The band is V for Volume, an up and coming female fronted band from Columbia.

The band consists of drummer Jonathan Specktor, bassist Hans Vollert, guitarist Juan Camilo Osman, guitarist Nicolas Corredor and vocalist Maria Jose Camargo. With most of the members being in previous bands, it’s time that the rest of the word turned up the volume.

Hey 51/50’s,
You guys are a new band right, so what made you decide that music is what you want to do with your lives?

Well you got it right, music is what we want to do with our lives...we are a new band in a sense, but we've been doing this since we were 12 (in different time and space, the universe somehow put us together).What we love about music is that it can empower you to say whatever you want and in your own way. Everyone in the band has their own reasons but we also have a reason as a whole. Music gives you power; power to create, power to think, to feel, to cry and smile, to dance and remember, music is the soundtrack of this thing we like to call life.

Have you guys toured in the USA?

We've been there several times but unfortunately never as a band...hope that's about to change in the near future.

What are your influences and inspirations?

Of course we've been in touch with a lot of different music styles and bands altogether, but it's definitely metal, hardcore and punk the key styles that we embraced as individuals in our early teens...then the pop suddenly "popped out"...we have a lot to say and pop music is a nice way to make something raw look pretty. There are a lot of awful things going on around the world but we don't want to yell about that, we want to sing about it in a way that everybody can understand it, using metaphors usually.

The indie spirit also made a lot for us, we've been always a DIY band (do it yourself) so technically we've always been indie. We also got a lot of inspiration from it as a musical style but we don't want to fully embrace that sound, we want to stand out from the rest. Pop culture, movies, heroes, toys, books, our childhood, and a lot of other things are sources of inspiration as well.

What do you guys think about bringing your sound to the UK?

Actually we would say that the UK is the first place we'd like to bring our sound and message to. It's sad to know that we don't have that much of a chance to reach massive audiences being from the place we are from, that's why the UK is key for us, it's a place where people are more open to the world and particularly to our style of music. Hope to see you there!

What can we expect from you in the future?

We are definitely working hard to get where we want to. We want to reach a global audience, spread our music and message, travel to a lot of places and point out a lot of things about the place where we come from, a place that has a lot to say and often gets a lot of negative attention.

What were you doing before V for Volume?

Four of us were in a hardcore/metal band that was well known around South America and Maria actually comes from a established metal band...so it's very weird how things turned out to be when we started making music together. We ended up having a different approach and that's the beauty of it, we come from a hardcore background and we are doing pop.

Many bands are the way they are because of a certain thing that has happened to them in their lives, is that the case with you?

Hahaha, although you won't find this as explicit as you would expect in any of our lyrics, being from Colombia it's enough. This place is as cool and weird and sometimes harsh as you could imagine and it has NOTHING to do with what the media shows about it.

Describe V for Volume in 5 words?

Beautiful, poison, raw, power, true.

If you had the chance to play any country in the world which would it be and why?

We'd love to play all around the world but we'd love especially to play in Japan and the UK....maybe Australia would be our third shot... and the U.S yo quiero que toquemos!!! Japan is another planet inside this planet...we love the aesthetics and general culture of that place, they also have a different point of view, a different kind of society and that's very appealing for us.

A lot of people may compare you to Paramore, what is your reaction to that?

That's the funniest thing of all...we respect a lot their work, we've even become closer to their music as the comparison arose but we didn't know about them before making our record... when we wrote all our songs we didn't know that Paramore even existed. Of course the comparison has a lot to do with a female singer and somehow a pop-approach to rock music but when you get our complete record that may fade away since we are exploring a somehow different sound. Paramore is cool though.

If you can be in any other band which would it be and why?

I think we wouldn't be anywhere else...of course as everyone has different taste the answer would be quite complicated, Hahaha...the answer would go from White Zombie, to Pantera, from Muse to Deftones or maybe even early Slipknot or Bloc party, The Strokes, The Sounds, who knows!...we've been exposed to a lot of music and we became very eclectic in that sense.

Do you enjoy performing better or being in the studio?

Both experiences are great but definitely a band lives on-stage...that's where we belong, there's where we can unleash the raw power that music has within it, and besides you have the chance of being there more often than in a studio. Recording rules anyway!

Where do you see the band in 5 years time???

Tokyo!...and maybe we'll get a small castle in Monaco...you and your friends are invited!... Hahaha definitely we want to reach a global audience and be everywhere...isn't nothing new really, any band would tell you that, but we feel it could happen, the first step is visualizing it ;)

Want to know more about the band? Check out their MySpace at www.myspace.com/vforvolume!