Army Of Three: Virgil And The Accelerators Back For Round Two

Photo: Martin Lewis

Even though they were still teenagers when it was recorded, Virgil and The Accelerators’ 2011 debut, 'The Radium', was a mature record that put them on the musical map.

After relentlessly touring that effort, they've finally returned with 'Army Of Three', a harder-rocking, impressively textured follow up. We caught up with guitar-slinger and frontman Virgil McMahon to discuss the record, brotherly love and the benefits of being kicked out of school.

For newcomers, how did you guys get together?

The Accelerators was actually my dad's band. Around 2006, when I was 14, I started coming along to the gigs to help my dad carry his amps and guitars.  Eventually, they started getting me up for a song here and there and after some time I ended up playing the full set with them. Sometime after that they changed the name of the band to Virgil And The Accelerators.  

We continued to tour until 2008 and after then my dad said: “If you want to make a go of this it's probably best you find some guys of your own age to do it with.” My brother Gabriel had joined the band a month before to play drums and when we moved to the west midlands in the later part of 2009 Jack [Alexander Timmis] got involved and we went from there.

You've stressed that Virgil And The Accelerators is a band effort even though your name takes precedence. What can you tell tell us about the other guys?

I've been playing with Gabe since we were little kids and we used to play along to ZZ Top songs or Stevie Ray Vaughan songs. You couldn't ask to find a better young drummer anywhere. And when Jack joined we really found our own ground and our own groove. Jack's a phenomenal bass guitarist and he thinks outside the box when it comes to music. That's why we called our new album 'Army Of Three', because we want to make it clear that it's not just about me, it's about the three of us.

Brothers in bands can be tricky. What's the relationship like between you and Gabriel?

He's my best friend. We share hotel rooms together, we live together and I couldn't ask for a better guy to be in a band with.  

Not a Noel and Liam situation then?

No, definitely not. I love my brother, that's the difference. Those two don't love each other.

Given that 'The Radium' had such a superb reception, did you worry about following it?

We went into our rehearsal studio and we were like: “Let's forget we ever made 'The Radium', let's forget we've ever written songs, we're gonna start afresh here, no one knows us, so let's make a debut album.” I think that's probably the easiest way to do it because if you go into your writing space and think “What are we gonna do, boys? We've got this to live up to and that to live up to” you start to lose it a little bit. You become more clouded by what you think people are gonna like, instead of “this is what we're making and it's for people to decide whether they like it or not”. As long as we like it, that's the main thing, right?

Has all your touring influenced the kind of material you've written for 'Army Of Three'?

You definitely get a feel for things after you've been out on the road for a while, especially when you've worked with other bands who are further up the ladder than yourself. We went out with Uriah Heep and got to sit side of stage every night and watch them and we were like: “Listen to the sound these guys have.” It was the same with Wilko [Johnson], Michael Schenker, Johnny Winter, Tracer and all those bands. So they've inspired us too.

New tracks like Love Aggression and Through The Night have a different feel to the harder numbers. How were they written?

They just came out of jams. With Love Aggression I started batting that riff about and then Gabe and Jack just fell in with me and we thought: “Hey, this is groovy, this is cool, this is one to stick on the album.”  And again with Through The Night, I was chugging the riff out in front of the boys and Jack just comes up with this [hums bass line] and I'm like: “Hey man, that's fucking great...let's do this!” Even though they have a different flavour they seem to work among the other tunes.     

Free has a really southern rock, almost country vibe too.

With that one we were listening to Fleetwood Mac's World Turning and Lindsey Buckingham's riff. I was like: “Man, that's wicked.” So we were sitting in our rehearsal room and I had the 12 string out and was trying to play this World Turning riff. I think I must have done something different and Jack said “play that again”, picked up his bass and started chugging it out, and that's how Freedom came about. It's got a bit of a Skynyrd feel to it.

Songs like that prevent you from being pigeonholed.

For sure, I think it's important that all your songs are slightly different and have different textures, flavours and colours to them. It's kind of like cooking food, you start off with your basic ingredients, maybe a bit of garlic, some onion, and add stuff as you go along and get all the different flavours.   

What inspired the lyrics to thumping rocker It Burns?

It Burns is basically about an underworld kind of dude where, everywhere he turns, he's got trouble looking for him. The trouble is knocking at his door, or it's walking up the road towards him, or it's standing in the shadows at night watching him. There's actually a guy in the town that we live in that it's semi-about, this kind of underworld dude who, when you see him, you know straight away what he's all about.

The album was delayed because of a health scare for your producer Chris Tsangarides.  What happened?

