“VANDALS” path to signing their first ever record deal is a slightly unusual one, one that began out of Brooklyn, New York and moved as far west as possible to California with a few minor detours and a couple more bumps along the road. The indie-pop duo are relatively new to the game as a partnership having formed in early 2019 despite initially meeting back in 2017 when the two were performing around New York as solo musicians. They bonded over nerd levels of passion for music, the tiny little intricacies and the various tricks of the trade from a technical point of view. Jonas Haaland comes from Swedish activist parents and Danielle Leone-Wilde abandoned her own wealthy parents as soon as she had the opportunity to move out of their cold and uninterested grasp, finding a life struggling in New York City with people that actually cared about her more appealing than the easy high-class life she would have had with her family in New Hampshire. They’re an interesting pair that bring to life songs with stories crafted from the places that moulded them.

Jonas is a highly skilled multi-instrumentalist with a music education from Syracuse University and Danielle was a brief former Columbia University student that saw her path elsewhere from the one set out for her by her wealthy parents. They performed separately in New York and around the East Coast for a couple of years before a chance meeting saw the two bond and become friends. Later forming a musical partnership in the form of “VANDALS”, touring small clubs and venues in the New York area and trying out for various record labels to no real success, at least nothing substantial enough for them to put their signature to what was on offer for them. Danielle briefly studied law in University and knew that the rare recording contracts being put on the table for them would strip them of their work and ownership of their craft. However, there came a time when the crowds weren’t getting any bigger and the venues were become stale and all too familiar. Playing to between twenty and sixty people on most occasions was unfulfilling and a little disheartening.

Alongside their performing, Jonas was keeping their dream alive financially with a regular role at a record studio as an assistant in the mixing room, bringing his passion for the technical side to music very much alive and was establishing himself as a promising songwriter to many indie and smaller acts within the music scene in New York at the time. Eventually this would be the route to their first ever record deal as Jonas was offered the opportunity to relocate to California in May 2020 to work at the recently taken-over label Studio60 Records initially as a resident songwriter and producer which quickly became a major role as Head of Songwriting and Creative which saw him work unofficially with many artists from the label.
With the move to California, he brought Danielle along with him in order to keep the dream alive for “VANDALS”, but the work at the label overshadowed performing aspirations for a short while. They continued to audition and perform within California whenever possible and were on the verge of signing a deal with a mid-level record label based in Nevada before Jonas called in a favour with the label Studio60 Records in order to get their foot in the door at one of the major record labels on a one album deal with minimal risk, giving the label first option based on the success of their debut album. Confident in their ability to show enough within their debut record to warrant an extension to their deal they put pen to paper and rejected the opportunity at a more stable three record deal with the label “Desert Neon Records” from Nevada. A risky move but one that shows integrity and ambition, we caught up with the duo in the aftermath of their signing to Studio60 Records;

---

How did you guys first meet?

Jonas: I knew of Dani before she really knew of me. She used to come into the City during the summers and we had friends in common. She hung with a slightly older crowd. She was sixteen when we first met, but I never knew she was a singer. So we had met a few years before but from a music discovery aspect, I guess it was Bar Nine, right?

Danielle: Of course, in a sort of dramatized way that I’m pretty sure it wasn’t. Bar Nine? Yeah, I think it’s become a little more trendy now, right? I was singing with a couple of friends of mine, I’m pretty sure we didn’t even get paid. We may have actually been paid in drinks, pretty fuckin’ punk, right? I dunno, I think you thought I was a moody bitch though, you said you’d never seen anybody brood through an entire set. We had barely spoken much when we used to hang in Queens, we used to share smokes though.

Jonas: It was a compliment, I probably didn’t verbalise it so well. But I bought you a drink and somebody played a Fleetwood Mac song and you spent like forty minutes telling me why I was wrong for preferring Rumours over Tusk. Which I disagree with to this day.

When did you guys first realise you wanted to perform together?

Danielle: We sort of kept in touch and saw each other around every now and then but it was a couple of years later when we both were a little exhausted at playing the same venues and to the same familiar twenty people at our shows.

Jonas: We figured we’d double up, put my twenty fans with her twenty fans and we’d be well on our way. We started hanging out at my apartment a little more and decided to try a couple of things out together. I think that’s when we started to really grow closer and it just always kind of felt right to be singing together. I don’t think our voices technically fit on paper but it kinda does when in a room together.

And do you have similar tastes in music, or is there a clash in personality when it comes to influences?

Danielle: We definitely have love for some artists in common but we kind of follow our own paths or get each other on board with the shit we’re listening to. We differ more on current artists, but the legends are legends for a reason. We’re both massively into Bowie but I think we bond most over Pixies and Sonic Youth, that grainy but melodic aspect, I love music that can feel both gritty and beautiful at the same time.

