So what, two of Vended’s fathers are in Slipknot? As Griffin Taylor and Simon Crahan tell Kerrang!, they’ve worked hard to do things all by themselves…
This week, we welcome brilliant young metal stars Vended to the cover of Kerrang! for the first time, to discuss their journey so far, their love for all things heavy, and much more.
And the band are only too happy to also chat about the fact that, as we all know, two members’ dads are in Slipknot – something that has caused plenty of discourse online (this is the internet, after all). Indeed, if you couldn’t already tell from their names, vocalist Griffin Taylor’s pa is Corey, while drummer Simon Crahan’s father is Shawn aka Clown.
But, Vended insist, they haven’t had a complete leg-up at all from the masked metal legends – they have worked incredibly hard to find their musical talents all by themselves.
“Yeah, we got more help than other bands do and I’m honest about that,” explains Simon. “I’m not going to say we didn’t because that’s not fair to who our fathers are. They’ve helped us, but they have never, ever, ever, written our music, never showed us how to play, never showed us how to perform onstage, they’ve never done any of that. When people say, ‘Oh, Griffin’s dad’s probably showing him how to scream how he does,’ Griff is learning on his fucking own.”
“I started learning how to scream in middle school and my dad was out in Vegas [where he lives],” Griff continues. “I understand when people say, ‘Oh, they got all of their musical talent from their fathers.’ I understand where people come from with that, because of genes or just the way a voice is built or someone’s reflexes are built, but we didn’t get our parents’ musical talent. We found that on our own.”
“My dad never showed me how to play the drums,” Simon adds. “Maybe he showed me little things, but I learned that shit by myself – we all learned this shit by ourselves. To think that some people actually think our dads help us like that, I can see what they’re talking about, but we’re a bunch of fucking talented 18, 19, 20-year-olds that are trying to show the world that anyone can fucking do it. People can just fuck right off, half the time.”
Hear Vended’s undeniable talent on latest single Ded To Me below:
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