We'd finished pretty much everything, there were just two tracks that we wanted to redo the vocals on. Chris went off to Greece and while he was over there he contracted Legionnaires’. He was in a coma for about three months and we nearly lost him, which was heartbreaking as he's the loveliest guy in the world. Thank god he pulled through. After a couple of weeks of being at home and resting he was able to come back into the studio and redo the vocals. But that delayed the album because we were supposed to have it out in May, and now we get to release it in October, almost a year after it was recorded. So we're extremely anxious to get it out there and for people to hear it.   

Who are your influences as a guitar player?

The biggest influence I have on the guitar is my dad. He's 10 000 times the player I'll ever be and I looked up to him a lot as a young kid growing up.  And of course he introduced me to loads of great music and loads of great players, in particular Stevie Ray Vaughan, Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton, Robben Ford, Eric Johnson.  

I listen to loads of styles of guitar playing though – Latin jazz, fusion, rock, blues, country. I really like bass players, believe it or not, and saxophone players. I try to copy some of those licks and runs that bass and sax players would do and throw them into my playing. Having a lot of different styles to call upon...more arrows for your bow.

Is it true you got expelled from school for playing guitar?

Yeah, I did. My second week into the 10th grade I was expelled because, by that point, I'd had enough of them saying: “You can't bring your guitar into school.”  They were annoyed that I was carrying it about everywhere and I'd rather play guitar than rugby, football or whatever they were doing. After not turning up to lessons for an extended period of time the school eventually said: “We've had enough of you, good luck.” So I sat at home for about a year doing absolutely nothing but just listening to music and playing guitar. I really thank my head mistress for that and I had a great time.        

You were voted ‘Best Guitarist 2013’ in the European Blues Awards, how are you handling the acclaim?

I was very honoured by the award. However, I can only quote Jimi Hendrix and say: “I don't like those kind of compliments because they distract me.” I certainly do not consider myself to be the best in any way shape or form, but I'm very humbled that I won the award. I just looked at it as: “That's gonna be beneficial for the band.”    

Were you a reluctant singer like some guitarists?

My dad forced me to do it. He really had to, because I was hell bent on just wanting to play guitar. I'm not one for the limelight so I kind of fell into being a singer by way of default. But I'm really glad my dad pushed me because it made me a better guitar player, it gave me better timing, and within the last two years I've really grown to actually like singing.

What is the biggest thing a young band needs to really break through?

You've got to have promotion behind your band and you've got to be promoting yourself in the right way and spreading the message. That's a big thing to breaking through because when there's a lot of chatter about you the more attention you're going to get. Promotion is key to that: “I saw those guys in this magazine, I saw those guys at this gig, I saw those guys poster at that venue.”

How important has Joe Bonamassa's success been in opening doors for blues artists?

Joe has been a big influence on the scene and I think he's brought it to the younger generation and made it accessible for them, myself included. It's what Stevie Ray Vaughan did for all the kids in the early ‘90s, brought blues back to the masses. Joe's success has opened a lot of doors for people: “Hey, if you like Joe Bonamassa there's this guy that I know and they play similar sort of stuff, so you might want to go and see them.”

Your Facebook page says your band's interests are 'world domination'. How far do you think you can go?

Well, the dream is to go all the way because we believe in the band and we believe in what we're doing. It would be nice to be Rolling Stones level and be able to put 80,000 people in a football stadium. I mean, who wouldn't want to do that? But really, our biggest dream is to play a venue like the Wolverhampton Civic Hall, because we've seen loads of our favourite bands there, and to reach as many people as we can with the music we're making.  

Have you started to see the benefits of all your touring?

With the shows that we've done this year, we've noticed that the audience numbers have been up, so far sales of our album are way up on what they were for our first one, so that's very promising and it's very satisfying to see that the hard work is paying off.  And we live for the band, we live for the music and we live for playing our instruments. There's no day jobs, the band is all we have.  

Virgil And The Accelerators Upcoming Tour Dates are as follows:

Fri October 17 2014 - SUTTON Boom Boom Club
Sat October 18 2014 - MANCHESTER Ruby Lounge
Wed October 22 2014 - SOUTHAMPTON Talking Heads
Fri October 24 2014 - HULLBRIDGE Touchline
Sat October 25 2014 - FERRYHILL Mainsforth Community Centre
Sun October 26 2014 - CHISLEHURST Beaverwood Club
Fri October 31 2014 - DONCASTER Leopard
Sat November 01 2014 - DEVIZES Long Street Blues
Sun November 02 2014 - SWANSEA Scene
Sat November 08 2014 - DERBY Flowerpot
Wed November 12 2014 - WOLVERHAMPTON Robin
Wed November 19 2014 - WOLVERHAMPTON Robin 2

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