Viretta

Denver’s music scene has grown in both volume and diversity over past years, making it comparable to other large cities. But unlike a lot of other cities, the Denver music scene is largely cooperative rather than competitive. Bands seem interested in supporting everyone’s success, and celebrate rather than resent when a band reaches a higher level.

It’s in that spirit that Denver rock bands came together to make #ReadyForRock. The album and associated hashtag were the brainchild of the band Viretta. In part, the idea is to build even greater unity among Denver rock bands, but the mission goes beyond that. All profits made from sales of the 12-song compilation, which features new tracks from SPELLS, New Leverage and Viretta, will go straight to Youth on Record, an organization committed to “empowerment and behavioral modification through music education to youth in Colorado who need it most.” Who said rock music is made by nihilists?

The compilation was released for streaming and purchase with a donation last Saturday on Bandcamp and features the spectrum of Denver rock, from big names to lesser knowns and hardcore to light rock.

Below, download the Viretta track, “Cordyceps,” an alt-rock burner. Considering we truly support the mission of Youth on Record, we kinda feel awful making the track available for you to steal. Would you steal from the Salvation Army Santa? No! So, download the track, then go to the Bandcamp page and donate what you can. - The Know

Twin brothers Mike and Rob Moroni are not hard to pick out amidst the crowd: one in a leather jacket, the other in jean, dancing, laughing, talking to everyone they know (which is pretty much everyone in town), they always have some new event, new show, or new thing to tell you about. Although the shows have continued, Viretta has had a lot going on behind the scenes over the last year and a half. Since July of 2014, the group has been working towards their next big “if”, although they admit they weren’t totally sure where it might lead back then. This past July on the last night of The UMS at nearly 1am, we watched the band play what I’ve been referring to as their triumphant return - a set that stood out amongst any show we’d seen them play to date. It was a set that very clearly signaled a new era for one of Denver’s most tride & true rock bands. This “new” Viretta has continued to rear it’s head since then, with a well-sold show in October that kickstarted their newest campaign toward the future - #readyforROCK, and a new EP set to release in December. Music Editor Maddie Casey took some time to talk with Rob and Mike about the past year, their goals as a band, and what the hell they were doing running around a Target in bear costumes last month.

In July of 2014, Viretta quietly went from a quartet to a duo with of the sudden departure of their bassist and drummer. Met with some support, some tension, and admittedly some apprehension, the duo knew what they envisioned for their future, and knew that it meant moving forward without bandmates - at least for awhile. “This has been the most dynamic and stressful year of us being in a band, without a doubt…After parting ways with both our bassist and drummer (who had been with us since 2010), we took some time off, to try to figure out how we were going to get the band working again…Very few times in life do you have to start from zero again. We couldn't have practice, we couldn't play shows... for awhile, it felt like Viretta didn't even exist.”

After playing one last show opening for the Epilogues in October of 2014, it was back to the drawing board for the band. “After the split, we sort of realized how everyone had wanted something different out of the band and everything creative had grounded to a halt. Once we started playing again, we realized that literally nothing was off the table” says Mike Moroni, the group’s frontman and lead singer. “There was such a freedom in having absolutely no boundaries… At this point, I had written over 30 songs that had never been played before. We picked out the twelve BEST ones, called up our old high school buddy, drummer Jon Cales, and hashed them out in a basement for 6 months until we had a completely new catalog. Each practice was literally putting up a new song, crossing it out, and slapping a new one up there. We made a ritual out of it, and it ended up saving the band.”

This ritual not only saved the band, but brought new life and new sound to a band Denver had already come to know and love. Hunkering down during the winter, the band began to work on demos they would eventually record with Denver’s own Joe Richmond - former drummer of Churchill and Tennis, and the audio engineer who has produced the last three songs to win KTCL’s Hometown for The Holidays competition. “We first met Joe in 2012 when we won Spare Parts' Battle of the Bands, and got to have Isaac Slade (The Fray) produce one of our singles; Joe was our engineer. He got to record us when we were still teenagers, and we got to meet him before Churchill really blew up. Three years later, he's exactly the same guy. He's goofy and fun and super humble.” Guitarist Rob Moroni points out what I think has helped solidify the new music track Viretta has taken: “What he emphasized above everything (else) was making something that didn't feel sterile and over-produced. Something signature and unique that we could be proud of."

