Los Angeles based band The Vignatis are an independent, hybrid American/French duo who have created a very unique and colorful sound/genre called “Gypsybilly”. Imagine Alternative Americana on steroids! The Vignatis have combined their American/French backgrounds blending Gypsy Jazz (a la Django Reinhardt), Rockabilly, Country and Jazz for an original, distinct, highly enjoyable listening experience.
In this interview spotlight, I chat with The Vignatis about their latest album, challenges, technology and more.
Where are you from and what style of music do you create? (In your own words, not necessarily in marketing terms or by popular genre classifications.)
Fabrice: We are based in Los Angeles, however, I am native of the Alps of France next to Switzerland, from a beautiful town called Aix-les-Bains, famous for their spas and healing waters and of course, les boulangeries 🙂
Tracy: I’m a California Bay Area-born Air Force brat to a career man father. I went to several elementary schools before our last base stationed in Georgia. I spent part of my childhood there and carried on to become a Bulldog! Yes, GO DAWGS!
Fabrice: I took classical guitar as a kid then at about age 11 once the affinity for English music and American culture kicked in I began listening to rockabilly, rock, blues, older country and any other English and American music I could get my hands on. Being from France, gypsy jazz music (a la Django Reinhardt) is part of French culture and especially as a French guitar player, it is kind of understood that you will study Django Reinhardt, so that’s what I did.
Tracy: In my house I grew up jazz and big band music since my mom was a big band singer and also sang with small jazz combos and female trios. Living in Georgia, country music dominated so through osmosis, country music became part of daily life. At UGA I was a voice major studying opera yet on weekends I was singing in bands to get beer money, mostly jazz, country and top-40 tunes. Jazz came very naturally and all that goes with it. However, country music always stayed with me (BTW, I’m a SoCal girl, but, my pantry is NEVER without grits!).
When we met, we were thinking about how we could combine our musical backgrounds into one entity and create something fresh and different. After some exploration and frustration, we came up with our concept sound/genre we call Gypsybilly. It’s a melange of our four elemental backgrounds of French gypsy jazz (a la Django Reinhardt), rockabilly, country and jazz. It’s rooted in these elements yet has been evolving after each album we’ve done. We have 3 released albums and a 4th coming in spring 2020. It’s hard to categorize this sound so I believe in general terms I would call it Alternative Americana (on steroids).
What led you down this path of music and what motivates you to keep going?
Tracy: Our lives led us down this path. I don’t think for either one of us it was actually a choice, it chose us. It seems to be embedded in our DNA. It’s something we both have always wanted from the time I can even remember. Neither one of us are trend followers. Creativity is specific to each person and whatever outlet allows one to do that is what one needs to follow whether it’s culinary arts, a craft class or film making.
Fabrice: Music for us is a lifestyle not just something we do. We keep going because we believe in what we do and have a greater mission than just ourselves. We want to help the world by passing along positive messages or help take minds off of daily struggles. Life can be difficult but there is always hope, no matter how dire a situation. Music has natural medicinal properties and we would love to be a part of the healing process.
How is this new release different than previous ones? Were you trying to accomplish anything specific?
Tracy: “Let’s Hit the Road – Gypsybilly Vol. 3” is different from the the first 2 Vols. in that we have simplified the writing harmonically as well as simplifying the lyrics on most of the tunes. We also added beats to some of the tunes which we now call Electro Billy. We were inspired to do this by the Electro Swing sound. The tunes in particular we did this with are “Hollywood”, “Tour Eiffel” and our poetic, soapbox tune “Th 232” which will make no sense to anyone unless either they ask us about it or they happen to know about nuclear energy. It’s a lot of reading between the lines on that tune. Every artist has to have one of these, right? LOL! We were trying to accomplish an evolution to our sound and send messages that are positive and light, in hopes of lifting spirits in this crazy world in which we live. Some are just grab-a-beer or glass of wine songs, some tongue-in-cheek. I think our goal here was to push our limits a bit and see where our writing and production choices took us. It seemed to have worked for Frank Zappa and Prince so we use them as guidelines to push and challenge ourselves.
Fabrice: I don’t think we started out trying to accomplish anything specific. Musically, we just followed the creativity, worked on improving the sound and ventured into new areas by even adding a different instrument like the banjo, a super Americana element. We tried to stay true to our Gypsybilly brand yet give the listener a new perspective. Lyrically, we tried to touch on new subjects from local culture with the song “L.A.”, and even the famous European landmark with the song entitled, “Tour Eiffel.” The lyrics are a mix of various topics from geographic locations to overcoming personal struggles as in “Doin’ Twenty-Five” and “The Finish Line.”
