Chris Porcianko interview

Interview with Chris Porcianko of Vanishing Point
March 1, 2008
By Steph Perry

Congratulations on being chosen as supporting act for Iron Maiden when they open their 2008 tour in Australia this February. How did you guys react when you heard the news?
Thank you, much appreciated, it was truly fantastic news that we were chosen for the Iron Maiden tour support slot for Melbourne and Perth, for us it was a dream come true and it is still kinda surreal how it all happened yet it was really easy going and a pleasure to work with their crew as well as share the stage with one of the greatest bands this world knows. They are gentlemen and it was a great opportunity for Vanishing Point to play to a wider audience on a big stage, its not like we get the chance to play an arena in our hometown in front of 12-14,000 people very often heh heh, so yeah it was great and it had an emotional tinge for us to be playing in front of that many people in our hometown.

Your latest album, The Fourth Season, has received thunderously positive critical acclaim. What were some of the highlights of the writing, recording, and touring process?
Honestly it all went like clockwork for us in the sense that nothing out of the ordinary happened or anything truly outstanding, we just do what we do and luckily the music comes out the way it does, we don’t have any set formula as to how to write our songs, most often they may start with a guitar riff or a simple vocal or guitar melody. So far we have not had a chance to tour the album internationally, we have played many shows in Australia so far for the album, we just supported Iron Maiden for some shows and just yesterday we completed our short run of concerts supporting Helloween for their first time in Australia so that has been great. The scene here has locally really picked up alot and many bands are coming here thus giving us the chance to play to a wider audience as well. Recording wise the album this time was relatively easy to record in comparison to our last album which was Embrace The Silence due to the fact that the songs this time were relatively shorter in length and that we were not making another 80 minute album heh heh. The only delay we had in the recording studio was running out of money mid way, having to delay the scheduled sessions and secondly Silvio our vocalist as usual was struck with the flu which had him staying away from the studio and resting, the poor guy could not sing until he was better.
Does art, movies, and other music inspire you during the writing process? Where else do you draw inspiration?
I’m not much of an art fan, mainly because the art that I grew up seeing on the television was all seen and done before plus when I was in school and going on excursions to art galleries I found the artwork relatively boring because it seemed that the artist was trying to convey their vision in some abstract way that I did not make sense to me, yet each to their own heh heh. Some of the artwork that is computer generated these days appeals to me more, when I have a spare moment look at digital artwork similar to album cover type work which I think looks great. Movies I rarely have a chance to watch these days because I’m a new father of twins so my wife and I are busy yet I must admit that I do enjoy listening to movie soundtracks alot, there seems to be a richness in the scores of some of the music that I rarely hear much in todays music, so in essence I would rather listen to music that carries me on a journey. A lot of our music comes from within when we write, its not like we sit down and think it through and try to keep up with the rest of the pack, we just do what we do and it reflects I feel in our music in many ways and people understand where we are coming from because our songs are about real life, just normal every day life, no fantasy, no stories about evil hordes or black steeds riding into the depths of the abyss heh heh.
You’ve had a number of band member changes in the past year or so, how did you cope with these changes?
It was really strange for a while because we had experienced so much with Joe and Jack when they were in the band for so long, we had travelled to many countries together on tour and they are like family to us, so it was hard to understand in the beginning. We were and are fortunate enough to have two very good musicians yet two very good people on board in the way of Christian and Adrian, they are very understanding of what it is like to be in Vanishing Point and do it for the love of the music, they are suckers for a good melody like Silvio, Tommy and myself so they suit the band perfectly and enjoy playing the music. We threw them into the deep end last year when we did a national tour in Australia supporting Dragonforce in which they experienced first hand on how fun it can be yet how hard work it can be as well in which they did well so yeah, all is going great with the new guys and I can’t personally wait to start jamming on some new songs with them.

Will Vanishing Point tour outside Australia this year?
We hope to and would like to, we have mentioned this many times that we would like to tour many countries and play to many people yet we don’t seem to be having much luck at the moment, maybe some promoters may be interested to have us tour etc yet we have not received any requests or many emails/queries of interest so maybe we suck in their eyes heh heh. Honestly, all bullshit aside, we would love to tour more and play not only in Australia but all over the world, but there is only so much we can do on our end and only so much money we can put into it, we just want to tour and if someone wants to bring us over then get in touch with us, pretty simple really. We get many emails worldwide from fans asking us when we are going to tour and its hard to keep answering the same questions with a maybe answer when nothing is certain, I honestly wish I could say YES we are coming and this is when we will be in your city, but so far, not yet.