Enjoy
Can you tell me about how the band came into being and where the name came from?
The name VOKXEN means the lifting of female voices. It was a merging of female & voice…
vox - voice (latin), voice of the people
en - (making a feminine ending)
The band name essentially came from the band set-up, women in music coming together with one voice and one goal of making empowering music.
We threw the letter ‘k’ in there to steer clear of being mistaken for ‘voxen’ technology in Denmark who are specialists in metal cutting…
What inspired you to make the kind of music you do?
Everyday life, emotions, travelling & gigging in interesting locations all fed into what inspired and continues to inspire the creative processes in the band.
Synthesizers… from day one have always been a base line for VOKXEN. Cinematic dark tones, cosmic electro beats, minor sounds, chanting, soaring vocals and harmonies. Lyrically, feminist issues and themes on empowerment and equality within the arts & society.
Can you talk about what subject matter your lyrics cover, how you go about writing them and melodies?
Every song has its own story and vibe. We’ll name a few and talk about their origins. The common themes always seem to be around strength, friendship, building up & empowering those around you.
’Ignite’ was our first single release. It was a spark of energy, empowerment and positivity. We wanted the track to make people feel alive and hopeful.
‘Running’ was inspired by the 100 year anniversary celebrating votes for women. Lyrically, it is about struggle, perseverance, getting through difficult times and making it to the other side. Electro pop at its core, with driving rhythms, call & response melody lines and a big chorus.
‘Crystal Eyes’ - birthed shortly after Running. Lyrically and sonically it was inspired by the cult film, Dark Crystal. The song was written whilst on-set during the filming of Age of Resistance. Cosmic, eerie, darker synth vibes. Beccy happened to be working on the Netflix show so as a band we jumped at the opportunity to visit the set in London and create something. We felt super inspired being ‘behind the scenes’ on such an imaginative and utterly magical film set. The ‘Crystal Eyes’ video was inspired by Laura Mulvey’s theory on the ‘male gaze’.
‘Revolution’ - its a shimmering, electro-pop feminist anthem about ownership, innate power and claiming what is rightfully yours. It was a response to political, social & equality issues in N.Ireland. Originally inspired by women’s rights and bodily autonomy, the song is a spark of energy and positivity… but as we sit chatting over this, we’ve realised that lyrically it’s taken on another life for us… it certainly serves as an uplifting anthem for these uncertain days which we all find ourselves in. We’d noticed a phrase going around online ’Stop thinking about the apocalypse. Start thinking about the revolution’. It really resonated with us, encouraging us to focus on the future and all the good times that are ahead.
You’ve released a number of singles to date, are there any plans for an album or do you feel that albums are a dying format in the digital age?
We would love to release an album at some stage in the future! Actually, a ‘concept’ album would be right up our street… something different. It’s certainly on the cards but I guess we’re just waiting for the right time… the stars to align and all that.
Streaming has affected the way people consume music, moving from single to single rather than whole albums in one sitting. Although, albums certainly still have a place. Artists just have to be much more creative and savvy in their approach to making a record in order to stand out.
You recently launched your ‘The Song of the Bones’ show, can you tell us about this, where the idea came from, how the night went and any future plans for it?
‘The Song of the Bones’ was birthed out of our interest in the Islandmagee witches. A story about women unfairly imprisoned. Women of our own locale; our ancestors. We felt a ping in our hearts urging us to tell their story and dig up the history on what happened back in 1711.
The show is a music, poetry and puppetry collaboration inspired by the persecution of witches, with original music by us, narration by award winning poet, Alice McCullough, musical percussion by David McLaughlin of The Blue Man Group, and stunning visuals by a team of puppeteers, featuring Ed Wren & Clare Pointing, Claire Roi Harvey and Daisy Beattie (Royal Shakespeare Company, Star Wars and The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance) The puppets were all especially designed and built for our show.
In the early days of the project, we carried out extensive research and spent a number of days in Islandmagee, specifically at The Gobbins Visitor centre, chatting with the tour guides and Dr David Humes (Ulster University). The music for the show grew out of these meetings quite organically over a period of a few months. We knew we wanted to keep the music loyal to VOKXEN; dark electro pop, soaring vocals and harmony driven. We also made sure that our work would be sensitive and compassionate, telling the story authentically as we remember these women and their history.
We chose to debut the show on Friday 13th March, in honour of International Women’s Day 2020. We decided on Accidental Theatre as the venue for the debut and went with a ‘gig’ set up of support & headliner with Reevah involved as our warm-up act for the evening. The debut show went better than we could have ever dreamed! A packed out theatre with a respectful and engaged audience throughout the night.
This debut was very much ‘the tip of the iceberg’. We hope to tour the show (which currently runs the length of a typical gig set - 45mins) to music and arts festivals, both local and beyond. Edinburgh Fringe would be the dream and perhaps some kind of cultural exchange between Belfast and Salem. The opportunities and possibilities are endless. That’s what makes this project so incredibly exciting to be a part of.
Obviously the current outbreak has curtailed a lot of plans for not just musicians but for everyone, that said can you tell us about what you have planned for the coming year. Have you started planning VOKXTOBER yet?
Since we are just off the back of debuting, ‘The Song of the Bones’, we’re now going to take what we learned from that and see if we can push it further/improve on what we have created. It went down a storm so we’re really excited about where we can take it next.
Aside from that, we have new music we’re planning to record, and hopefully get sharing by the time VOKXTOBER comes around!
This will be our 3rd VOKXTOBER. It’s always super exciting to sit down and plan some spooky musical happenings for it. Last year VOKXTOBER culminated in a gig night called COVEN. We had Irish electro acts SYLK, Blxxd and Alice La on board - the night was amazing from start to finish and we were ecstatic to have it sell-out. Perhaps we can have another COVEN night this year and start a tradition!
The scene north and south seems to be stronger than ever. Are there any bands you’d like to shout out to?
We are absolutely loving the scene right now! Here are some of our favourite electro babes…
SYLK - dark industrial goddesses, we bow to you.
Alice LA - kickass party princess who just keeps churning out bops.
Blxxd - Hardcore Electro with an explosive live sound.
Fvry - All efforts not to dance to the high energy jams are futile.
And in the vein of Rob Gordon, can you tell me your Top 5 favourite records?
We have picked 5 albums that we adore for various reasons. Some have directly fed into our influences for VOKXEN and some we just love chilling out to or musically they make us feel super inspired!
Kate Bush - Hounds of Love
Fleetwood Mac - Rumours
Robyn - Robyn (Album)
Lana Del Ray - Born to Die
Nina Simone - I put a spell on you
(*BONUS ALBUM) The Mamas and the Papas - If you can believe your eyes and ears
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