Nottingham five piece Vona Vella have just unleashed their latest sonic gem, ‘Bear Trap,’ via Strap Originals—a track that shimmers with spangling guitars, euphoric drums, and mellifluous harmonies echoing indie-pop’s celebrated C86 era. To celebrate its release, Dan Cunningham and Izzy Davis, Vona Vella’s OG vocalists and multi-instrumentalists, sat down with GIITTV to discuss their evolution, their famous fans and escaping the ‘bear trap.’
It was a real highlight to see Vona Vella smash their set at the Great Escape in Brighton in May with Pete Doherty’s Strap Originals showcase, featuring the likes of Trampolene, Junior Brother, Warmduscher, GANS and Pete Doherty himself, accompanied by the legendary Smiths drummer Mike Joyce. Doherty and his dog Gladys were seen singing along to the handpicked acts from his label. For many of us this extra day of the Great Escape was the best day of the festival. As Dan said,” It was nice that it was absolutely packed.“
Vona Vella began as a duo- their dreamy harmonies echoing the vocal chemistry of Serge Gainsbourg and Jane Birkin. Their breakout moment came when Morcheeba’s Ross Godfrey remixed their single ‘Sun,’ which quickly went viral with over a million streams. Now, as a five-piece, they are taking their sound to new heights
As Izzy said, “We started as a duo and but we got picked up by a Strap quite quickly. It was all like, kind of around 2020.”
Dan: “Yea. We were writing songs through Covid “
Izzy: “We Hadn’t done loads as a duo but we were lucky. We got picked up really early We got to do cool things. We went to Europe, all around France when we were in our really early stages. We toured with a 90s band, and that was really cool. But then shortly after that, we got picked up by Strap, and then it was like we had some festivals. And we were like, “Hey, we need some help here.”
GIITTV: Was it Ross Godfrey from Mocheeba who first picked you up?
Dan: “Yea he wanted to remix our first song“
Izzy: “It was so random, and it worked out really well for us, because Mocheeba hadn’t released anything in a really long time, and so when he randomly decided to release this remix, all of their listeners and followers got a notification, because they hadn’t released any music in ages“
Dan: “It wasn’t even their song, so it was really weird, but, it was great at the same time.”
Izzy: “We’re so grateful for that because we’ve now got a portion of listeners that are like Morcheeba fans and they probably like that song, but possibly not our other ones, because we’re quite different now.”
GIITV: Who would you say are your key influences and how does that inform your songwriting process?
Dan: “We love listening to The Coral and Belle and Sebastian, that sort of female/ male vocal jumping over each other. Melody wise we try and take all those sort of like classic influences.”
Izzy: “Yea but not so soft. We throw in some Stroksy elements, specifically so it’s fun to play live and stuff, but we do, like, our Everything But the Girl classics.”
Dan :“In the song-writing phase, it’s just me and Izzy writing, and it’s developed to the band starting to write now as well. But then, from that initial stage we take it to the band, and everyone starts playing a little bit harder. The drummer gets involved, and it’s like, right, okay, this isn’t so soft anymore!“
GIITTV: Has expanding the band made a big difference to your sound?
Izzy: “A huge difference and also, everyone in the band can sing, which is really useful. They’ve changed the game a lot. Having five opinions rolling around is totally different, for the better, though.”
GIITTV : You were picked up by Ross Godfrey first, and then Pete Doherty loves your sound and picks you up too for Strap Originals too. What was that like?
Izzy: “It was random, because we hadn’t been going for long. We were very lucky that those people found us in such a big pool of creatives, because everyone’s trying to do music now, because you can. We were super lucky to get picked up and just immediately got really good shows in front of big crowds and it’s probably helped us with our performance and our nerves, because some of our first gigs were just fucking massive.“
GIITV: You supported Morcheeba, The Libertines, Pete Doherty and Tim Burgess and all those huge names. That must have been incredible!
Izzy: “Yeah, the first one was Morcheeba.I think the biggest was 3000 cap and I think that’s still the biggest we’ve ever done.“
Dan: “It might even be more than that. It’s Olympia in Paris. It just felt like it like never ended“
Izzy: “It was just us two as well.
Dan: “We Took an elevator to the stage!”
Izzy:“We were very shaky. We’d only ever played in the UK before, to quite a tough Libertines crowd. They can be quite hard to please sometimes. It’s fun, but suddenly we were going out, and it was a Morcheeba crowd, and they applaud you for just walking on.“
GIITTV: Skye from Morcheeba has a similar voice to yours, Izzy.
Izzy: “They’re just like, the kindest people ever. And I think on the first night of the tour, I. We were, like, we haven’t learnt the mannerisms of being on tour yet. What do you do? They got us in their dressing room and they ordered shots and we had a shot to Vona Vella.”
Dan: “It was so wholesome! It was really good!“
Izzy: “It feels so long ago, now!“
GIITTV: What was it like, forming a band at the beginning of the pandemic? Did it effect you at all?
Dan: “No, well, we hadn’t really been writing songs before Covid so, as soon as the barriers came down and you could , see each other and stuff again we just were chilling in my parents garden, writing songs.”
Izzy:“That’s when the ball really started rolling. As soon as it lifted and you could go out. We drove to Margate to the Albion Rooms. We went to the studio and recorded our first EP and it was still a point where we all were doing tests and we all had masks. It felt like a privilege to be able to, socialize because it was for like work, I guess. But did it effect us? Yeah, but definitely not as negatively as it some other people, like, it’s not like we just put out an album and we couldn’t play it. Yeah, it was early days.“
Dan: “It’s more like we just started, yeah, in a way.“
GIITV: Did you meet at college?
