Victory Pill’s Jim Davies Interview
Jim Davies (Prodigy and Pitchshifter) took a break from his studio time in Essex to sit down and talk with Rock Pulse about his latest album with Victory Pill. Davies is very relaxed and jokes around with the questions, allowing for a more friendly conversation.
Davies started playing guitar when he was sixteen joking that he started because he “was bad with the girls.” The real reason was that he “wanted to play an instrument and asked for the guitar. They [his teachers] tried to get me to play the violin, or clarinet.” Davies was set on the guitar and went home everyday to practice his skill. His favourite artist was Nine Inch Nails, praising Trent Reznor “for constantly changing.” For guitar his “influences are different,” leaning more towards Jimi Hendrix.
When Davies was in his third year of university he met electronic dance group The Prodigy. “I was being cheeky when I asked them why they had no guitarist.” Davies gave them his demo and they liked it enough to ask him to tour with them. Although he admits that touring and recording with The Prodigy was a great experience he does not like to speak about his time with them. “I understand that people like the songs and want to know about my time with them but that is the past and I’m moving forward.”
In 1998 Davies joined the alternative rock band Pitchshifter and worked on their best selling album www.pitchshifter.com. After recording “Pitchshifter asked me to tour with them because there was no way they could do it without me. Since I played on so many of the tracks.” Opening in a early show at Redding with Pitchshifter was Davies favourite show to play. Better than his later slot with The Prodigy (same festival, different year) “because that was his band,” instead of just being a fill-in guitarist.
A self proclaimed “history geek,” Davies named his latest project Victory Pill. He really liked “V For Victory as well as Red or Blue Pill [based off the Matrix] and then I found out the first was a book and the second one just did not sound right.” V For Victory is “based on war propaganda from World War II.”
Victory Pill was started when Pete Crossman came in and listened to some tracks and told Davies “I should record this music.” They “saw a hole in the market with guitars and electronic music.” Taking their music in that direction they created ‘The Digital Divide.’ “We made this CD because we like doing this type of music more, this is our creative project. It can be whatever we want it to be.”
When Davies started listening to more electronic music he “liked the way the beats went with the guitar. It is different to play over electronic music than metal.” He had heard the title ‘The Digital Divide’ long before he began writing this album. He chose that “because he liked the concept. I thought it mirrored what I was doing well with the guitars and the electronic beats. I had played in a electronic band before and wanted to continue down that path.”
‘The Digital Divide’ allowed them to open up and create more intricate sounds and styles. “This is not a touring record. Once we realized this we were able to do more complex things. It opened more doors for us.” It also allowed them to put other singers on the record. “I am not a very skilled singer so I was happy to get other people involved. A Canadian band Triptaka approached us to remix one of our songs. When we listened to their music we liked it, especially the vocals.” Triptaka’s lead singer Graeme Cornies and The Hounds vocalist Olly Burden guest on this album.
Victory Pill’s second CD ‘The Digital Divide’ is out now and available on their website. Their single ‘Burnout’ featuring Graeme Cornies is available on iTunes and their video is on YouTube. Photo credit to www.victorypill.com