Vengeance and the Panther Queen.

I was lucky enough to grab a chat with up and coming gril fronted band Vengeance and the Panther Queen before a gig in London!

For anyone that may have not heard about Vengeance and the Panther Queen before please introduce yourselves and your sound…

We are a rock hybrid band from Dublin.  We have a weird mix of a variety of music including punk, metal and rock ‘n’ roll.  Basically if aliens came down from space and created rock it would sound like us!

How did Vengeance and the Panther Queen begin?

We have been friends for years and just decided to make a band.

Where do you get your inspiration and what are your musical backgrounds?

We take a lot of our influences from bands like The Stooges, Bad Brains, and Fang, but there’s a lot of rap thrown in and even Elvis, we can’t miss him out.  We have a lot of Jazz influences fromBraziltoo.

What are your favourite songs to perform?

My Bowler – it’s usually really crazy, it’s never the same twice.

If you could form a super group with any living or dead mucisians, who would you pick?

We’re fine as we are!! No, we’d pick people like Keith Moon, and Neil Hagerty.  That guy from Mastodon, I can’t think of his name!!

Tell us an interesting/random fact about Vengeance and the Panther Queen.

We had a variety of different names before we chose VatPQ, these included Vengeance and the Snow Girl,which  then changed to Vengeance and the Racoon Girl and at one point it was Princess Racoon!

Plus we also all listen to a lot of R&B which surprises most people.

Do you have any pre-gig rituals/warm ups?

We just like to chill out, have a few drinks and make sure sound check goes well.

What are your wildest ambitions for the band?

Well we’ve already nailed supporting Thin Lizzy and Guns ‘n’ Roses so supporting The Rolling Stones.

You just mentioned supporting two of the biggest names in rock and roll, that’s not something many bands can say! How was the expericince for you?

It was such great fun.  All our dressing rooms were nearby so we would all hang out together.  We knew a few of the Thin Lizzy guys already so we spent time with them. It was crazy!  They had such a great masseuse too!

What have you found to be the hardest thing about being in the current music industry?

You have to do a lot more yourself, there’s not much help out there.  It’s all D.I.Y. now.  We do most of our own PR, and a lot of bands have their own labels.  It’s tough to get noticed these days.

Plans for the future?

We really want to keep touring, do a lot more recording, and obviously release an album.

Give one reason why our readers should definitely check out Vengeance and the Panther Queen.

We are something you’ve never heard before with our insane music.  We’re extreme and we break boundaries.  We really push the boat out, what we do isn’t what people would expect from a typical rock band.