Tell us your name, what you do and interesting fact about yourself.
I'm Roger from Vaportrail. I try to sing, write, play guitar & some keyboards and I've lived in the same studio apartment since 1994. Most recently, Mark played bass & Gregg played drums, but now it's just me cuz it was too stressful and I needed to refocus & recharge.

Where do you hail from and what's it like there?
San Francisco; 1/2 the time it's cold, windy & foggy, the other 1/2 it's a perfect California day. It's also a shitty place for a band to get noticed.

What made you want to be in a band?
Some ridiculous idea it would be fun and rewarding.

How long has the band been going and what have you done so far?
Started in 1995 I think. Been thru various line-up changes. We've never played outside the Bay Area. We just released our full-length CD, The Angel Has Landed and had an EP out back in 1998.

What bands have you been compared to?
Ride - so many times I lost count. It's mostly from the name Vaportrail. I admit we asked for it, but if you forget about the association to them and just think of the imagery of a 'vapor trail' in the sky, that's more how we sound. We are not a Ride cover band! Others (these are more accurate): Red House Painters, Mercury Rev, Swervedriver.

How famous do you want to be?
Wanting to be famous ruins the soul. I just want to feel i'm not wasting my time doing what i'm doing...which is how i've been feeling lately, unfortunately.

What's the best band-related thing that's happened to you so far?
Opening for Red House Painters at a sold out hometown gig (our last show as a band).

What were the last 3 gigs you went to?
Sigur Ros (not as great as the 1st time)
Idaho (very disappointing)
Beulah (rocked hard & made me feel all giddy inside)

What are your unique talents?
My brain is an encyclopedia of useless musical knowledge. c'mon, ask me something...

What are your upcoming plans?
To rethink the way I approach music & write something truly inspired.

What was the best thing about the 1980s?
Dungeons & Dragons, solving the Rubik's cube, becoming obsessed with U2 & Rush.

What was the first ever record you bought?
Probably ELO or Olivia Newton John... hey I had a crush on her.

What have you been doing today?
Went to Photoshop class, sitting on my arse downloading Flaming Lips demos, trying to finish this interview at 2am.

What good second-rate celebrities have you met?
All I can think of is my friend Mark from Red House Painters. Hey, he was in Almost Famous so that counts right? Sorry, I don't get out much. Did I mention my grandmother had a conversation w/ Rick Springfield back in the day, pre-Jessie's Girl? But she didn't know who he was...

What have you got in your pockets?
Who says I'm wearing pants?

Hello, tell us who vaportrail are...
We started in 1996, and have had a couple line-up changes. Right now Gregg, our original drummer, is back. Chris plays guitar and Roger plays guitar & sings. After 6 long months we're still looking for a committed bass player to get the band going again. It really sucks.

Was it such a good idea to name yourself after a Ride song? I mean there is surely a danger that people will automatically label you as Ride copyists if they're into lazy journalism, not?
For those who know the Ride song there's that immediate comparison. But I hope people notice we have a lot more going on. I chose the name cuz it seems to nicely describe our music. Sometimes I regret the name when we get compared to them cuz we're inspired by a lot more other bands than Ride.

Would you ever care about it if people classify your music as shoegazing-pop?
I don't think we're very "pop". We're not bouncy & happy. I'd say we're more soulful & reflective than anything else, but I can't help what others think.

I thought it was rather unique to hear both American influences (Hood, Red House Painters, even Jeff Buckley) with lots of British sounds as well. Do you think you're a part of a so-called scene or are you rather on your own?
There's probably a certain handful of bands people like that we would fit in to. But I wouldn't want us to play just one style of music and limit ourselves that way. I hate it when bands do the same thing. They find their niche and stay there comfortably. I'd like us to explore sonic territory like the Flaming Lips do.

When I heard your music I couldn't resist to think of those lonely daydreamers who are full of romantism...can you find yourself back on a description as such?
That's pretty accurate. I like to explore the more sensual side of life or think up the most intense thoughts while in line at the grocery store. It's a desire to escape to a fantasy world and have someone there to share it with.

