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Velvet Acid Christ (VAC) is an electro-industrial band based in the Denver, Colorado area of the United States. The band was formed in 1990 as a recreational compliment to the emotional frustrations and drug experiences shared by its members, though it has since evolved into a form of social expression and commentary that is maintained by longstanding member Bryan Erickson. Velvet Acid Christ first gained limited popularity in Europe's underground nightclub scene during the mid-1990s and was introduced to North America as well as other continents shortly thereafter.
Bryan Erickson, a resident of Westminster, Colorado, has been the lead vocalist, musician, and producer behind Velvet Acid Christ. As one of the band's founding members and its primary influence, the outspoken, occasionally controversial individual has been synonymous with Velvet Acid Christ for most of its existence, and the direction of the project has been altered at times to reflect his own developments. Consequently, most of the band's praises, comparisons, and criticisms have been aimed at Erickson, leading him in part to establish an active Internet presence as the band's spokesperson.
Along with Erickson, several other musicians have been credited with contributions to Velvet Acid Christ. In the band's early years, its contributors held more permanent roles, though after a number of roster changes due to personal and creative differences, outside talent was consulted on a per-need basis. This process has shifted, however, as guitarist Todd Loomis and audio engineer Dan Olson are now credited as members.
The band has completed eleven original, full-length albums and currently enjoys a level of global recognition within the goth and industrial subcultures.
The foundations for Velvet Acid Christ were set when Erickson was introduced to Grigory Bilham in the early 1990s. Erickson and Bilham, both residents of Colorado, had been separately involved with creating music as adolescents and found that they shared a common interest. Once they were acquainted, the two collaborated in their spare time and recorded a series of demos. Erickson's friends Gary Slaughter and Chris Workman were also incorporated into their growing hobby.
Together, Bilham, Erickson, Slaughter, and Workman attempted a number of small projects. Much of their initial work was based upon humor, such as Disease Disco Factory, a parody of then-popular dance group C+C Music Factory, and Toxic Coma, an absurd avant-garde project. As instruments with more diverse capabilities became accessible to them, they began to produce music which complimented their lifestyles. Many songs were composed in this era to enhance the members' experiences with recreational drug use, a habit which would serve as one of the group's defining characteristics throughout the decade.
Life shortly after their teenage years was troublesome for the group, and their problems created circumstances that would affect the direction of their music. Erickson and Slaughter were investigated by local authorities for fraudulent activities, for which Slaughter received heavy fines, and Bilham was sent to prison in 1992 for a series of thefts.With Bilham no longer available, Erickson, Slaughter, and Workman briefly resumed Toxic Coma, though social tensions caused Slaughter and Workman to vacate the group. Slaughter returned almost immediately and began concentrating with Erickson upon two side-projects: Cyber Christ and Vortex. Originally conceived by Bilham and Erickson, Cyber Christ's harsh and melancholy sound provided a stark contrast to the group's other projects, while Vortex was a more straight-faced, trance and techno-inspired effort. Cyber Christ was later renamed Velvet Acid Christ both "in honor of a bad acid trip" and because of the 1992 film The Lawnmower Man, in which the phrase "cyber-Christ" was used. Similarly, when the two musicians discovered that the name Vortex was taken, they simply merged the project with Velvet Acid Christ to form one body of work.
1994, Workman returned to assist with the Gothic-styled Fate, Velvet Acid Christ's first full-length album. Once production of Fate was completed, cassette copies were distributed among the group's friends to an encouraging reaction. This lead to the productions and similar distributions of 1994's Pestilence, a dance-oriented album, and 1995's Neuralblastoma, a harder-sounding album.
Pleased with the reception of these albums, Erickson, along with friends and minor contributors Steve Bird and Dan Olson, started the record label Electro Death Trip (EDT) Records to better promote the band's recordings. In 1995, the three purchased resources for amateur CD production and created hand-made copies of Fate, Pestilence, and Neuralblastoma for resale in local music shops. Though sales were decent, the label suffered from a lack of maintenance and was eventually abandoned.
Velvet Acid Christ went through major changes in 1996. Slaughter's and Workman's enthusiasm for the band had begun to wane, and they left during the first half of the year. Erickson, meanwhile, continued the project alone, handing out copies of Velvet Acid Christ's recordings to music lovers and industry representatives. When industrial pioneer Front Line Assembly made a concert tour stop in Denver, Erickson managed to give album copies to musician Bill Leeb for review. Leeb proceeded to turn the copies over to Thorsten Stroht, a media promoter with European label Off-Beat Records. Along with Off-Beat A&R representative Stefan Herwig, Stroht listened to the albums and contacted Erickson through word-of-mouth in hopes of negotiating a deal with the band. Erickson accepted then notified Slaughter and Workman, who returned to the band with little delay.
For their first Off-Beat release, the group submitted 1996's Church of Acid, a compilation of selected tracks from Velvet Acid Christ's first three albums with an additional two new tracks, "Disflux" and "Futile". In Europe, where the demand for electronic music is relatively high in certain areas, Church of Acid was well received, and "Futile" became a regularly played track in many nightclubs across the continent.[6] Many fans and critics in the industrial music scene, both in Europe and abroad, took notice of the previously unknown band as a result. In 1997, United States label Pendragon Records offered to release Church of Acid in America, though the two new tracks were removed due to a lack of trademark clearance for television samples used in the songs.[7]
Relationships were tested when a finished version of the band's next album, Calling Ov the Dead, was rejected by Off-Beat for not sounding edgy enough.[8] Slaughter departed from Velvet Acid Christ for the final time shortly after hearing the news, leaving Erickson and Workman to revise their work into an acceptable form. Understaffed and facing label demands, Erickson asked Bird and Olson to help him finish the album. The band managed to release Calling Ov the Dead through Off-Beat in late 1997 and Pendragon in 1998, though Erickson had accumulated a large amount of financial debt during its production.
