I Am
Villain

are rapidly becoming one of Australia’s best pop punk bands and it won’t
be long before they hit the mainstream market. I recently got the chance to
talk to Peter Eckel (Guitarist) from I Am Villain about their upcoming EP as
well as future plans.

For those unaware of who I Am
Villain are, can you briefly tell us how the band got started?

Previous bands we were in
weren’t working out, so we decided to give it another go as a brand new band.
Though this is actually our singer Andy’s first band he has ever been in, no
one would ever know. He’s a perfect match for us.

You’ve just finished recording your
debut EP ‘One Night, One Victim’, what was the recording like?

Recording was a lot of fun,
such a relaxed atmosphere and a great experience. I found out I’m a lot better
ping pong player than I am guitarist though. Haha.

When can we expect the EP to be
released?

Mastering has been booked
for 18 August, by a guy called Tom Coyne at Sterling Sound, New York. So
hopefully only a few weeks after that. Unless we get a Label offer haha. But
I’m looking forward to getting it out to all the peoples ears.

I understand you also have some
special guests on the EP, can you tell us anything about that?

Yes, a few of our friends
from other bands will be appearing on the EP. We have Jake Bosci from Ellington
doing a nice little part in ‘Headless Body In A Topless Bar’ but the others
will be a surprise. You’ll just have to buy it haha.

Apparently Matt Wilson from Set Your
Goals was lined up as a guest but that fell through, can you tell us what
happened with that?

Yeh we were really bummed
about that, and so was he. He had the part learned and ready to track but
epitaph got wind of it and weren’t happy with the idea so he couldn’t do it. I
still get upset about it haha.

Walk me through the writing process,
is there a main songwriter or is it a group effort?

Andy can somehow write a
new song everyday, I’m not sure how he does it but it’s awesome that he can
always bring new stuff to us to work on. But there’s also times where Lewis,
Brett or I will write a riff then we work around that. Can be a frustrating
process sometimes, but we enjoy being in this band and it’s why we do it.

What is the main theme/inspiration
behind this EP?

Originally we had no idea
what we were gonna do, we just had these 6 songs we wanted to record and went
from there. But once it came to thinking up artwork for it, is when we got
creative. We had a lot of ideas but we all thought the theme from cluedo would
be pretty cool so we went with that in mind.

You’ve already released your first
single ‘Frankly My Dear, I Don’t Give A Damn’, how has it being received so
far?

I think it has been
received well, I hope it has anyway. We have been lucky enough to score some
good air time on triple j through Stu Harvey on short fast loud, even though
frankly is long fast loud haha. But the final product will be a little
different than the one being played at the moment. Mainly just shortened. So it
will then be a great and hopefully solid addition to the radio waves.

Growing up, what were your greatest
musical influences?

My personal music
influences when I was young and into my own music, not just listening to
whatever my parents did, would have been Nirvana and all the other grunge stuff
surrounding that scene at the time. Was also listening to Green Day back then
which turned me torwards pop punk I guess.

Your EP’s artwork was done by Sam
Lyons of Shock Mansion, how did that come about?

We were a big fan of the
shots Sam does for Shock Mansion, so we always wanted to at least do a band
shoot with him. We just got in contact with him and told him we would like to
get him to design our Ep artwork and he was really keen. So we just met with
him for a chat and the rest is history.

What goals do you hope to achieve
with I Am Villain?

We just want to play shows,
and obviously get busy enough to keep Lewis from touring with everyone else
haha. But seriously we would like to just tour as much as we can and keep
making music and inevitably make this something we can do forever.

Finally, what have you got planned
for the rest of the year?

Release the EP, hopefully
do some touring and just promote ourselves as much as we can. Then start fresh
next year and maybe record again.

Thank you so much for your time Peter, any last
words or shout outs?

Just Fuck
Off Kurt! ;)