CelebrityHauteSpot

Photo Credit: Holly Turner

1. What can fans expect from your new EP “The Ruins”?

Hope: It’s very dark, very upfront. I feel that it’s quite evolved from our last EP “Long Live”. Although it’s both sonically and lyrically heartbreaking, I think the consistent honesty is a clean breath of air. It’s still very much VISTA, but we’ve evolved together and individually, so I think these 5 tracks reflect that growth. 

Greg: Aside from that, you can expect to see us touring, and you can expect a full story being completed. You can expect a sad ending, but albeit an incomplete one. It’s almost as if this EP leaves off on a cliffhanger. I like that a lot. 

2. Do you have a favorite track?

Hope: Mine is “After Death”. I’ve felt a rather personal and somewhat emotionally taxing connection to this track since day 1. It’s such a powerful song; it’s kind of a huge punch in the gut early on in the record, but I think that the straightforwardness of it was necessary to really understand the ‘ruins’. 

Greg: I’d say “Sin City” for me. The same way Hope feels a connection with that song, I’ve always felt like there was a little bit of magic in the melody/chords when Hope start writing lyrics/melodies over the track for this one. It just is such a different feel for VISTA and I love it. 

3. How long did the writing and recording process take?

Hope: We wrote and recorded the record in 8 days. “Sin City” was the only track written beforehand; that was written about a year ago. But everything else was created, written, and recorded on the spot in the studio. 

Greg: I’m not sure what you’d want to consider that. A year and 8 days? Haha. It was hectic doing it in that short of time though. I was constantly thinking and rewriting parts to make sure they were the best they could be.

4. How does the sound differ from your other music?

Hope: It’s definitely a more evolved form of VISTA. I don’t think we necessarily developed enough on “Long Live”; there was still a lot of groundwork to lay, and we kind of rushed the release quite a bit. We could’ve spent more time honing in on the sound of it all and developing the overall branding. I think “The Ruins” is more cohesive as a whole. This EP is very cinematic, bold, and experimental.

Greg: The EP experiments more with tones we never got to on “Long Live”. Stuff we’ve been slowly incorporating into our releases and the singles we’ve been putting out inbetween. However, this is a whole EP that’s a step further. I think we’ve been trying to make all the parts count and not leave any filler stuff in the recordings. 

5. What do you think fans are going to appreciate most about this project?

Hope: The honesty. We wrote letters for our social media accounts to help announce this EP and The Trilogy era, and the feedback we received on them was consistently about how honest we were. That definitely carries over to the record. Nothing is held back, nothing is left off. That’s an accurate representation of how I am in person, as well. I’ve always admired and appreciated honest lyricism and conversations, so I really hope that our listeners appreciate that aspect of “The Ruins”! 

Greg: I would say the same thing for myself. I want people to see that we really are two human beings who aren’t putting up a wall or trying to pretend or seem cool. In the past we’ve tried to make everything look picture perfect, because we thought otherwise we would appear unstable. However, we’ve learned now that seeming unstable and just being plain honest are two different things. We’ve chosen the path of the latter going forward.

6. When and where can fans start listening to the EP?

VISTA: “The Ruins” is available October 25th. It can be purchased or streamed on all digital music platforms, with physical copies and merch bundles available at www.thisisvista.bigcartel.com. 

Greg: First week sales are important to an artist. If you’d like to contribute to those, please purchase the physical copy on our merch site or on iTunes! Otherwise, stream it on Spotify for free for a while and that will help contribute!

7. Do you have any other upcoming projects?

Hope: We still have two other EPs to complete in this trilogy, so that’s where our main focus is. We plan on going back to the studio before the year is over to write and record the next EP, “The Repair,” and then planning to tour a decent amount in the first quarter of 2020. 

Greg: All we can focus on is that right now. I think between that and spending holidays at home with our families and friends, we will have a pretty busy rest of 2019. 

Subscribe to see more of VISTA on our channel!