“Over-produced” and “sterile” are quite the antithesis of what’s being released on Viretta’s upcoming EP. Hearing some of these songs for the first time live, the band’s headlining show at The Moon Room in October was an open canvas; their chance to really try out this new material on fans for the first time. Rip-roaring loud, high energy, and full of angst that can only come from real-life struggle, the band’s new material is heavier than ever before, but packed full of more truth as well. The energy feels real. It’s intense, it’s electric, and it’s something unique in Denver’s eclectic rock scene right now. Their new EP, People Are Snakes, focuses on the bands single, with 2 b-side tracks included as well. A unique approach, this EP feels like the right way to introduce a band who’s faces may be familiar, but who’s new music is entirely different. “‘Snakes’ is our idea of a rock single. Rock isn't about thinking, it's about feeling. When you strip all of the technical aspects of it away, it doesn't even seem complicated, you just get this beat. BOOM. BOOM. BOOM. BOOM. It makes you wanna shake some booty and tear up the room in the best way possible.”

This new intensity might have something to do with the band’s newest marketing campaign, a simple hashtag, #readyforROCK. “(This) started when we submitted our new single, "People Are Snakes" for Hometown for the Holidays” Mike explains. “Being a rock band in Denver actually makes you a minority in a lot of ways. You don't always see as much of a mainstream push for rock music in contests like Hometown, even though Denver concert goers LOVE rock music to death. We came up with the hashtag #readyforROCK as our way of standing out as a band that plays rock music and as a way to get people excited about supporting rock music in the scene. We've started with giveaways for people who share the hashtag and it's been pretty fun, but in the future, we'd love to see it grow beyond just us.”

What’s next for the band? How about an exclusive Music Video Release with Ultra5280 on FRIDAY, 11/20?! In support of their new single, Viretta took it into their own hands to create a music video to accompany the song. When talking about what inspired their music video pursuit, the band looks back to some of their Denver rock predecessors, The Epilogues. “Everybody remembers how it felt when ‘Hunting Season’ came out. When Viretta was just starting, the success that song had and that great music video set a golden standard for us for what we thought we should look to accomplish as a band in Denver.” Here they are, nearly five years later, finally making their homage.

“(Making the video) was so fun! And maybe illegal? Rob had this ridiculous concept involving bears, and me driving around trying to find them while they wrecked havoc. That off-hand idea ended up shaping our entire visual marketing of the EP… There is a great scene where the Bears get "high" on honey and eat a random passerby alive so I had to toss fake blood into the air. Most fun I've had all year.”

Head back to ULTRA5280 on Friday to be the first to watch Viretta’s new music video for “People Are Snakes”, premiering at 11am. - Ultra5280

Rock band Viretta has a somewhat ambitious goal. As their bio puts it, the band from Parker, Colorado has one mission: “to push hard-hitting, heart-pounding rock music back into the mainstream.”

Some may point to the popularity of bands like Foo Fighters and Queens of the Stone Age as evidence that hard rock hasn’t ever left the mainstream. But few could argue that the genre’s exposure hasn’t slipped from the “alternative” days of the ’90s, especially in Denver.

In the recent past, before Denver’s cultural renaissance, rock bands dominated the Denver scene. Denver wasn’t really known for the varied and creative music scene it is today. There still are rock bands, of course, but they now share attention. Viretta is concerned rock music is getting lost in the shuffle. They said in a an email, “We’re looking to bring attention to the great rock music in Denver that locals LOVE but that isn’t getting enough local support to reach that audience.

Viretta, founded by twin brothers Rob and Mike Moroni, has started a hashtag campaign,#readyforrock, to help raise awareness of all that rocks in Denver. And if they are the chief advocates of mainstream rock in Denver, their music holds true to the cause. This is fine mainstream hard rock.

Viretta just released a single, “People Are Snakes,” off a forthcoming EP, along with a video for the track, which features the band in bear masks terrorizing a suburb Home Depot and Target. Below, download the single. - The Denver Post

The Colorado music scene can be incestuous, in the best of ways. There can be a fluidity between band members, and they all seem out for the success of everyone, unlike other hyper-competitive scenes.

Perhaps the best example of the respect Colorado artists have for each other is when one band covers another band’s song. This is the case with P O P F I L T E R‘s new remix of the Viretta song “People Are Snakes,” which we featured in Steal This Track back in December.

Viretta is a straight-forward, heart-pounding rock band, while P O P F I L T E R is indie pop with electronic influences. And despite stylistic differences, the two bands have a self-described “bromance,” sometimes trading members during the live shows. The offspring of this bromance is a P O P F I L T E R version of the Viretta song “People Are Snakes.” What once was a direct rock song is now a lush, ethereal electronic landscape. This is not a cover but a reimagining. Download it below! Then, check the bands’ websites for upcoming shows and other releases. - The Know

Undergoing a few line-up changes in the past, twin brothers Michael and Robert Moroni founded alt-rock band Viretta four years ago. The two are also involved with efforts to help establish Parker, Colorado, their hometown, as a destination location for live music. Michael and Robert sat down with AXS to discuss their 2013 release, Imaginary Pictures, along with their upcoming projects and beloved hometown.

