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Seventeen songs: by the end of this year, that’s how much material V Child would like to have in the can and readied for release as their debut full-length. No gigs — the band will instead hunker down in Fallbrook during their spare time in the galactic womb that is Night Sky Sound.
“[Owner Steve Donato] has got the whole thing mapped out so it looks like a space atmosphere inside,” says Ron Call. “You look out the window and you see craters on the moon. The ceiling is painted like a night sky, and every now and then a shooting star goes by. I don’t know from where.”
V Child, home-based in Mira Mesa, is all-original, the sort of band for which bookings are slim in the San Diego club scene. Singer/guitarist Ken Najbert: “We started in 2007. It was Dan (Kretin Rock) Smith the drummer, and I. We were looking for a bassist.” They ended up with Ron Call, a blues harp player.
“I’ve been a harp player around town for about 20 years.” Call played pickup dates with Tomcat Courtney, and he was a member of at least one evolution of the Mississippi Mudsharks. He’d always wanted to learn to play bass, so when the opportunity came along in the form of V Child, he bought a 200-dollar special from Guitar Trader. “I’ve been learning on the fly.”
Their first gig was at the now-defunct Dream Street. “We’ve done about six shows in the past year. Humphrey’s, Catherine Beeks’s showcases.” Likewise, this is not their first time in a studio. “Last year we recorded three sides at Double Barrel Studios in Lakeside with [Mudshark] Scottie Blinn.”
Unlike Night Sky Studios, the vibe at Double Barrel is earthy, even Exile on Main Street-ish. Blinn’s turned the living room of his custom Lakeside home into a recording booth, where one sits on upholstered furniture while in session.
The Double Barrel sides and six more rough demos eventually landed up on the band’s ReverbNation page as downloads. But as of yet the current CD-in-progress has no working title. “The songs are different,” says Call. “Punk. Rock. Garage rock. Original rock and roll, kind of what we grew up listening to in the ‘80s.”
I point out how open-ended that statement really is: did they listen to Pet Shop Boys or Metallica? “Tragically Hip,” says Najbert. “Pink Floyd, Lynyrd Skynyrd,” says Call.
“Because we’re not a major-label act,” Najbert says, “we’re just trying to scrape by.” He’s liking the idea of a compilation album, “if people have the attention span for that sort of thing anymore.”
Call: “We’d like to do a little Southwest tour when the CD is finished. You can’t go out on the road without something to offer.” Like all bands that hope to hit the road, V Child have their collective eye on the mortal enemy of all DIY indie rock tours: $4 dollar gas.
"Gas Tank" is our song about the frustrating rise in gas prices,” he says. “We made a pretty cool video to go with the song.” "Gas Tank" has in fact gotten play on KPRI, and their "Royal Maya Crypt" was shown a little radio love by Rock 102.5.
There’s an app for it: V Child have a free downloadable mobile app for Android Smart Phones. “Users can stream any of our songs and videos as well as keep up with our latest blogs,” says Call. The iPhone app is currently in development and should be ready in a month. Meanwhile, the proposed drop date, following completion of those 17 songs, is set for sometime during 2013.
“That is,” Ken Najbert says, “if we’re still here after the Mayan calendar runs out.”
Seventeen songs: by the end of this year, that’s how much material V Child would like to have in the can and readied for release as their debut full-length. No gigs — the band will instead hunker down in Fallbrook during their spare time in the galactic womb that is Night Sky Sound.
“[Owner Steve Donato] has got the whole thing mapped out so it looks like a space atmosphere inside,” says Ron Call. “You look out the window and you see craters on the moon. The ceiling is painted like a night sky, and every now and then a shooting star goes by. I don’t know from where.”
V Child, home-based in Mira Mesa, is all-original, the sort of band for which bookings are slim in the San Diego club scene. Singer/guitarist Ken Najbert: “We started in 2007. It was Dan (Kretin Rock) Smith the drummer, and I. We were looking for a bassist.” They ended up with Ron Call, a blues harp player.
“I’ve been a harp player around town for about 20 years.” Call played pickup dates with Tomcat Courtney, and he was a member of at least one evolution of the Mississippi Mudsharks. He’d always wanted to learn to play bass, so when the opportunity came along in the form of V Child, he bought a 200-dollar special from Guitar Trader. “I’ve been learning on the fly.”
Their first gig was at the now-defunct Dream Street. “We’ve done about six shows in the past year. Humphrey’s, Catherine Beeks’s showcases.” Likewise, this is not their first time in a studio. “Last year we recorded three sides at Double Barrel Studios in Lakeside with [Mudshark] Scottie Blinn.”
Unlike Night Sky Studios, the vibe at Double Barrel is earthy, even Exile on Main Street-ish. Blinn’s turned the living room of his custom Lakeside home into a recording booth, where one sits on upholstered furniture while in session.
The Double Barrel sides and six more rough demos eventually landed up on the band’s ReverbNation page as downloads. But as of yet the current CD-in-progress has no working title. “The songs are different,” says Call. “Punk. Rock. Garage rock. Original rock and roll, kind of what we grew up listening to in the ‘80s.”
I point out how open-ended that statement really is: did they listen to Pet Shop Boys or Metallica? “Tragically Hip,” says Najbert. “Pink Floyd, Lynyrd Skynyrd,” says Call.
“Because we’re not a major-label act,” Najbert says, “we’re just trying to scrape by.” He’s liking the idea of a compilation album, “if people have the attention span for that sort of thing anymore.”
Call: “We’d like to do a little Southwest tour when the CD is finished. You can’t go out on the road without something to offer.” Like all bands that hope to hit the road, V Child have their collective eye on the mortal enemy of all DIY indie rock tours: $4 dollar gas.
"Gas Tank" is our song about the frustrating rise in gas prices,” he says. “We made a pretty cool video to go with the song.” "Gas Tank" has in fact gotten play on KPRI, and their "Royal Maya Crypt" was shown a little radio love by Rock 102.5.
There’s an app for it: V Child have a free downloadable mobile app for Android Smart Phones. “Users can stream any of our songs and videos as well as keep up with our latest blogs,” says Call. The iPhone app is currently in development and should be ready in a month. Meanwhile, the proposed drop date, following completion of those 17 songs, is set for sometime during 2013.
“That is,” Ken Najbert says, “if we’re still here after the Mayan calendar runs out.”