Anthony Koutsos of Red House Painters played on some tracks of your EP. How did you get in touch with him and do you think you gain any profit from collaborating with a 4-AD artist?
We practiced in his rehearsal space at the time and didn't have a drummer. I had been friends with Mark (from RHP) for a while before that. The only thing gained was some exposure to RHP fans which was very positive.

In 1999 you would have appeared on a Church-tribute album. Can you tell us something about this release as I know nothing about it....
I still don't know what's happening with that! It's been almost a year, the guy in charge is really dragging his feet. We did a big 24-track version of "Hotel Womb" that sounds good but it's just been sitting around forever now. It's being run thru the official Church website.

Are you from San Francisco? How's the music scene over there? Any good bands to keep an eye on?
There is no scene. It sucks here. "Guitar" music is uncool. You have to have a DJ and a gimmick to get noticed here. The live music clubs are becoming dance clubs. It's at an all-time low.

I suppose Vaportrail are more a sort of underground band. Is this something you wanna maintain or are your aims much higher?
My aims were high at one point and are steadily declining. All I want is to be on some label who will help w/ recording and touring so we have a chance to prove ourselves. It's a slow process when you have to pay out of your pocket. Right now I think we're a below-underground band! Down near the core of the Earth clawing to get to the upper crust.

Vaportrail's songs are also about beautiful moods...it's like you enter a dream or so. Is that the most important thing for you or are you one of those musicians who believe in classic melodies?
Our stuff relies more on a mood than a classicaly structured song. Our songs just follow the path that brings out the best feelings. At the same time there is a strong song at the core, supporting the more moody sounds.

I think that the first songs on the EP reminded me of Ride but the further the record gets the less I hear Ride in it... Is this a parallel evolution from Vaportrail then and Vaportrail now?
That's just how all our songs are. There's no notion of what band we might sound like. If the song is good we'll use it. The order on the EP just flowed best that way.

Singer Roger used to be a college DJ in his younger days, does this mean that you're a music maniac then?
It's not like I'm on medication or anything....During that time I discovered bands who changed my life. The right music speaks to me more than any religion or job or hobby can. I'm always immersed in new music, that's my passion. The fact that I can try to affect others the same way with our music is a wonderful privilege.

What's your fave record of all time and please state why...
As for a life altering record I guess it's Unforgettable Fire - U2. My fave for the last few years is Boces by Mercury Rev. Everyone should get high and listen to it on headphones then you'll understand why.

I suppose Vaportrail are makers of shoegazing/dream pop stuff. What amazes me is that the country who created it (the UK) is producing so little bands like these where as the US seem to be full of it. Is this an evolution you see yourself?
It's very ironic nowadays that when a review mentions "shoegazer-ish" it's in a bad context. To me that's a compliment cuz the bands who defined that genre were praised at the time for putting out great music: MBV, Verve, Spiritualized, Swervedriver, Ride...and then the UK press killed the scene just by deciding for themselves that the style was dead and was now uncool! Now it gets a bad rap. Granted there's lots of horrible shoegazer bands but you get that in any style of music. Too many bands rely on effects and cliched, redundant lyrics buried in the mix. I like to think we borrow the best aspects from the original shoegazer bands and add a lot more. Most of our songs were written in my bedroom on acoustic guitar. I actually prefer New Zealand bands over most UK & US ones. It's fresher, more original.

You release your records on your label, 2012. I thought that was rather curious. Has 2012 a special meaning or could it be named 2015 or 2017?
2012 is the year when quite a few unrelated ancient prophecies converge, like Nostradamus & native American tribes. Specifically, the Mayan calendar ends on that date. I believe we're in a for a major change of life as we know it and to cope with the change we'll need to be spiritually aware and evolved. It's also kind of cool that the epic Rush song was called "2112".

