The debut EP from Dundee alt-rock newcomers, Red Vanilla, offers a wide range of options for their way forward

Release Date:  7^th June 2024

Label: Self Release

Formats: Digital

Formed in 2022 and influenced by the likes of Wolf Alice, The 1975 and Foo Fighters, Red Vanilla are a band with potential.  That’s an understatement, you understand…  Their lineup comprises: Anna on lead vocals and rhythm guitar, George on lead guitar, Lucas on Drums and Sam on bass.  They’re competent and confident and, on the evidence of their debut EP, Days Of Grey, they’ve got a lot of options with regard to where they might go next.

Days Of Grey was recorded, in Dundee, in 2023, under the auspices of producer Kieran Smith and, between them, band and producer have done a solid job in showcasing many aspects of the band’s sound – a portfolio that includes gentle intimacy, tight inter-band play and widescreen drama, often all within the same song.  It bodes well for the future.

Days Of Grey is described as an EP release but, at some 27 minutes’ duration, it had me posing the question: When is an EP NOT an EP?  Days Of Grey has the playing time, the presence and the variety to, perhaps, deserve the more appropriate description of “album.”  Is that how it will be remembered?  Time will, of course, be the decider on that one.

The band’s first ever recorded output was their 2022 single, Embers, and that’s the track they’ve chosen to launch this new collection.  It’s a fresh, relaxing, opener, with George’s twangy guitar licks, Sam’s rich bass and Lucas’s trademark drum patterns all proving a dreamscape backing to Anna’s soft, vulnerable, vocals.  But don’t be lulled or misled; Red Vanilla are quick to show their versatility as they kick into the grungy Outside In.  Driven along by distorted guitar riffing, topped off by chiming high notes from George and anchored by Lucas’s drum rhythms, the band provide the perfect platform for Anna’s soaring, urgent vocals.

An outstanding characteristic of Days Of Grey is the way in which several songs evolve from folky or, even, jazzy beginnings to grow into full-blown epics and Oria is a typical example of this approach.  George’s echo-y guitar provides the theme to the song’s gentle, jazzy, verses, before the whole band erupt, prompting Anna to put her entire heart and soul into her vocal delivery. 

Red Vanilla are great admirers of Britpop and those joyful proto-grunge offerings of the mid-1990s and, with All These Better Things, the album’s lead single, they get right inside the Britpop groove.  Awash with fuzzy guitars, the song almost visibly bounces as it follows the – now familiar – Red Vanilla build softly/explode with energy routine.

There’s more of the same with Velvet, except, this time, the drama and energy is saved for the song’s final verse.  Elsewhere, the ambience is provided by gently-strummed guitars, Anna’s cracked, intimate vocals and another of Sam’s intricate drum patterns.

Commenting on The Know How, the band’s latest single – and the album’s penultimate track – Anna had this to say: “I remember when I was learning to play guitar, reaching a point where I could start writing material of my own, and this song is the first one that came about.  I actually wrote it about Ellie Rowsell (Wolf Alice), a major role-model of mine, and how desperately I aspired to be like her.  It’s really heart-warming, because the know-how I reference in the song that I wanted her to ‘teach me’ back then, is all the stuff I’m perfectly capable of doing myself now.  I love that my lyrics capture various versions of me, so I can look back and truly appreciate how much I’ve grown and changed along the way.”

First effort it may be, but it’s a great song – one of the real highlights of the album.  It’s another song that blends the vulnerable side of the band, complete with Sam’s mystical drumbeat, with their penchant for anthemic drama – and this time, George coaxes that wonderful bagpipe sound from his guitar!

Days Of Grey is rounded off with another Red Vanilla mini-epic, the multi-facetted Detach.  Themes switch between soft intimacy, via controlled full-band involvement to all-systems-go lunacy.  It’s a song that I can imagine becoming the band’s long-term live show climax, and it’s a glorious way to conclude an intriguing debut collection.  We won’t have heard the last of Red Vanilla, you can be sure of that…

Plague masks, costume jewelry and bodily emissions. all are present and correct in the official video to The Know How – the latest single to be taken from Days Of Grey. watch it here:

Red Vanilla online: Facebook / Instagram

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