Touring became a priority for the band in 1998. Workman expressed no desire to travel when approached about traveling to Europe; thus, Erickson recruited Stroht and German musician Ingo Beitz to assist him. The trio was paired with Off-Beat label-mate Suicide Commando, and the two bands made several stops across the continent. For Velvet Acid Christ, the experience was physically wearisome and hampered by behind-the-scenes difficulties, yet many concert-goers expressed appreciation for the band's performances.
After its first tour had been completed, the band found itself courted by Metropolis Records, the largest industrial label in United States. The band had sought to re-release Neuralblastoma through Off-Beat and Pendragon, though Pendragon rejected the album because of its guitar work.[4] Metropolis, Pendragon's parent label, opted to distribute the album instead, forming a partnership with the band that has endured to the present.
Velvet Acid Christ spent the majority of 1999 in the studio, first collaborating with Germany's Funker Vogt on a remix EP entitled Velvet Acid Christ Vs Funker Vogt: The Remix Assault, then shifting to Velvet Acid Christ's next full-length recording, Fun With Knives. By this point, Workman had become somewhat unreliable as a contributor, leading Erickson to request production assistance on Fun With Knives from the bands Luxt and 4th New Army. Fun With Knives, with its blend of industrial themes, Gothic melodies, and dance beats, was released by Metropolis and new Off-Beat sublabel Dependent Records to great success, making it the band's best-selling album to date.[8] Sales of the album were propelled by the singles "Decypher" and "Fun With Drugs", and by the track "Slut", which featured vocals from Luxt's Anna Christine. Erickson was unable to fully appreciate this reaction, as creative and managerial conflicts had lured him into a state of depression and, consequently, increased drug abuse.
Much of Erickson's emotional instability was channeled into the creation of the band's next album, Twisted Thought Generator, a process that continued into the year 2000. The band also arranged two tours during this time: one through Europe with industrial acts Project X and Stromkern, and one through the United States and Canada with bands Din_Fiv and Haujobb. Workman, however, resigned suddenly and demanded that his name be retracted from all previous albums, citing a personal conversion to Christianity.[4] Frustrated by the loss, Erickson procured Bird and Stroht to fill the band's roster for first half of the European tour, which turned out to be an uncoordinated and stressful ordeal. Afterward, Erickson rushed back to Colorado to conclude Twisted Thought Generator with a group of contributors, then returned to Europe with Olson and finished the second half of the European tour. Due to lingering disputes and poor management, Erickson withdrew the band from Dependent Records in the fall and submitted Twisted Thought Generator to Metropolis. He, Stroht and drummer Paul Lipman then embarked on their trek across North America and thus ended the decade, exhausted and uncertain of the band's future.
Erickson placed Velvet Acid Christ on a short hiatus in 2001, opting to abandon his dependence on drugs in favor of exercise and a vegan raw foodist diet. This change has been referenced by Erickson as a major reason why Velvet Acid Christ was allowed to continue. He used this momentum to create the 2003 album Hex Angel: Utopia/Dystopia with a small assortment of other musicians, including members of the band Revolution State. Though critical response was mixed, Hex Angel: Utopia/Dystopia ranked #1 on Germany's Deutsche Alternative Charts (DAC) for four weeks after its release, and the album's single, "Pretty Toy", reached #18 on the Billboard Alternative Chart during the same year. The album also marked the band's short-lived return to Dependent Records.
Erickson spent 2004 releasing and reissuing some of Velvet Acid Christ's earliest material. With the four-volume compilation series Between the Eyes, the band published a collection of its singles and B-sides with Between the Eyes, Vol. 1, then followed with subsequent re-releases of Fate (Vol. 2), Pestilence (Vol. 3), and Neuralblastoma (Vol. 4). The band also offered free MP3 downloads of Dimension 8 and Oblivion Interface on its website until early 2005. Dimension 8, which had been available as an hidden bonus on Twisted Thought Generator, and Oblivion Interface, informally known as Between the Eyes, Vol. 5, provided fans with previously unheard work from the Cyber Christ-Vortex era of 1991–1994.
In 2005, Erickson began collaborating with newcomer Todd Loomis and drummer Chris Kutz on a new album, Lust for Blood, which was released on 2006-09-26. With Lust for Blood, the crew labored intensively to create a new overall sound while maintaining the band's original characteristics. Following its release, Lust for Blood ranked at the top of Germany's DAC for four weeks; the album's single release, "Wound", ranked on the DAC's singles chart for seven weeks and held the #1 position for four weeks. "Wound" also ranked on the Hellenic Alternative Charts singles chart for three months.
Bryan Erickson (1990–) – lead vocals, composition, guitar, lyrics, mixing, production, various
Todd Loomis (2005–) – guitar, composition
Dan Olson (1995–) – engineering, samples
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