Vant

London-based four-piece, Vant, release their debut album, "Dumb Blood" on February 17th. Annie Mac has bestowed five of their songs with the accolade 'Hottest Record in the World' on Radio 1 and they have just headlined a BBC Introducing bill at the Roundhouse in Camden. The esteemed Ms Mac has a point; their talent is undoubtedly scorchio, as is the smouldering umbrage and acerbic social comment that comes with any Vant tune.
There aren't many front men around who wear their heart on their sleeve quite like Mattie Vant. He may look moodily like something from "The Lost Boys" in band photos, and he sounds like he's well up for punching your lights out when you hear the songs, but in reality, a fierce love of life and a compassionate humanity creates the heat that sears through Vant's distinctly vibrant blood. So interested and concerned was Mattie by the current American status quo, that he went to Washington DC to sample the mood of the presidential inauguration and join the Women's March, all of which will feature in a forthcoming documentary. A gentle Mackem charm struck me when I spoke to him recently.

Contactmusic [CM): Mattie, "Dumb Blood" is out this month, I have a sense that it's been down for a while. Are you bursting for it to be out there?
Mattie Vant [MV]: Yeah, we can't wait. As you say for us, it feels like a lot longer than it does for most people. Some of these songs are a few years old now. Although they're fresh to new ears, we've been living with them for a while, but for some bizarre reason, they seem more relevant than they did when I wrote them and with everything that's happened in the last six months, it feels like the album's coming out at the perfect time in terms of the messages and the fact that people need to hear it.

CM: So, "Dumb Blood" - I've assumed it's what is coursing through humanity's veins right now. Am I anywhere in the right ball park?
MV: I guess the great thing about the title is that it's open to interpretation and it is, of course, a metaphor. For me, it's a comment on the silent generation that we are. We need to wake up, and that's hopefully what the record will do - it'll wake up a few people to some new ideas and to the possibility of using their voices in the real world and trying to make change.

Continue reading: Vant - Interview