Vended Bassist Jeremiah Pugh on How World Domination is Next on Their Agenda

Back in 2021, and with a buzz already growing in the underground scene, a young metal crew named Vended unleashed their debut EP to a mix of excitement from the metal scene and suspicion from social media commenters. Having spent a few years locked in a rehearsal room fine-tuning their metal onslaught, they performed a sold-out debut show in their home of Des Moines, Iowa and, within months, were quickly being heralded as one of the bands to lead the charge of new metal bands into the new decade.

Unsurprisingly, there were the doubters who argued that, given family connections to masked metal superstars Slipknot, Vended would get the kind of openings that most bands would have to work for years to get. Brushing off the claims, Vended hit the road, spent three years honing their devastating live show and simply lived up to their reputation as one of the most fearsome new bands around.

October 2024 saw the band return with their debut album. The self-titled album sees frontman Griffin Taylor digging deep into his own mental health experiences, resulting in an album that is as disturbing lyrically as it is musically.

V13 recently sat down with bassist Jeremiah Pugh to discuss the album, their meteoric rise to fame and how this is just the beginning of the band’s journey…

The EP came out in 2021, why the three-year gap until the album especially given how quickly people picked up on the band?

“We wanted to run the course of the EP, which, per album, is around two years, sometimes more, sometimes less. We just wanted to run that for two years and then pretty much the third year was just us making the record and making sure we have all the content, everything we needed for it to be released.”

When the EP was released, people made a big deal about the Slipknot connections within the band. Having spent three years on the road establishing your own identity, do you feel you had less of a point to prove with the album?

“I don’t have anything to prove to other people. I have things to prove but that’s for myself.”

Over those three years, you’ve toured the world, gained some incredible experience and played with some huge bands. Musically, and in your relationships with each other, how do you feel you’ve changed in that time?

“Nothing changed. We’re all still best friends. We all still hung out during that time. They became month-long boys trips.”

It’s been quite a meteoric rise which saw you described as one of the hottest, and I don’t want to use the word ‘new metal’ bands. What is the most important thing you’ve learned in those three years about the industry and about being in a band?

“Look at everything you sign. That’s like my joke answer but that’s part of it. I’m young and I’m still learning and I learn new stuff every day.”

Going from a band who, in 2018, were rehearsing in your basement at home to suddenly becoming one of the new breed of metal bands. Were you prepared for that?

“Yes and no. We practiced for three years before we started touring and playing shows and stuff but you don’t know what’s touring like until you’re out there. We’re all pretty prepared, but it just happened quickly. I haven’t been home for a very long time. I’m only home probably six or fewer months than that out of the year at this point, but I love what I’m doing.”

“We practised for three years before we started touring and playing shows and stuff but you don’t know what’s touring like until you’re out there.”

You were teenagers when Vended emerged. A lot of teenagers don’t get to travel the world but did you miss the other side of it, like being at home and not being with friends doing “normal teenager” things?

“By that time, I was technically a teenager, but I was 18 years old and I moved out with my fiance basically so I was pretty much an adult at that time. So I don’t know. I kinda just got in the van and rarely really came back. Sort of. Of course, I do miss home. I miss my fiance and my family a lot but I like touring.”

Vended ‘Self-Titled’ Album Artwork

How do you cope with that when you’re away especially when you’re away for so long?

“I call my fiance a lot. I text her. I text my family a lot and everything but this is what I like to do. I don’t get as homesick in the US. It’s when we go to Europe or places outside of the US that I start to get homesick because you can look at a map and you know home is here and this is here so, you know when you’re in the US.”

I know we joked earlier about looking at everything you sign. We’ve also talked about the connections to Slipknot. They’ve been a band in the industry for 25 years now, do you think seeing what they have gone through and having that contact with them, do you think that has made you more aware of the pitfalls?

“A little bit. I don’t talk to their parents as much cause they’re not my parents. Now and then when we tour we’ll have little conversations and stuff but I don’t see them too often. All they’ve ever done is just give us little sprinkles of advice or whatever now and then.”

The death of Liam Payne has again highlighted the pressures of fame fortune and success. As a young band, do you think enough is done to support them to deal with that side of the industry?

“I don’t know too much about the Liam Payne situation but, you know, with young artists and everything, it just all depends on how smart you want to be. A lot of the stuff about the music industry, you can look up and look up your idols and how they talk about all the stuff and that should help too.”

On the album Griffin has talked about his lyrics and his dark approach to them. He stated in one interview that while it was his way of telling his own story, he’s left it open-ended for fans and people listening to the album to make their interpretations. It’s quite cathartic for him but, what about you, what goes through your head when you hear or read them?

“Griffin never really tells us the real meaning of any of his songs, so he just leaves it up for its interpretation. Sometimes he does but, mostly, the rest of the instrumental band gets the same experience as the fan does in the sense that we don’t exactly know what he’s talking about.

I feel like it’s one of those things that would be rude if I were to ask him what it is because it’s such a personal thing. I don’t want to sit there and pick his brain like some fan so everybody just gets left up to their interpretation. That being said, this album and most of its lyrics are pretty cathartic for me both on stage and helping me get through every day.”

“I feel like it’s one of those things that would be rude if I were to ask him what it is because it’s such personal things.”

Griffin also talked about getting into a particular mindset when he’s writing, recording and pre-show. What about you? Is there a frame of mind you get yourself into when you’re writing music or getting ready for showtime?

“You know, the only time I’m switching into like Vended mode is when I’m going on stage because, as soon as I step foot on stage, I’m like a completely different person. When I’m writing and stuff, there’s a Vended mode, but I’m not as crazy extreme as I am on stage or anything like that. Mainly every time I’m just trying to write the best I can, make the best riffs that I can and pretty much create the best music that I can.”

One of the things the band have talked about is how this is an opportunity with your music to impact fans and change their lives through your lyrics and your music. When they listen to the new record, what do you hope they take away from it?

“There’s a family being made and we’re a new band and we’re coming for you and we’re going to take over the world and you can be a part of that family if you want to or you don’t have to be at all.”

Is that in the same way that Slipknot built a fan base with the Maggots?

“Yeah, and it’s already happening. People show up to shows with face paint, makeup, or dressed in blue because that’s our whole theme definitely though we want to build a fan base something like that or like ICP. A hardcore fanbase.”

How does that feel when you tour outside America and you see fans connecting with your music and your lyrics?

“It’s especially weird overseas because we’re all from Iowa and if you watch TV in the States and you see these things going on, like there’s a war or some conflict, it doesn’t register in your head that that’s on the other side of the world. When you get there, it’s very, very real. That’s the same thing with our music because a lot of times, I don’t think about how far it goes until I’m already there. I just don’t think anybody’s a fan of us in Spain then I go there and we have like 300 kids waiting for us. It’s very, very weird, but it makes more sense when you’re there.”

Closer to home though. What do you remember about that first gig in Iowa?

“I don’t remember anything except for the red lights on the stage, and that’s about it. We were super, super nervous before that show. We had no idea it was going to sell out or people would care. We honestly just thought our family was just going to show up. We just had no idea what was going to happen.”

Since then, the trajectory of your career has only gone in one way. What’s your ambition for the future?

“We’re aiming for world domination. We’re just going to keep on building and building and getting bigger and bigger, and that’s all we want. Vended is coming for you.”