Vision Arcade Live in Los Angeles

Vision Arcade is an Austin, TX based band who’s origins date back from their high school days. Comprised of Rory (Lead vocals/guitar), Max (Lead Guitar), Evan (Bass), and Connor (Drums), the band makes good ‘ol fashion rock n roll. From their first released single “Afterglow” in 2019 to their first national tour in 2026, this band is a force to be reckoned with. After their show at the Echo, a venue that’s housed famous artists like The Rolling Stones, Green Day, and Kendrick Lamar, I was able to pull them aside for an interview about their first big tour. 

So this is the 19th show on your guy’s tour and have 8 left, how does that feel?

Max - “This is our first tour, so coming out to so many places to play for the first time and meeting all the people who have been literally waiting, some of them, for years. We had a girl who was here tonight [who’s] been listening since 2019. Absolutely crazy. So that’s been the coolest part I would say.”

Since you guys have gone through so many shows already, do you have any favorite moments from your tour? Any specific locations?

Connor - “The Drake Hotel [Chicago, IL] was awesome and we’re big fans of ‘Cleopatrick’. They’ve got this song ‘The Drake’, so it’s like a dream come true to be able to there. That and the Echo, honestly, the show we played tonight. I mean, the Echo is famous.”

Rory - “Kilby Court in Utah too. It was unbelievable. Seeing all the names on the wall, it’s pretty crazy.”

Max - “Going to Seattle, the show was amazing, and Boston was really cool.”

So I noticed you guys huddling up before the show, right? Was that part of a pre-show ritual? Do you guys have any that you generally do before you go up there?

Evan - “Some of these guys jump up and down and do some push ups.”

Max - “We do some jumping. But the show you referenced at ‘Emo’s’ was a band called ‘Royal Blood’ and I’ve been playing ‘Loose Change’ lately. It’s been helping get everyone a little hyped”

Connor - “I like one beer before we go. I don’t smoke weed or anything before our shows. One beer seems to be right in the slot.”

On your guy’s tour, did y’all have a favorite song that you guys liked to perform lately?

Max - “For me, we always end with our song ‘Fire Away’, which is not our most popular song, but live, it’s definitely the most fun to play. We do a couple of variations and risks and stuff to make it more fun. We usually close with it because of that.“

Connor - “It’s completely outside of our realm of fireway, but for me, it’s gotta be ‘Been Better’. I mean, it’s our second most recent drop off the new record. ‘Been Better’ is kind of our head banging, kind of crazy, rock and roll shindig. It’s so much energy, it’s an awesome song.”

Rory - “’Been Better’ is my favorite song of ours to play, but [I’m] having a lot of fun playing ‘ Are You Mine’. It’s like that complicated guitar and you gotta sing at the same time. I’ve been honestly loving the hell out of that.”

Connor - “That’s funny because me too! When I do the end, I’ve got to do the fills and I’m singing too. So it’s like, you gotta kind of just do both. And I’ve recently kind of go it now.”

Evan - “I’m with all these boys on that, but opening up with ‘Eyes’ recently has been such a, you know, pumps your blood up. Like, you’re just ready to fucking rock.”

I mentioned “Afterglow” being your guy’s first released single. Then I read your post about “Float like a Feather” being a song you guys wrote a long time ago. So why all of a sudden did you guy’s choose to revive it?

Rory - “So we were picking tracks for the album, and I’ve been trying to push some of my other stuff, but I tend to write a lot more pop, more acoustic, more like, not Vision Arcade way sometimes. So I was on the fence about ‘Float’ because it does have a very pop-y kind of soul vibe to it. When me and Connor moved, I took the song apart again and wrote the bridge in it. It has like, this crazy minor shift in the key and I just fucking fell in love with it. So I showed it to Matt, our producer, and he’s like, ‘let me work some magic’. So he took all the stems that were on my laptop, remixed them, we did the drums. Then we redid vocals of course, because I sounded like a 12 year old, the original recording.”

Connor - “I mean, part of it too, is that you write a song and so much goes into it. Y ou fall in love with a song and even if it’s not put out, it’s still in your repertoire. It was just time to put it out. It was just the time to actually craft it, put it together and let people hear it. If we don’t go in the studio and make it happen, it just bounces around in Rory’s head.

Rory - “As my dad would say, ‘You can’t be a legend in your own bedroom’.

Do you guys have a sort of message or something you want to convey with your music to your fans?

Connor - “We talked about it recently and we were kind of just trying to boil it down to brass tacks. A lot of it was, there’s somany tools out there now that just make it super snappy and easy to whip up whatever, AI or whatever you wanna call it. Part of our thing is, we’re trying to put a step forward embracing what’s coming down the pipeline in terms of technology, but we want to keep our foot in the classic rock and roll. We want to be recording drums, we want to be recording amps, analog, you know, it’s a beautiful thing. We don’t want to give up on that. It’s kind of like embracing that antiquity, kind of embracing the new and kind of putting that together. Other than that, I would just say we’re 4 friends, we’re brothers from Texas. We met as adolescents and we didnt know what we were gonna do, so we just stuck together and made it happen. It’s a testament to persistence and love. Anybody can do it, you know?

Evan - “Keeping humanity and raw music alive”

Rory - “Stick with it. If you’re in it, just stick with it”

With that said, do you guy’s have any advice for brand new musicians or people who are struggling within the industry?

Max - “What Rory just said. I think most people don’t stick with it for long enough because of either themselves, or outside pressure. I would say stick with it and don’t underestimate your friends. A lot of our friends help us out. Like all of our visial media, music videos, photos and stuff, is [from] our homies. They aren’t even in music, but they’re just happy to help. If you just ask, most people will help you out, you know. I would say don’t underestimate your homies.

Connor - “It’s always been that way. I mean, we’re lucky enough to have a creative bubble, a circle that’s super like, we’ve got photographers, we got artists

 

Written and photographed by Richardesque