What's your original sin?
Eating Fuji apples.

Sex question of the interview. With who wouldn't you mind to be alone with in an elevator for 8 hours and what would you do then?
My soulmate. I'd ask what took her so long. Ummm...then we'd share an awkward silence for 7 hours...yeah, that's it.

What can we expect from vaportrail in the future?
A full length CD that is 10 times as diverse and impressive than the EP. We have the songs, it's just a matter of having a full band to record them ASAP.

Do you want to say something special to our readers?
Get outside. Look up. Question your existence.

When did you form Vaportrail?
It was about two years ago. We were a three piece at first and then we replaced the bass player with Mark who is our bass player now. Mark and I have been together about a year and a half doing the band. Eventually we grew into a four piece and that's kind of what I refer to as phase one. We were doing pretty well and starting to gel as a real band but then the drummer and the guitar player split at just about the same time. That brought us to the time when we made the CD. We were just myself and Mark and we played with Anthony from Red House Painters just to do something while we were trying to get another drummer. After the CD came out we got Shane as our drummer and his friend Chris who plays guitar. They both moved here from Chicago. We weren't even looking for a guitar player but he sort of came as a package deal and it worked out really well. We have really complimentary guitar styles. Now we're starting to hit our stride with this lineup.

Have you always lived in the San Francisco area?
No. I grew up in Montana. I moved here about four years ago. I kind of took a long time to pursue the band thing. I was doing acoustic stuff on my own at open mikes and at this one coffee shop. It was pretty humiliating! It just wasn't working out. I thought I just have to get a band going before time runs out. Doing a solo acoustic thing just doesn't get you anywhere, especially around here. You're just lumped in with the same old folk singer crowd. The band is definitely more rewarding because you explore all this other sonic territory that you can't get into on an acoustic guitar.

What's the climate like in San Francisco these days as far as atmospheric/psych oriented bands go? I know there was a pretty big shoegazing scene there a few years back.
It's really weird here. Since I've moved here, I've seen a few of those bands but at the moment, nothing is standing out. San Francisco doesn't have a sound. It goes all over the place. There are slowcore bands, sadcore, and what are they calling that country thing, y'alternative! There are a lot of joke bands and a lot of bands lost in the early grunge thing. There are a handful of good bands that do the more atmospheric dreamy stuff but there's no real acceptance of it here. It's really hard to get people out to shows. There's not a movement but there are people out there. You get these touring bands coming through like Idaho and Swervedriver who get really good followings. For some reason, local bands that follow in that same vein don't have a huge following. I think it's a matter of people here hearing about those bands.

It's almost like you have to get attention elsewhere first, like if Alternative Press were to write about you or something, more people might start to see you.
A lot of bands end up getting more attention outside of the city and that's how they get places. It's not real supportive here. I know that Brian Jonestown Massacre have more of a name for themselves outside of San Francisco. They've been playing here for something like seven years and they get some pretty bad press.

I know your band name is taken from a Ride song. I assume you were a huge fan of the British shoegazing scene?
Yeah (slowly). I've almost reconsidered why I've named the band that, just because we got a bad review once, all because of the name. They said we ripped off the name and music of Ride which isn't true. It's easy to link that up. I have to admit that was the initial idea of using the name. You're right, I was totally into that scene at the time. I was a college DJ in Montana and that kind of music really opened my eyes and I knew that was what appealed to me the most. I don't listen to Ride every week now. It was just kind of a starting point.

There were plenty of American groups that were inspired by that movement. I'd say that you guys have a heavier sound than most. You don't go so much for that ethereal/polite sound that so many do. Do you plan to continue to develop in a direction like Swervedriver or something?
Not necessarily, I love doing little personal introspective acoustic songs but I have another side that totally loves to create noise. We want to use both elements and balance them out. Some people might like our mellow songs but other people like the effects. I know that there are preferences of either/or but I like doing both. Ultimately, we're trying to do both and make it seem natural.

