Nico Vega @ Emo’s, ATX - 10.21.09 (interview & live performance)

Los Angeles rock trio Nico Vega recently stopped in Austin for the third time – as far as I can count – in ’09.  First, they were here for SXSW, followed by two gigs at Emo’s (inside stage) in May and October.

Touring in support of their first full-length studio album, Nico Vega, Roxwel was lucky enough to score an interview, along with an acoustic rendition of “Beast,” during SXSW.  And then we caught up with them again before their October 21 show at Emo’s, where we also shot their performance of “Protest Song,” “Living Underground,” “Taxi Cab,” and “Fe Fi Fo Fum.”

If you’ve ever listened to Nico Vega, it’s undeniable that Aja Volkman (vocals) has been influenced by strong and commanding female singers.  In fact, Aja tells Roxwel that seeing the iconic Tina Turner at the Staples Center last year had a major impact on her, seeing the sort of emotion that went into Turner’s voice and performance.

“It was really inspiring to me just to see a woman be so powerful, despite what she was battling,” she said.

Aja’s explosive live performances and soulful vocals are pretty inspiring themselves, and the band’s bio on their MySpace page seems very fitting:

“For us Nico Vega is a way of life. We are 3 people who play music together. We write as a band and help each other develop our ideas. The root of the music is the relationship between us. Nico Vega is about collaboration. We are a family and we honor each other by listening and allowing each other to grow. We push each other to be better and to carry each other when we feel weak.

Nico Vega represents a modern day saint. A warrior that has led us to a more fulfilling, lighter way of being. She represents people and unity. She fights for all of us and teaches us to fight for each other. She is an idea that has evolved into a message and she fuels us in our bellies. She is the person we are all capable of being, but she holds the bar high above our head so that we must reach to be better human beings. We all have honesty inside of us, we all know how to love, we are all made of the same flesh, and we are all stuck here together. Nico Vega reminds us that we can learn to fuse these ideas together and grow more solid as a unit of man. Alone we are lost, we fail, we grieve, we search, we struggle, we feel small. Together we are solid, found, loved, and powerful. We are our own greatest natural resource. Our ego falls away when we listen to each other. It is when we stop believing that we can learn from one another that we stop learning altogether. Only then are we alone. We are no different from each other; the same flesh, the same pain, the same love, the same heart. Our greatness is no threat. The more beautiful we are individually, the more powerful we are together. It is our Ego that betrays and lies and tells us that we are threatened when we are not.

You are a part of our family and we will always make music to communicate our love and gratitude for you. If you come to our show, throw your hands up so we can feel you… you will feel us.”

This description sheds some light on Nico Vega as a whole, as well as the creation of individual songs, which is a collaborative process among the three – and a far cry from being formulaic.   It’s really all in the moment, according to the threesome.  The only recurring theme seems to be what the experience of their live shows should produce for both the band and fans: a release.

Check out the full interview and see what else Aja, Rich Koehler (guitar) and Dan Epand (drums) have to say about music that has changed their stage presence, their songwriting process, what they’re thinking before a show, and how it’s been working with MySpace records.

Also, check out their full live performance of “Protest Song,”“Living Underground,”“Taxi Cab,” and “Fe Fi Fo Fum,” or watch each song as a single (by clicking on the individual links).