US metalcore/ rock unit Villain of the Story ("Losing Control") now joins forces with Trevor Borg (Wind Walkers) to release a deeply personal single and video about their own kids: "The First Time". The First Time is a song originally written with ex-member Logan as a dedication to all of their own children. It’s a song about becoming a parent and the beauty and fulfilment it’s given Logan, Christian and Page personally.
>> Listen + watch "The First Time": https://VillainoftheStory.lnk.to/TheFirstTime
The song goes through the process of various ‘first times’ with your child, from opening their eyes and smiling, to growing up and venturing out into the world.
With their new vocalist Cody Crook, the band's sound got a whole new twist in sound and energy, adding a pop-punk touch to their own metalcore/ hard rock soundscape.
The band's statement on changing vocalists:
"We are thrilled beyond words to bring our friend Cody Crook into the VOTS family. We’ve known each other since this band first formed through the Minnesota local scene. At one point Cody’s previous band and ours played shows together all the time and we were super bummed when they (The Following) broke up.
After Logan left the band, we heavily weighed our options. Should I (Christian) take over all vocals? Should we get a new singer, and if so, should it be someone we already know or try auditioning anyone we can find? After much consideration I felt that I would not be the best voice to front our band. While I do some singing here and there, generally speaking I just don’t feel my voice is the ‘right sound’ for our overall brand.
Any band that changes vocalists faces the challenge of not wanting to have someone ‘try’ to replace the previous member, while also not wanting to drift too far from the sound that you’ve established and listeners are used to. I can’t help but feel we hit the jackpot with Cody. Not only does he have a great voice that fits our sound and also is different, but the energy he’s brought to the table has been great and incredibly infectious. Oh and he has cool hair too, prob the most important thing to bring up.
If there’s a silver lining to this change, it’s that we’ve reworked the entire album into something we’re even more excited about. We’ve replaced the 4 singles with new songs and have made an entire storyline out of it. We’re hyped to have something beyond just the music to collaborate on and we can’t wait to share more about it.
As an artist you’ll never please everyone and we’re only making music that we enjoy listening to, but I feel it’s important to stay transparent with our listeners who’ve grown to ‘expect’ certain things from us. You’ll get a lot of what you’re used to, but we’ve experimented a bit and overall I’d say the tone of this next record is darker and intense. We may do more rock stuff in the future as we love that kind of music, but a more aggressive energy is what we are feeling right now."
Villain of the Story:
Christian Grey (vocals)
Cody Crook (vocals)
Cody Pauly (Guitar)
Page Brownie (Bass)
