Localized: Modern Speed

The ice is melting, the sun is out and the flowers are in bloom — it’s about damn time for another SLUG Localized and we’ve got you covered. Witness the sounds of sonomatic sounds of Fiig, melt your face to a punk fusion with Mortigi Tempo and retrieve your soul back from the underworld with Modern Speed. It’s a night you don’t want to miss! Make your way to Kilby Court Thursday, May 21 for one helluva time! Get your tickets here!

The room I interviewed Modern Speed in was particularly unusual. There was a surfboard in the corner — in a city roughly 650 miles from the nearest ocean wave — an indoor hot tub, a massage table and two walls covered in mirror panels from floor to ceiling. If I hadn’t seen Tyler Vella’s guitars and pedalboard racked in the corner, I would have assumed I had just walked into a porno set. The stage was set for a rather unique interview.

I had already listened to their single “Stegosaurus,” which was released last March, but as the rest of the band gradually filed into the room, Vella played the rest of their upcoming album in its unfinished state — an album which left me pleasantly surprised, as it sounded significantly more refined and polished than the band’s original demo EP from 2021 and subsequent singles. Their modern sound is akin to Tame Impala in their prime: a laid-back atmosphere with punchy 70s drums that sound as dead as a doornail.

“I feel like this lineup that we have right now is just such a powerhouse.”

Vella, the only consistent member in the band’s tenure, explained that a reduction in output was the catalyst for an entire lineup change, explaining the change in sound. Besides “Stegosaurus,” the band had not released any material in about three years. Scott Madsen, known for his solo project Adrift Airship, was brought in to play keys and help produce after several successful sessions with Vella. Next was Kevin Egbert, brought in to cover bass guitar and the band’s stellar album artwork. And the most recent addition to the group is Steven Siggard, who refers to himself as Kevin Parker’s ‘Choppleganger.’ He’s a drummer-vocalist polymath best known for his solo project The Psychsomatics. It’s an updated lineup that Eric Watson of Mortigi Tempo called a supergroup, a sentiment that Vella seems to resonate with quite heavily.

“I feel like this lineup that we have right now is just such a powerhouse. I think everyone here is bringing so much energy… The collaboration is just insane!” Vella says. “I think we have just leveled up tremendously.”

I’d be inclined to agree. The band has a musical savant in the form of Siggard — who manages to play consistent beats in time while singing droning, moving vocal lines — an incredible graphic designer and bassist in the form of Egbert and a seasoned veteran of engineering in the form of Madsen, who has been mixing and producing for the last 18 years.

“I think everyone here is bringing so much energy… The collaboration is just insane!”

With how refined “Stegosaurus” and the rest of the unfinished album sounded, I was under the presumption that the band had worked with Aggressive Audio or Sunspell Records, who pushed out the band’s previous singles. As it turns out, “Stegosaurus” and the rest of their record are entirely home-grown. Madsen runs a studio in Bountiful called Planet B Records, which Madsen explained is a complete and proper recording company in all but legality, as he had not registered the name as an LLC yet.

During our interview, Madsen and I spoke in some detail about the state of Utah’s music scene: “We talk about this often, and we think that anybody who has a chance of making it from Salt Lake immediately moves to LA, and I think that’s sort of the problem, because if we had a band who made it who stayed in Salt Lake, I think that would bring a lot of people to a lot of venues,” Madsen says. “That’s my goal as a producer, to help somebody make it who stays here and helps the scene.”

The band states they plan to release another single on May 8, with intentions to release their full album on the day of their SLUG Localized show on May 21. Their latest single “Stegosaurus” is available on all streaming platforms.

Read more from past Localized features:
Localized: Cathode
Localized: Nadezhda