Name one or two challenges you face as an indie musician in this over-saturated, digital music age? How has technology helped you (since we know it does help)?
Fabrice: A great challenge I face is creating good music that stands the test of time and will stand out. To write music that includes our 4 elements is complicated and the challenge is to keep it simplified for the listener. The goal is to write music and deliver it in a way that when performed live it “passes the stage” and most importantly, reaches the hearts of people to create some positive reaction.
Another challenge is…where do we fit? We aren’t one pure genre, we are a hybrid, by design. A few years ago at a Grammy event we had the opportunity to speak with Quincy Jones for a bit. I asked him one question about where he saw the future of music and its evolution. He said there would be no boundaries and a lot of cross-collateralizing of genres. That’s what we do with Gypsybilly. Thank you, Quincy! With this comes the business challenge of not fitting into standard markets. However, the uniqueness could be its best weapon. It seems to have worked very well for Jimi Hendrix and Pink Floyd.
All things aside, creating the best Gypsybilly music possible for the people, will always be the main focus.
Tracy: The challenges we face as indie artists is really the business side, the lack of support. The creativity is the easy part. Yes, there are more opportunities for indie artists in one regard concerning DIY that were not available even 10 years ago, but on the flip side, in order to really reach a large number of people and fans to build a major following, you generally need solid representation. Now it’s expected that the DIY artist build their fan base, book great gigs, do all the ground work THEN that’s when the reps want to step in, after the ground work is done. Since music sales generates such little revenue, It’s about butts in seats. We all know that the right person can make all of the difference. We all need a Colonel. It certainly worked for Elvis!
Technology for us has been extremely helpful in the capacity in which we use it. It has afforded us the ability to record, produce and master (no thank you when it comes to mixing, no likey) our stuff and experiment with new sounds, techniques like we did with adding some beats as well as various plugins in experimenting with guitar amps and clarinet sounds. You can make your own video, promotional materials, etc. using social media for exposure. However, it has its duality. Aside from the high-level DAW systems like Logic X that we use, or the industry standard of ProTools, anyone can use Garage Band on their iPad or even iPhone and create some kind of song by dragging in a bunch of loops and throw it up on YouTube. It can be frustrating for those of us who know music, study it, practice our instruments and know the difference between a sus4 and m9, but the landscape has changed and we have to roll with it. It’s the way it is now. We just have to do something that makes us stand out, something different with a fresh sound which we believe has been accomplished.
What was the last song you listened to?
Fabrice: The entire new Stray Cats album just released in May. 26 years later, still doing it! What an inspiration!
Tracy: I’m sort of like Eric Clapton this way; the last song I listened to is one from our upcoming Vol. 4, not released until spring 2020. I’m mastering the tracks and believe me, that is the only reason. I tend to not listen to music for pleasure when recording/mastering. After that, it’s anything goes!
Which do you prefer? Vinyl? CDs? MP3s?
Fabrice: There will never be greater pleasure than listening to the crackling of the stylus on the vinyl. It’s vinyl 100% for me! Although, I can certainly appreciate modern times and the ease of use of the MP3 but, I really miss going to look through the bins at the record stores and walking out with my latest purchase.
Tracy: Although all have their place, in a perfect world, I would have to answer vinyl. However, the CD is smaller, still contains old-school liner notes and you get the sensation of the physical product. I do like the convenience of the MP3 however, they sound far too compressed. I would settle on a WAV player but ya can’t put that in an iPhone.
How about this one…. Do you prefer Spotify? Apple Music? Bandcamp? Or something else? Why?
We are distributed by CD Baby which is very simple to use. Spotify seems to be the easiest and most comprehensive site. We are not on Apple Music or Bandcamp yet. We are distributed by CD Baby so they handled the Spotify listing. It’s hard to do all of these.
Where is the best place to connect with you online and discover more music?
Please sign up for our mailing list on the website and follow us on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter. We love getting emails and will answer every single one of them ourselves!
Anything else before we sign off?
We are performing at the Saban Theater in Beverly Hills, CA on Saturday, June 29, 2019 opening for Big Bad Voodoo Daddy so if anyone is in town and wants PRE-SALE tickets, go to the Calendar on our website and it will take you to the Eventbrite link. Also, we just finished our new album Vol. 4 entitled “Red, White & Blue” which will be released in the spring 2020.
We hope we can make a difference in the world, make it a better place, keep making music and get paid for it.