AXS: Are you all Denver natives? If not, where is everyone originally from?
Michael Moroni: Everybody in the band now and everyone we’ve ever played with has been from Parker. It’s a small town, but there are a lot of really talented musicians, and we all make it out to Denver to perform.

AXS: What brought Viretta together?
Michael: We like playing music. Viretta was never something that was planned, I just learned guitar, and loved playing it. I eventually started playing with my brother [Robert Moroni], and from there we started playing with other people. It was one of those things that just percolated between everyone so naturally, that before we knew it, we were practicing for our first show.

AXS: Where was your first show in Denver, and what was the experience like? Who else did you play with at the show?
Michael: Our first Denver show was probably the Ogden for 1LiquidHouse’s Spare Parts Battle of the Bands. That was a crazy experience for me. I had seen the Dead Weather play there a year or two before, so to me, that stage was hallowed ground. We were one of only 5 bands who were selected from all the bands that auditioned, so we played with other young bands called The Groove (later Dakar), Broken Laces, and The Courtesy Bandits. The first time we played an actual show in Denver was probably the Marquis later that year, but don’t ask me to remember anything about it, ha.

AXS: Have any Denver musicians inspired Viretta?
Robert Moroni: Too many to count! A personal favorite has been The Epilogues. The way they’ve continued to hustle the local and national scene for the past few years has really been inspiring. Playing shows with them and bands like My Body Sings Electric and In The Whale has given us a lot of perspective. Being the age we are now, I see a lot of people settle down and start making families and living the “adult life.” But then seeing all of these other adults that are busting their asses playing music, it was the biggest relief. It felt like, “Hey! There are people like me who only want to play music!”

AXS: What inspired your 2013 EP Imaginary Pictures?
Michael: The idea behind Imaginary Pictures was to condense what we liked about our band into three songs that would display a certain range of our sound. We wanted to clean ourselves up and dress nice, so that meant leaner, well-recorded songs that people could enjoy and be left hungry for more. The songs are all about different things, from unreturned love, to disillusionment, to love gone wrong. But it’s hard for me to take things seriously. Even when the subject is dark or sad, there’s always a little humor in there. I always get self-defeatist in a really sarcastic kind of way to make myself laugh when I feel down. As a whole, I guess Imaginary Pictures is really about being able to laugh at your problems rather than letting them suffocate you. It’s a kind of passive form of victory, but it works every time.

AXS: What was the writing and recording experience like on Imaginary Pictures?
Michael: Writing was very easy, and very relaxed. The title track was actually a solo-acoustic jam I had written spontaneously by myself one night at a buddy’s place, but the guys liked it so much that they took it and turned it into how it is on the CD. The second, “Hollow Gods,” was a small part of a song I had written, but gelled really well as its own song when I played it with the guys. Lastly, “Love Triumphant” was my kind of retaliation against the first song, and is much rockier so the three balance each other out well. "Imaginary Pictures" seemed like the obvious single so we recorded it at the Blasting Room with the lovely Andrew Berlin. The other two were with a friend of ours, Aaron Wagner from a band called Medic.

AXS: What projects are Viretta currently working on?
Michael: We just recorded a music video for “Love Triumphant”. It’s funny, “Imaginary Pictures” was supposed to be the “single” but we ended up liking “Love” a lot more. We’re expecting to release it after editing is done, but we’re also looking forward to our next release. The recent EP has done a lot of good getting our name out to people, but being three songs, it’s a pretty limited view of what Viretta sounds like. I’ve personally written over 30 songs that we haven’t yet tapped into as a band. So, when we have a new release, my brother and I are set on returning with a brand-new full-length. We’ve already started the process of running through the new material, and I’m really excited to show everyone the real scope of what we can do.

AXS: What else is Viretta involved in locally, either as individuals or as a group?

Robert: We have a strong passion locally for being involved in bringing live music to our town. I’ve had the opportunity to sit down with some members of the Parker Arts Council among others and have talked about Parker’s future as a potential destination city for live music. We’re actually one of only seven cities licensed as a “Creative District” by the state of Colorado to put on live music and cultural events, so it’s a really exciting time right now. This past April for example, we had the opportunity to play with The Unlikely Candidates at our PACE (Parker Arts and Cultural Events) Center. We did a lot of hustling and marketing, and I attended a lot of meetings but it was so worth it, both personally and for the town. We got to see our picture in video ads in the theater and at the mall, and the Mayor of Parker introduced us at the show! Having grown up in Parker and gone through school there, the whole thing was a real trip.

