VanIves use family tapes to create new music

GLASGOW’S SWG3 has teamed up Skypark to hold Reel Serene featuring Janus Rasmussen’s Kiasmos DJ Set with animation and visual effects by Axis Studios. The line up also includes a set by up and coming Scottish duo VanIves.

The band are made up of childhood friends, Roan Ballantine and Stuart Ramage, who create music by sampling family VHS tapes and building songs around the memories attached to those moments, with soaring vocals, routed in a hip-hop influenced production. We caught up with the duo who are tipped to be the next big thing.

How did the band come about?

VanIves began in 2017 as the result of a creative university project. The project began by sampling audio from a family VHS tape and creating music from the memories contained within the footage.

Who are your main inspirations?

Our writing takes inspiration from a mix of genres. We try to involve a blend of acoustic and electronic instruments, with influences from artists such as Anderson Paak, Matt Corby, Bonobo, Bon Iver and Chance the Rapper.

You’re childhood friends, how do you maintain your friendship through the ups and downs of making music?

We have been friends since primary school and have always made music together so we have learned how to deal with the ups and downs of making and performing music. It’s important to build a good team around the project to help with barriers that may appear. We also love the music we are making and

believe in it, so this makes otherwise tough discussions easier because our music always comes first. You’ve been in different bands, what makes Vanlves stand out from what you’ve done in the past? Although we have been in previous bands together, we have also worked separately in different projects over the years.

The collaboration of our experiences through production courses and writing camps, allow us to write and produce our own work, creating the unique sound that is Van-Ives. How are you feeling ahead of your Reel Serene show?

We are super excited to be performing at the Reel Serene show, to be a part of such an amazing event and have our name next to Kiasmos and Axis Studios.

Our live show will showcase some of our new material and our next single ‘Corder’. We will also have our visual projections, which have been edited from the VHS camera that we sample. Reel Serene will be taking place at SWG3 tomorrow.