Neu All systems go: VANT

From growing up in a punk band to inciting mosh pits at half past eight on a Tuesday night, VANT are ready for the charge.

Words: Sarah Jamieson
Photos: Mike Massaro
11th December 2015

“For me, it was the rediscovery of being natural,” answers Mattie Vant, when asked what it was that drew him back into rock music. Having relocated to Brighton after growing up in the north-east town of Seaham, the frontman soon turned his talents to a more stripped-back form of music, but it didn’t take long for him to find his way back to his roots.

“When I started with this, it was like a bit of a rebirth really,” he says. “I had just been messing around on guitar and came up with this song called ‘Headed For The Sun’ and I realised that’s what I needed to do. I couldn’t even pinpoint how I had written the song, it was so natural. Then, after that, I wrote thirty songs within three months, and it just felt right.”

Finally feeling inspired by his writing, Mattie still wasn’t entirely content. Admitting that he was at a point where he felt quite “self-indulgent and insulated”, he decided it was about time to write music with more of a message: ‘Headed For The Sun’ was that catalyst. “I got to the point where I was like, ‘Is this worthwhile? Am I doing something that could make a difference in any way?’ When I wrote that song, because it had a specific message in it, I wondered if I could channel that energy and belief into music and add a whole different layer to my writing, to make it all worthwhile and give it a meaning and a context.”

“When I was sixteen, I used to play in a punk band and we never thought about anything we were doing,” he explains. “It was so honest and raw, and we did alright really, for where we were and not really having any experience and being young. Everything happened so easily with that, but when I moved to Brighton, I almost forgot about how easy it was and realised I had hit a brick wall and was trying to conform to what I thought was popular at the time.”

"Hopefully we’ll be able to achieve what we want to achieve"

— Mattie Vant

Now, with countless songs written and a fresh awareness of politics - “what we’re trying to say is, instead of trying to stick your head in the sand, just be a bit more aware and contribute when you can, or care a little bit more” - the band aren’t about to shy away from causing a racket and speaking their minds. Already on the recent Neu Tour, with The Big Moon and INHEAVEN, they kicked up a fuss with stage invasions and moshpits alike, and now that the wheels are in motion and people are tuning in, there’s nothing in their way.

“I mean, it’s moving really fast,” says Mattie, of the momentum that the band have already picked up. “You can see just from - I hate to mention this but obviously it’s so prominent now - social media, the stats are going and going, faster and faster. You can see that there’s a curve and it’s gonna get faster and faster hopefully. If we keep ploughing away and getting good support, then hopefully we’ll be able to achieve what we want to achieve.”

“I don’t just want to be a band with a political statement who can’t write songs,” he says, definitively. “I want to be in a band who have a hugely commercially-successful album so it puts us in a position to do more and change more: now the whole point is to have the musical platform, but intertwine the meaning into the songs. The fact that people are reading a little more deeply into it and are getting a bit more excited about what I’ve got to say as a lyricist, it’s really satisfying. It also justifies continuing to write in that way and to follow the belief that we had from the start. Not that we’d sway from it, but it makes you feel like it’s right.”

Tags: Vant, Class of 2016, Class of…, Features, Interviews, Neu