Getting to Know… Victory Kicks | Interview 🎤

On the 187th Q&A in our Getting to Know… series, we get some awesome insight from John Sibley regarding his alt-rock band, Victory Kicks.

When asked about what makes his band unique, brainchild 🎙 John Sibley states, “🎙 Victory Kicks sounds like an indie/ alt-rock band but in fact is somewhere between that and a solo home recording project.”  Interesting – very interesting! The London musician goes on to elaborate about the ‘collective,’ saying, “Sometimes it’s just me writing and recording everything at home, sometimes I work with friends.”  Right on, right on.  The concise, detailed response to our burning questions on our 187^th interview don’t stop there.  Regarding the background and beginnings of the Victory Kicks, Sibley shares that it “Came out of a simple practicality: as I got a bit older and life got a bit busier, it was a way of me continuing to make music around work, in the evening and at weekends – whenever I had any spare time.”  More could be said about this extensive Q&A, but instead, why not read what Sibley has to say for yourself? Without further ado, turn your full and undivided attention to 🎤 Getting to Know… Victory Kicks: Interview No. 187!

Starting things off, for those who may not be familiar with you, what would you say makes Victory Kicks distinct or unique? How do you rock the audience’s socks off?

🎤 Well, for those who haven’t come across us before, Victory Kicks sounds like an indie/ alt-rock band but in fact is somewhere between that and a solo home recording project. It changes quite a bit from album to album and from song to song. Sometimes it’s just me writing and recording everything at home, sometimes I work with friends from other London based acts – people like Sam Beard, Dan Kert from Plastic Barricades, members of another band I’m in called The Young Flood. The reason for that is that one of the things I really wanted to do with Victory Kicks was to make a lot of music and do that pretty much continuously. So, there’s a flexibility built into the way this band operates that allows it to generate a near constant stream of new tunes. So, I guess that’s one thing that’s distinct about us. How do we rock socks off? When it comes to live shows, I find that the most important thing is to have fun with it – if you’re having fun then the audience hopefully will be too. The other thing is to play the songs that people want to dance to and to ditch the ones that people don’t.

Okay, let’s explore some juicy backstories. How did Victory Kicks form and what were some of the goals or the visions you had as a band early on?  

🎤 I used to be a drummer mainly, but I’d always played guitar and written quite a lot of songs on the side. In a way, Victory Kicks came out of a simple practicality: as I got a bit older and life got a bit busier, it was a way of me continuing to make music around work, in the evening and at weekends – whenever I had any spare time. I realised that I could be quite productive even in an hour or two here and there, and in a way, there was a useful focus that I got from having to work within those time constraints. After doing things that way for a year or so, I realised that this way of working really suited me. Over the years I’ve started collaborating more with friends of mine from other bands, but a lot of the output is still stuff I’ve worked on at home first and that we’ve then built on. When it comes to playing live the trick is to convert those recordings into workable live versions… sometimes it’s only at that moment that you realise how well a song holds up.

Let’s talk more about goals.  Have your goals or your perspectives changed since first starting out? What do your aspirations or goals look like now?

🎤 I think the aim has always been to make as much music as I can and to have as much fun doing it as possible. Obviously, I’d love to be able to make living from it and be able to do it full-time but that’s not necessarily the number one priority. In terms of musical aims, I think something I’ve been really conscious of is that I should always try to build on the last thing and each thing I do with Victory Kicks should be better than the last – whether that’s better writing, better recording, better playing, for each new album to work more cohesively as a set of songs… whatever.

Everybody is influenced by somebody else. Who would you consider some of your biggest musical influences and how are they influential?

🎤 I’ve always been heavily influenced by 80s and 90s American indie and alt-rock bands – it’s the music I grew up listening to. There’s a long list: I’m a big Replacements fan – Paul Westerburg is just such an incredible songwriter and that band kind of has everything that’s great about rock music, simultaneously sad, funny, sweet, ugly, beautiful, capable of being massively immature about mature themes or vice versa. I’m a big fan of bands like The War on Drugs, The National. Stephen Malkmus is a bit of a hero of mine, so is Robert Pollard – both kings of coming up with incredible music aligned to incredible lyrics and even more incredible song titles. I also love Wilco and Spoon – probably the best live shows I’ve seen, both examples of what happens when great songs are played by great musicians. Further back, Simon & Garfunkel are responsible for some of the greatest recordings ever made. I’m always looking for inspiration from new bands too – one of the great things about being a DIY artist and trying to promote your stuff is that you’re constantly coming across amazing bands you’ve never seen before and falling in love.

Ah, the fun stuff.  What’s your craziest tour story or the wackiest thing that’s happened during a performance?  Feel free to be creative.

🎤 Probably the weirdest thing that’s happened live was that the drum kit kind of disintegrated midway through our first song. We then had to play the rest of the show with various members of the crowd taking it in turns to hold it together. It was possibly the ultimate example of audience participation. I think people enjoyed it… but my sister who was playing the drums maybe wasn’t so happy about it. I think one of the most appropriate venues we ever played was in the Wild Card brewery in East London – that was a ridiculously fun night for obvious reasons.

Up until this point in your career, what would you describe as your favorite song you’ve recorded or performed live? What makes that song special?

🎤 If you’ll forgive the shameless plug, I think my favourite song is the single we’ve just released called 🎵 “Mookie Betts”. It was recorded right in the middle of the first COVID lockdown in London and was kind of this ray of light and positivity in an otherwise pretty bleak time. It’s about life as a band during lockdown and looking forward to the distant moment when we’re finally able to play together again and what that will feel like. We’ve never played it live – we’ve never even played it in the same room – but I can’t wait to do that.

Is there anything else awesome, cool, or left of center the world should know about you? Secret talents or surprising tidbits?

🎤 I’m quite good at doing impressions of other people’s singing styles… arguably I’m a better singing as other people than I am singing as myself… Obviously that’s less than ideal.

Closing things out, what is Victory Kicks currently working on, promoting that you can share with us or want us to know about? We love secrets, but there’s no pressure. 

🎤 Well, I guess we’ve already done the plug for the new single… but seriously, check that one out readers… aside from that we’ve got a couple more singles we’re just putting the finishing touches to, those will be coming out over the next few months. Those will all be songs from our next record which is called 💿 Free the Night and will be out later in the year.

Thank you so much for sharing taking the time to answer these questions, and best of luck moving forward. 

🎤 Thanks for having me!

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Getting to Know… Victory Kicks: Interview No. 187 🎤 [📷: Victory Kicks, Brent Faulkner, The Musical Hype]