Dan: “We met at music College in Loughborough at 16.”
Izzy: “We both failed our GCSE maths so that’s where we met- retaking maths.“
Dan: “Then we didn’t go to Uni. We just, we actually ended up just doing lots of like pub gigs, and went round earning a a bit of money here and there. So we already had a couple of years of just playing to people. They weren’t our songs, but we’re doing it. So we were getting kind of a grasp of that. And then it was only during Covid that we were trying to write a songs….So it was quite a nice sort of trajectory. It was quite natural, you know.“
GIITV: Thinking of jobs, is that what your latest single ‘Bear Trap’ is about? Hating your job and wanting to be poorly so that you wouldn’t have to go in?
Dan: “Yea, so at the time of writing that song, I was working in a café and it was, it was fine. It’s just hospitality work. everyone does it, and it’s absolutely fine.“
Izzy: “It was specifically horrible! It’s okay to say that.”
Dan: “This one was, yeah, and I think it was just like, the whole idea of it was that because we were paying for rent, I had to go to work, which is obviously everyone’s thing. I just wanted to speak about it in a song. So that’s basically what this song about is about- how frustrating it is not to be able to afford to think “I might want to try this path” whether it’s something creative or anything, but because of how expensive everything is, sometimes you have to just keep, holding on until something else comes up. So yeah, that’s what it’s about, basically“
GIITTV: I like the metaphor of the bear trap! I’m sure lots of people can relate!
Dan:”Literally that’s the whole idea – you’re clamped-you’re stuck.”
Izzy- “Trapped, like a bear.”
Dan: “We finished the video for Bear Trap about 10 minutes ago. Our housemate Miles Dyson, a videographer, filmed it. We did a a headline at The Grove in Nottingham, so we just decided, let’s just record it live.. It looks great. It has a Skateboarding-esque sort of style to it, which is cool.“
Izzy:”The set as well, where we’re playing is Dan’s venue (she points to him)which is a really nice full circle in terms of ‘Bear Trap.’ The song is about how you were trapped in that really horrible situation and then you did take a risk and Dan opened this tiny venue. That’s where we did a headline show, and it’s where we performed for the music video.“
GIITTV: That’s amazing. So you own the venue now?
Dan:”Yeah. It’s called The Grove. So it’s me and another guy. An opportunity came and we just jumped on it“
GIITV: Nottingham seems like such a cool, vibrant creative city with such great venues and bands like you, Divorce, Sleaford Mods, London Grammar, Bloodworm and so many more. Bloodworm were one of our highlights of Rockaway Beach Festival
Izzy: “We went to college with George from Bloodworm“
Dan: “They’re really cool, really lovely people and great songs as well.“
Izzy: “We could sit and talk about Nottingham for hours. Yeah, it’s the best place. Like, we’ve lived in London, and as much as it was great, a lot of people are getting, financially forced out of it, but Nottingham is just not missing anything. It’s almost like its own little borough of London. But the best one.”
Dan: “There’s a community in Nottingham. We know everyone. We go to each other’s gigs and support each other.“
Izzy: “This kind of sounds so cringe, but I would say in London, you feel like you’re all climbing on top of each other, simply because there’s not enough room for everyone, whereas in Nottingham, everyone’s like, “You support me. I’ll support you. I’ll open your show,” and everyone’s kind of trying to come up together.“
GIITV:Are there any other good bands from Nottlingham that you can recommend?
Dan: “We just did a show in London with a Nottingham band called Swallowtail. They’re actually doing a co-headline tour with Bloodworm soon!“
GIITV: Now that Mike Joyce from The Smiths is playing with Pete Doherty, do you ever see him at the Albion Rooms studios or anywhere?
Izzy: “Yes, we really buddied up with him on the Europe tour, because we got to open for like, five or six shows, and we were just seeing them every night and, I think I remember the first show, we were like,‘“Holy shit.” We need to keep our cool. And then we were sound-checking at one of the venues, and he was just stood there watching us. And then it ended up that we were having catering with him most nights. And it was just like, what a chilled, lovely person.”
Dan: “He’s great. He’s so genuine.”
Izzy: “He couldn’t be friendlier. He’s so genuine.”
GIITV: Paul Heaton is a fan of your work too isn’t he?
Izzy: We randomly, got a nice tweet from him after our first EP. We’re like, really big fans of his and every now and again I scroll back three years through our Twitter, just to, like, see what he posted“
GIITTV: I can hear Beautiful South vibes in your harmonies too.
Izzy: We like The Housemartins too. We like all of it.
GIITTV: Have you got any tours coming up?
Dan: Yea, so we’re going to do a mini, like, five day tour in November, we’re going to go to Leeds, Nottingham, London and Essex.
Izzy: “We’re doing it very DIY and and we’re playing Supersonic festival in Paris in December.: We have played amazing shows with big artists, but some of our favourite shows are 150 cap. We played The Old Blue Last in London a couple of days ago and we love those gigs, and we’ll play as many of those as we can get- tiny, packed venues! For people trying to look new bands. They’re some of our favourite gigs!“
GIITTV: Is there an approximate date for your next album?
Izzy and Dan: February.
GIIITV: GREAT! We’ll look forward to that and I guess you’ll be touring in support of the album.
Izzy: “Yea we’re doing like our little mini DIY warm up tour in November, winter time, and then like proper one when the album comes out”
Bear Trap is out now!
Follow Vona Vella here:
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LIVE DATES
NOVEMBER
19 – The Grove, Nottingham
20 – Royal Park Cellars, Leeds 24 -The Elephant’s Head, London
DECEMBER
12 – Supersonic Club, Paris
Photo Credit: Roger Sargent