Jonas: Yeah, for the most part we’re on similar wavelengths. We used to go to gigs together when we shared a friendship group before we even really knew each other and that’s probably what tied us all together. In terms of current stuff, we do seem to disagree a lot more on it.

It took a while for you guys to find a home in terms of a record label, eventually moving out from New York to find it with Studio60 Records in California. Did you have to call in a favour to the label in order to get signed, since you (Jonas) were already working on the staff there?

Jonas: It wasn’t as straightforward as that, I came into Studio60 at a time when they had recently been taken over so they were in the process of rebuilding. They weren’t aware of my aspirations as a performer myself and I didn’t want to go in and immediately be asking for favours. Myself and Dani played shows together in California and auditioned and tried to get a deal like anybody else. There was a label in Nevada that were interested in putting a three album deal on the table, but we didn’t feel comfortable with the terms of the deal and didn’t want to be locked into a long term commitment with a label that didn’t really have a track record, we tried for one album but they wanted more of a commitment.
Studio60 found out and suggested that they’d be happy to hear what we can do and were willing to give us a one album deal, which gave us the freedom to work on our debut album with backing from a major label. We liked the idea that the ball was in our court, it’s up to us to put together an album that encourages them to re-sign us on a longer term deal. If it’s not to be then it’s still a debut record under our name at a major label which would give us the foot in the door that we needed.

Danielle: We appreciate the opportunity at the label, but we know that we have to deliver. It’s kind of a little thrilling to know what weight the record has on it’s shoulders but I feel like we thrive on that sort of idea.

You’re about to debut a promo track titled “Sunday Night Smoke Signals” which will be the first impression of you for many music listeners around the world. How would you describe your emotions right now ahead of this impending release?

Danielle: For me, I’m super anxious as I am with putting anything out there. If I post something on social media the amount of time I spend look at what’s about to posted, reading and re-reading captions and studying every aspect of the image. I guess you could say I’m definitely a victim of the generation that I’m a part of. I think we are a generation of neurotic messes for sure. But yeah, terrified as ever but hopeful that it will be positively received.

Jonas: I believe in the work that we’ve created. For me, the stress comes in the creative process, the hours put into production to create the song that you will all finally here have been done, so I know the final version of the song inside and out and I’m happy with how it sounds, otherwise it certainly wouldn’t have made it this far. I don’t have the same fears that Dani definitely does, because as far as I see it, we’re putting out a track that we’re happy to put out therefore we’re happy with how it sounds. Whether it’s well received or not is kind of not up to us, I hope that people enjoy it of course. But I think like anything, some people will attach themselves to it and others will distance themselves from it. It’s the nature of the beast. I remain unconcerned.

And how would you best describe what we’ll be hearing on this promo single?

Jonas: It’s emotive, piano driven with an acoustic guitar backdrop. We like the idea of creating something visual in an audio setting and what I mean by that is that the lyrics and music combined create a very vivid scene in the listeners minds. I dunno if it’s hokey and overly ambitious but I like the idea of creating a record in the same way you would create important scenes of a movie, not necessarily in the correct order but where each track adds another layer to the story.

Danielle: For me, it’s about the content of the song. I want it to feel personal to me as the songwriter but it must always be universal in a way that anybody can relate to what’s being sung about. I think this is very much a universal feeling especially with our generation, the idea of waiting on a text that you know will change the whole mood of an evening. The idea of laying alone at night and just hoping something comes into your life to take you aware from that sadness that often rushes up inside of you. We all want to feel wanted and at it’s core, this is what the song is about. There’s a line towards the end of the song that goes “Spent too many lonely weekends laying in bed with my phone by my head, Just hoping it’ll buzz and wake me up. Wondering who’ll blink first between the two of us” that I just adore and I think is something that will be relevant to a lot of how people have felt at some point in their life. It encapsulates the entire vulnerability of the song for me and it’s something that I’m proud of with this track in particular.

And what does the future hold following this single. I know you’ll be working on your debut album, will these be entirely new songs that form the record or songs that have already been written over the past few years?

Jonas: I think for the most part, it will be newly written stuff. There’s a couple of songs that we’ve written previously that we’ll record and if there’s a place on the record where it feels like it would fit then we can do that, but we won’t just put things on there for nostalgia sake. We’d like to go into the process like anybody would when leading up to recording an album, as much of a blank slate as possible.

Danielle: We do have some older songs that we’ve already written and performed live that we have a fondness for, so I definitely couldn’t say we’d be ruling them out one hundred percent. But yeah, they definitely have to fit the tone of the record.

Thanks for your time and good luck with your new single and subsequent album.