I think the EP has a good balance. You have stuff like "Marbles In The Sky" but you also have stuff like the hidden track at the end. What is it called by the way?
That's "Wallflower." It's a really old song. That's a song we kept which we used to play two years ago. That's why I didn't want to feature it as a titled song when we were doing a lot of new stuff. I did want it to be on there though because out of the old stuff, that was one of the songs people liked the best.

"Live Slowly" is another great song in that vein too.
Thanks. It was fun doing the CD because we didn't expect it to turn out like that at all. We first expected to do a seven inch and basically buy time until Shane came down to drum with us. We ended up turning it into a CD which wasn't what we expected. The further we got, the more resources we put into it. We thought 'this has the potential to sound like more than we expected! We spent more money on it than we wanted but we knew it was heading into a good direction. If you see something going that way, you shouldn't restrict yourself. We took it as far as we could go and it was really rewarding to end up with something like that. Making a CD is something I'd recommend to any band that's struggling and not getting any attention. Once you make a CD, you open a lot of doors. It's really helped us a lot. We've made more progress in the last six months than we did in the previous year and a half.

So what have you been listening to lately?
There are a lot of different artists but there are some that I regard as total geniuses that blow me away. One that comes to mind is Harmony Rockets and Mercury Rev who I love with a passion. They're deconstructing music but in a positive way. They have no limit. Those are the kinds of bands that I'm in awe of ... and Julian Cope. I've been listening to Julian Cope again. They just have no boundaries. They utilize music from the past and shape it with their own vision. Others that I really like are Red House Painters. I grew up on Rush and early U2 ... Sonic Youth, Flaming Lips, Rollerskate Skinny is incredibly underrated. I don't think they're even around anymore. One of my favorite underrated bands is Straitjacket Fits. I like the Church too. I'm still into them. I'm also into this guy named Steve Tibbets. He's a guitar player who plays really unorthodox things that just don't fit. They're not jazzy, they're not rock. It's just really passionate guitar and he plays over really tribal rhythms. He has a really incredible rhythm section. My favorite record is one from 1986 called Exploded View.

I've noticed that your website has all these links to paranormal sites. Are you into that kind of stuff?
Yeah. Not the clichéd paranormal stuff like ghosts and psychics and things but yeah, you could say that I'm pretty influenced by the Art Bell show.

What's that about?
It's this guy who does a nighttime radio talk show on AM radio. It's all about these strange occurrences that happen that can't necessarily be explained. It's easy to ridicule anyone who talks about coverups and aliens and UFO's but if you really listen, they have educated experts on about certain subjects that talk about these wild things. You don't necessarily have to believe it's all true but after you listen to this for awhile, you have to believe that something is happening. I'm pretty obsessed with the fact that something metaphysical is going on in this world and universe and I can't tell people what it is but there is stuff going on. The show tries to explain it. I know some people don't get into that at all but I just think what are we here for if we're not here to question our existence and see where it leads and at least try to grow spiritually and to evolve into something greater on a personal level. I believe there is a shifting consciousness, that people are questioning these things on a massive level and I think people are starting to realize that things aren't so cut and dry. One good example is the pictures from Mars that they fed us a few months ago, the new pictures. The one they showed us on the news was the very first raw image. It looked like a bunch of lines, it was horrible. They used that to say this is the answer to is there a face on Mars? If this is a face, it obviously doesn't look like one. It's interesting that after a month or so went by and people were able to do enhancements and look at other images that were taken of that spot, you'd be amazed at what the final image is. It's pretty weird how the common person doesn't hear about that kind of stuff.

I noticed on your CD artwork that you have a space and nature theme going. Maybe you could use one of those Mars photos on a future release. Have you always been interested in space?
I have, and nature too. I'm really into just getting out and going up the coast or going hiking and camping. That's what I liked about Montana so much. Down here it's great because you have the ocean. I'm totally into the scenic nature as well as well as things astronomical. I'm not really into the hectic city life at all.