Soundbites: Vin Sinners just getting started

Prepare for your confessions, the Vin Sinners are back. The Dubai-based rock band, formed in 2010 by former choir boy Vin Nair, dropped the first single from their second album called A Mighty Black Box on Sunday.

No stranger to the indie music circuit in the UAE, the band has performed across the Emirates, the Gulf and its home country in India. The single, called Kingdom Come, which was released on October 13, is one of 13 new tracks to feature in the album, scheduled to be released on December 13, 2013.

Soundbites caught up with Nair, a marketing professional by day, to talk music, how he’s planning to go bigger and badder with his band and how a choir boy became obsessed with the number 13.

Q: How did you come up with the name Vin Sinners?

A: Would you really believe it if I said I woke up one morning with the name in my head? But at the heart of it, we’re all some distance from being free of sin, so why not admit it? It could be Vin’s Sinners or Vin Sinners, we thought we’d stick with Vin Sinners and it does raise some eyebrows.

Q: Why sinners? Isn’t that a bit risqué coming from a former choir boy?

A: As I said, why not Sinners? We have a song called Hail Ya Sinners Part II on this record (Part I was on our first album) and it goes ‘We all are sinners, it’s time to decide now...’ and the song ends with a narration of something I personally believe in ‘Sin is nothing to be ashamed of, admitting is just the beginning.’ Someone who tells me he hasn’t sinned, I’d say is living in a dream of sorts and we need to come to terms with some of them and move on instead of getting stuck in why it happened. Life is like that, we make mistakes, we admit, we learn and we move on. Keeping the learnings and moving on is important.

Q: What’s Kingdom Come all about?

A: Kingdom Come is our first single from the album. The song talks about how we battle ourselves, we battle each other in quests for things at the end of the supposed rainbow, driving ourselves crazy in the bargain, not realising that the magic of life is in what there is now.

Q: How long has your second album A Mighty Black Box been in the making?

A: A Mighty Black Box went into the studio on October 10th, 2012. Kingdom Come was in fact our first song on the deck back then. We initially planned to make this a huge album, cleaning out the slate with all the material I had written over the years but it’s not easy. We got busy and well we ran out of money! So we stopped with 13 tracks totalling close to 78 minutes of music.

Q: Has it been difficult to keep it together as a metal band in the UAE?

A: Well, the UAE can be a challenge for bands to stick with a consistent line up. We’ve had many people come and go in the band and that’s more often than not because of the transient nature of the place. To live in the UAE, you need a job and that becomes the most important factor for everyone including myself of course. When people go through switches or changes or even lose their jobs, music is the last thing on their minds and they move their entire focus on ensuring that there’s food on the table every day. This also means a lot of great talent gets lost and I’ve seen this with almost ALL the bands here. It’s not easy at all and it takes a lot of effort, time and, of course, money to make a band work in the UAE.

Q: What would you say are the biggest challenges facing rock and metal bands in the UAE?

A: The UAE has become a hub for pop music. Not many bands have become brands here in the UAE. I can name barely a few. It is not easy when you don’t have many venues or opportunities and even when the opportunities come up, they require a lot of time. There was a contest that was held recently but it meant finding even more time from an already crazy schedule to go out there and do it. As a band, we have to decide what we will do and what we won’t ‘cos we have families, commitments and most importantly, challenging jobs. It doesn’t help that there’s no authority here that really promotes local talent. There are a few event organisers who are a great help but there’s a need for organisers, music distributors, stores and brands to come together and create a movement of sorts. For that, everyone needs to collaborate towards a single agenda.

Q: Why and how did you choose the collaborators for A Mighty Black Box?

A: When we started work on this album, we said that we wanted this album to have some collaborations. I am not at liberty to speak about all of them now or else you are not going to be interested in speaking to me when the album is released. But we wanted to add value to the music and complement what we already had. We have a collaboration with an Emirati / Swedish singer who is quite outstanding. We have collaborated with a great German composer, we have an incredibly talent and respected guitarist from India and of course a legendary singer from the UK on one of our tracks. Details in good time!

Q: So former choir boy, what’s the obsession with the number 13?

A: The obsession with 13 is with the intent of busting a myth. I personally have an issue with such myths that represent nothing but bondage to something we don’t completely understand. We create these confinements in our head and it holds us back from flying high.

Q: Where would you like to take Vin Sinners from here?

A: Vin Sinners began as an experiment and has taken some shape. As a band we have a belief that we can, if we continue to commit ourselves to it, deliver quality music that can appeal to a certain cross section of people. In doing so, we want to be able to be a part of this community, talk about how you can pursue your interests AND fulfill your commitments, not have to be particular ‘type’ of person to play hard rock and metal. I personally believe Vin Sinners represents a journey of sorts and we’re only getting started.

For more on the band, go to: www.vinsinners.com and www.facebook.com/vinsinners