AXS: Does Viretta have a goal in mind for the sound the band produces? Are there certain influences or themes the band tries to inject into its own music?
Michael: I think yes and no. I’ve seen plenty of bands try to “inject” themes and ideas into their music that ends up limiting the scope of what they can create. Some bands think whiskey and babes are cool, or skinny jeans and eyeliner or whatever. It’s cool to have ideas and influences present in your music, but when you try to write songs to complement those ideas, or you try to fit yourself into a genre, what you get is musical death.
The rule in Viretta is that there are no rules, and that’s the same for our music. It’s easy to tell when something is manufactured. The mind is the enemy of original music. And you can use that for the name of the article haha. As long as the music is pure on our end, people will enjoy it, so that’s my only goal.
As far as influences, I think Josh Homme said it best when he said that the job of being in a band is “…to play your favorite music that you wanna hear, that nobody else is playing.” We take huge inspiration from bands like Queens of the Stone Age, Radiohead and Circa Survive, but the final product is always Viretta.

AXS: For someone who has never seen or heard Viretta, what would you tell them to entice them to watch your set?
Robert: Rock is for everyone. And everyone is rock. That’s the strongest aspect of our live show and sound. Being able to project outward and get everyone involved is a beautiful thing. We just had a headlining show at the Bluebird this summer where we were pulling people onstage left and right for our last song, and I gave my guitar to a friend to play onstage. I saw a picture of the night on social media where he wrote, “Thanks Viretta for making me feel like a rockstar for a night!” and that really impacted me. Everyone deserves to feel like that, and to be in a position to give that to people is a privilege. If there’s anything I could tell people about our shows, it’s to get ready for a good time, everyone’s invited. We’ll take good care of ya!

AXS: What would your ideal live show look like? Where would it take place? Any particular time of year? Would a specific band/musician share the bill with or open for Viretta?
Michael: Well, as long as I’m dreaming, I’d say we open a three band set followed by the Dead Weather, and headlined by Queens of the Stone Age. Red Rocks definitely, in the summer. Jack White would get held up so we’d have to play a little longer and get really drunk. The Suicide Girls could come too. Oh and did I mention it’d be everyone’s birthday?

AXS: What upcoming shows are you looking forward to?
Robert: The roster is so full! I’m really looking forward to Flying Lotus at The Fillmore in November. He’s such an intelligent songwriter and I love the strong jazz influence in his music. His new record has Herbie Hancock on a couple tracks! Considering his electronic background, I’m glad FlyLo is looking back at what made music great in the past and delivering it to a new generation. That strong jazz foundation and loose song structure are definitely what sets him apart for me. Also, Bad Rabbits are going to be hitting The Gothic in October which I cannot miss. We’re definitely catching Arctic Monkeys at Red Rocks, duh. And Circa Survive are playing the Ogden for the first time in their career! That’s gonna be a killer show, that band delivers every single time.

AXS: Viretta has been together for four years. What have you learned during that time?
Robert: You have to be your own teacher. No one is going to do your homework for you in school, and it’s the same in real life. Only now, you have to make up your assignments and you have to learn from them. Get out there, be involved in the scene. Go to shows, practice hard and efficiently, be a good listener, ask questions, learn from others, be humble, and always be ready to put yourself out of your comfort zone. The best piece of advice I’ve learned is that no one’s gonna make your dreams come true. But if you’re hardworking and you’re kind, opportunities will open up for you. It’s by no means a perfect science. You will fuck up, and you will fuck up frequently. But you have to! Because one of those times, something’s gonna click, and you’ll know that you earned it.

AXS: What do you enjoy most about Denver’s music scene, and why?
Michael: I have this conversation constantly with friends and people in the scene. Denver is a really strange place to have a music scene. There’s the East Coast, and the West Coast, and then our city smack in the square-middle of the country, where we play everything and try to make stuff happen. Coming into it was an interesting experience for us. You don’t hear us Coloradans talk a lot about it, but we’ve had sort of a fractured scene. Denver has been like a kid with multiple personality disorder, but none of the personas have taken over. There’s a huge folk scene, and an electronic scene, a metal scene, a few experimental bands, and a sparse few rock bands, but they’re all remarkably segregated.
If there’s anything I can say about the scene today, it’s that I feel like this is slowly changing. Colorado’s been receiving a lot of attention on the national scale, obviously with the legalization of marijuana being a focal point, but it seems like a lot more attention is focusing on us. People are hearing about Colorado, and people are starting to realize what a cool place Denver is, and the bands are stepping up in a big way. I mean, look at the line-up for Riot Fest, we have My Body Sings Electric, The Epilogues, In the Whale, Wiredogs, all fantastic bands, all Denver bands. These guys have been working hard, and now we’re entering a stage where things are really starting to happen for our state. It’s a great time to be a band in Denver, and a great time to be in the scene. - AXS.com