Despite the breadth and depth of our music landscape, it’s rare to find an individual who can truly carve their own path. Indifferent to the draw of mainstream success, or even public perception, Joseph Thornalley, known as Vegyn to the masses, navigates his artistry on his own terms, testing the conventions of genre, format and process.
The North London producer, designer and label figurehead, adopts a more instinctive, mood-focussed approach to song craft, leaning into his quirks and a sense of zany playfulness. Early in his career, Vegyn landed production credits on Frank Ocean’s seminal releases, ‘Endless’ and ‘Blonde’. Since then, he’s fostered a wealth of creative bonds across his work, with the likes of Travis Scott and Shygirl, Dean Blunt and JPEGMAFIA. The result is a sprawling collection of self-released projects and organic collaborations that locate the aesthete between avant pop and R&B genre-fluid electronica, and seventy-something track-long mixtapes interspersed with AI-generated spoken-word ventures, which came to the fore on last year’s project, ‘Headache’.
Gearing up for the release of his sophomore album, ‘The Road To Hell Is Paved with Good Intentions’, Vegyn shifts his attention from esoteric experimentation to purer, more concise songwriting. Carrying a tinge of bittersweet nostalgia throughout, the project flits between moments of rave-tinged euphoria, moody downtempo joints and stripped-back piano sections, shining a spotlight on a supporting cast that includes John Glacier, Léa Sen, Lauren Auder, and more. Released via self-made label Plz Make It Ruins, Vegyn expands the scope of his catalogue once more, announcing a string of live tour dates to accompany his highly-anticipated solo release.
Dialled in from the city of angels, CLASH sat down with Vegyn to trace his journey across the last decade, offering a closer glimpse into the inner workings of a modern-day enigma.
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What was your entry point to music? What kind of sounds were you immersed in growing up?
A lot of the sounds of the 60s and 70s for the most part. Classic soul and RnB, a lot of progressive rock. Maybe some sort of art pop from the US from time to time.
Do you think that shaped your outlook on your music?
Yeah, sure. Music has a lineage to it. I feel like there’s a real story behind every genre, and nothing itself is particularly isolated, everybody is pulling from lots of different references and influences. I think something becomes unique when those influences start to congeal in a much more cohesive manner, where you don’t really notice them anymore but they’re still there.
Is there a specific moment or a memory that pinpoints when you first started to make music of your own?
My Dad’s a musician and a songwriter, so I’d sort of always grown up around it. A specific point, I mean, it was probably when I was in my late teens. I spent a year doing an art foundation course, that’s when I met other people who were making electronic music. That was really inspiring, that’s when I started taking it a bit more seriously because it seemed a lot more plausible, or relatable. I wanted to fit in and I was just really desperate to find a crew of people or feel like I belonged to something. It’s not something I particularly have any interest in now, but that’s definitely what spurred the initial desire to create.
Did the material still feel unique to you, or was there an element of emulation?
No, I think it was extremely derivative. That’s a really helpful process because it taught me a lot of techniques early on, learning about side-chaining or looking into the sort of things that other people had sampled and then trying to recreate those beats. I would recommend people to not shy away from doing the pastiche, there’s a lot you can learn by imitating. After a certain point, the less you’re considering these influences, eventually they’ll manifest themselves into something unique and interesting.
I found that making something sound experimental was fairly easy. Making something musical and listenable was actually a lot more difficult, I think that’s something that I’ve forgotten multiple times throughout my life. Always coming back to that musicality element is the core, you know?
So how did the project title ‘The Road To Hell Is Paved With Good Intentions’ come about?
My intention with titles is to either be fun or provoke thought. I guess that’s the idea behind this record, it’s an invitation to think about it for yourself. I find all the best works are things that inspire the viewer or the listener to reflect on themselves. I’ve met a lot of people at shows who tell me their theories on the music, and I always think it’s great. I love hearing those because a lot of the time they don’t get it, but I think it’s really cool that they’ve interpreted it that way.
Did you do anything differently during the album’s creative process? Were there any lessons that you carried over from your previous work?
I think there was more of a desire to write music, as opposed to beats. The pressure of an album is that there are certain expectations that you feel you have to meet, and that can honestly be a bit of a creative quagmire if you will. It doesn’t always breed the best kind of material.
I had tried writing this record quite a few times, and it’s taken a certain amount of trial and error to whittle down what sort of songs would stand on their own. How I operate is so much based on how things make me feel, and at a certain point you know when something is ready and I think you only get to that when you’ve had a chance to do it for a long time.
I definitely used more hardware, and I played a lot more rather than programmed. It’s quite interesting re-listening to the first album, which is definitely a producer album. This was more straight summarising in a way, there’s less production flourishes. It’s a lot more straight-laced in a way, which is cool. I’m down for that.
‘Halo Flip’ brings together yourself and Lauren Auder, a momentous highlight from the project. What was the process behind the collaboration?
Lauren and I have been friends for quite some time now. It was this thing that started quite small, and then it felt like a football anthem. The desire was to try to make something feel really big in terms of scale, which I hadn’t really done before so it was an interesting challenge.
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You’ve released all of your material via your label Plz Make It Ruins. How important is it for you to maintain creative autonomy?
Until it stops making sense, I guess. I don’t like to fetishize independence for the sake of it, there’s a lot of good things that you can get from working with good people. I just wanted to build this brand alongside everything that I was doing, and it’s been a lot of fun. I don’t think that there’s necessarily a wrong or a right way. Depending on the scale of what it is that you’re doing, a bigger label can help do more, but it’s never something that I needed or pined for.
How has the art of collaboration shaped your approach to music?
I like working with other people because it’s a chance to respond or understand somebody else. It’s like figuring out a piece of the puzzle. It’s also about making other people feel comfortable enough to share somewhat of an intimate moment. It’s an interesting challenge, it’s about sharing a space with somebody and understanding that, too. It’s a blessing to get to work with the people that I have.
You’re currently in LA, what does that place symbolise to you and how does that contrast against to your life in London?
This place reeks of desperation and failure but my partner is here. I have a few close friends, the weather is typically quite nice. That’s the thing that draws me to it the most, the natural beauty of North America, being able to go to the beach or walk on a mountain within the same day. That side of it is really gorgeous, but I’m here because somebody I really care about is here, that’s the main reason. I love London though, I miss it all the time. I’ll be back there soon.
With ‘Headache’, you make use of new technologies like AI. What was the concept behind this collaborative venture, and what did you take away from the process?
I just thought it was really fun. We had such a laugh making it, it was very funny and then we put it out and everybody else took it very seriously.
Does playfulness play a prominent role in your music?
Yeah, I just try to have fun. Life is short and to live is to suffer so, I may as well have some fun somewhere. If I can’t have it making music then fuck, I’ll do something else. I find that as I get older, the less time I spend second-guessing everything and the more time I spend just doing something, the faster the better. If I can move as quickly as possible, then it really stands to convey an idea much more effectively.
With that in mind, if you could go back to the very beginning, what is one piece of sage advice you’d give yourself?
Don’t be afraid of cliches and don’t expect the world to change on your behalf. Just try to actually enjoy the things that make you happy, rather than crushing them into becoming the answer to all your problems.
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‘The Road To Hell Is Paved with Good Intentions’ is out on April 5th.
Words by: Ana Lamond
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