much writing time as we can. As we approached the end of 2015, we kept hearing that [Chasen] had less and less time,” Hynds said. “Our original plan was to go record his guitars in his hospice care room… but time was cut short.”
As time ran out, the band’s true test of perseverance came. According to Hynds, he scrambled to keep the group focused on finishing the album.
“We were all really depressed and grieving and didn’t really have the motivation to keep going,” Hynds said. “I tried to keep us on a schedule, made sure we had band practice every week, and made sure we had a writing session every week… It took us three or four months to snap back into it.”
Vaultry completed the writing for “Eulogy” in April of 2016, while around the same time welcoming Damian Anthony as their new guitarist. By January of 2017, the group unveiled the full-length album to the world.
“I was really happy the way this record turned out,” Hynds said. “I thought I was going to hate it and it was going to be one of those things that would be extremely difficult to listen to. But I am really happy that we got to work on it the way we did and work with the people that we got to work with.”
As for future tunes, according to Hynds, Vaultry has a catalog of songs they have written and would like to work on. With another album just over the horizon, Hynds wants to preserve the unique sound of “Eulogy” and wants the next album to focus on a different tone. However, expect the next album’s concept similar to “Eulogy”.
“I’d say that we are probably going to lose quite a bit of what was specifically the tone of ‘Eulogy’,” Hynds said. “I think [the album] will still be ‘story based’. I have been writing a rough outline of what I want the album to be about… but the idea is that the album itself should tell a story.”
Expect to also see Vaultry on tour on the west coast United States for the first time ever in February 2018. You can find “Eulogy” on their website, Spotify, iTunes and numerous other major online retailers.