Interview: Texas Artist Vic on Their Genre-Bending Sound and Expectations for LGBTQ+ Artists
The rock musician talks growing up in Texas, Audre Lorde, and the impact they hope their music makes.
Written by Felix Kalvesmaki
Photographed by Matt Lewis
Vic has released two albums under their solo career and one record with their band Other Plans. Thus far, their career has been defined by acoustic compositions with a rock ethos. With their new album in the works, however, they've been experimenting with a stronger focus on instrumentation, and with a new sound will also come a new name. Vic explores these plans, their family, and more in an interview with Afterglow.
Afterglow: Do you think that living in Texas has affected or influenced your music, like it’s a byproduct of people that you meet here and the kind of culture that you grew up in?
Vic: For sure. I have a lot of musicians and artists in my family, and we all sort of have different backgrounds, it's kind of weird that — in terms of, I guess the music that we listen to — because our family is just so big, we all sort of have different interests. So, like, my second cousin or something is a Tejano singer and his son are in this country rock band in Nashville. It's really interesting because these people are, you know, my blood, and they're doing all these crazy huge things. Even as country artists, they were just a really huge influence to me growing up, and so as I write more and as I start to sort of figure out the kind of music that I make, I definitely hear a lot of different influences, which can only be attributed to this environment we grew up in. I hear, you know, classic country in some of my stuff, and I'm not even remotely close to making country music. I think it's all this different artistic influence that goes into my music. It can be attributed to all these different cultures that create something bigger in this part of Texas in this little area, right? It’s very enriching. I can't imagine having grown up any other way.
You say that you hear that they're influencing your music, even though in terms of genre, it's rather separated. What would you define your genre as, either what you've done before or now?
Vic: I've been trying to figure that out, because I hate when people ask me like, “What kind of music do you do?” I think above anything else, the music that I make is rock. And there's different genres within rock, and even with an acoustic guitar, even with this sort of softer, melodic vocal, I think it's still very much rooted in this rock music that I grew up listening to.
In various different kinds of rock, you're gonna find various different kinds of people. What do you think drew you to rock?
Vic: It's weird to think about what draws me to rock (is) this weird, inherent part of my existence. I grew up going to live performances, seeing these shows. And there was something so powerful in seeing this form of expression. My mom is a poet, and she raised me and my siblings with this one line from Audre Lorde that is the foundation of everything that she raised us to be: “Your silence will not protect you.” And so she, you know, has always told us since we were very, very little that you just have to be honest, you have to be vocal. If you're feeling something, you have to let it be known. And of course there's an art to that, in holding back, in being selective with what you say. But then I started to understand that a little more as I started to think of all these different ways of expression, instead of just seeing whatever's on my mind, you know, (because) I'm not really like that. I tried to be for a very long time, but I'm too reserved for that. But there's something about seeing these people just going absolutely freakin’ crazy onstage or even not going crazy if it's something a little more slowed down or something a little more subdued. But the power in the vocals or the lyrics or the melody. Rock music in particular has a certain ferocity to it, even when it's not in-your-face loud. There's something about it that feels like me. I've never really felt more myself than when I'm onstage, playing rock music. I've done other things before, I played other music, and there's something else with rock music that feels like that's my true language. It's more honest.
That's really interesting, “Your silence will not protect you.” Do you think it's possible that you think of rock music as something loud, and therefore something that's protective? If silence will protect you, do you think loudness will as well?
Vic: Maybe in a sense of, say, volume. I've tried my hand at poetry — couldn't do it. I've never been good at it. There's something — maybe not like a crunch — but there's definitely something that brings out my voice in rock music that makes me feel a little more comfortable with saying what's on my mind, with saying how I feel, with acknowledging how I feel. I wouldn't say that I hide behind the music when I'm playing rock or anything. I definitely feel like it's an essential factor, at least in how I've gotten better at understanding my truth.
That's a really fantastic reason for making music: to understand yourself. Who are you trying to reach with your music? Do you think you're making it in an effort to help other people do the same thing? Or do you think you're just trying to tell stories? What are you hoping happens when somebody hears a Vic song?
Vic: There are some artists that I remember hearing as a kid, and I remember hearing some of these lyrics and thinking, “I can never get away with saying that. I could never even allow myself to think in that way.” I remember this sort of feeling of empowerment, when the singer is just unapologetically themselves. And once that got into my head, and once I sort of understood what it meant, I started getting a little dirtier with the way I write, like there's no rules. There's no one I'm specifically talking to. Even if I'm writing about someone, I'm not writing for them; I'm writing for me. But for the people who listen to it, they take from that what they're going to take, and I would love more than anything else (for) someone to hear a Vic song and do the exact same thing. I feel like there's a lot of distortion of the truth in terms of the way we go about our lives like social media. There's something inherently false about what we do, and I really admire people who don't care and just are apologetically themselves. I love if someone were to maybe see more of that in what I do.
What do you think it means to be an LGBTQ+ musician? LGBTQ+ artists are very often thrust into role model situations in which if you succeed, you're automatically supposed to be a role model for the next generation. What do you think it means for you to pursue this career and pursue art as an LGBTQ+ person? Are you thinking of messaging or being a role model?
Vic: I think no matter what you do, if you have a somewhat public life, you're at risk of being that person. You're at risk of being idolized or romanticized for maybe the wrong thing or maybe the right thing, but as an LGBTQ+ artist, I would hope for the same thing as with any other audience. I'm not going to be singing about this girl that I had a crush on just for the sake of there being more songs about girls. It's about stripping everything down to its true form and taking it all in, and I think that's what I've been trying to do a lot more lately. I've been trying not to find a bigger meaning in anything I do or anything my heroes do. It's pretty easy to make something bigger than what it is meant to be, but if I can be (someone’s role model), that's great. If I can inspire someone to embrace who they are, that's great, but that's not what I'm trying to do, and I don't think that's what anyone should try to do. We definitely have a responsibility to. It's very hard to gauge how the things you do are going to be perceived or what the art you produce is going to be perceived.
Interview has been edited minimally for clarity and length.
Find Vic as Ani Ces on Bandcamp. Find them as Vic on Spotify and Apple Music.