March 22: Portland speed-metal thrashers Viqueen ready to rip it up at The Stone Church

NEWMARKET, NH – Based out of Portland, Maine, Viqueen has an approach to music that doesn’t let up and doesn’t slow down. It’s a style of heavy metal where the energy is consistently at a high level with the riffs and rhythms moving at a fast pace. One can imagine this being a special thing to experience in a live setting, and folks in New Hampshire will get to do exactly that when guitarist/vocalist Alexa Rae, bassist Courtney Cavanaugh, lead guitarist Tom Couture and drummer Chris Leighton come through on March 22. Viqueen will be taking the stage at The Stone Church in Newmarket for a Friday night rager starting at 8 p.m. Horror punks Lobotomobile and power pop metal dynamo The Station will be rounding out the bill.

I had a talk with Rae and Cavanaugh ahead of the show about their most recent album, having unique characteristics within their music, thoughts on playing New Hampshire for the first time and having new songs already fleshed out and ready to be recorded.

IF YOU GO

March 22, 8 p.m.

The Stone Church

5 Granite St, Newmarket, NH 03857

Rob Duguay: This month marks the one-year anniversary since Viqueen released their most recent record “Badmouth”. Looking back, what was the experience like making this record and what are your current thoughts on it?

Courtney Cavanaugh: The past 12 months have been great for us, it took us a while to write these songs and a lot of them were put together throughout COVID so we had some extra time on our hands. We were really looking forward to getting the chance to record and we looked around for quite a while for somebody to work with. We eventually found Kevin Billingslea, we absolutely loved his work and he happened to be up in Maine where we are. That whole process was incredible and the year since its release has been awesome and super fun. I feel like it’s definitely given us a lot of momentum in the area, so we’ve been playing quite a few shows to promote and it’s been great.

RD: That’s awesome. From listening to the album and the band’s other recordings, one thing that really stands out to me are these harmonies that consistently take the music up to a whole new level with a really intense sound. When it comes to incorporating this particular element, is it a very conscious thing or is it very organic in a way where it sets Viqueen apart from other bands?

Alexa Rae: Honestly, it’s very organic. That’s all Courtney Cavanaugh right there, she’s the melody and harmony queen.

CC: We try to keep things both catchy and heavy, which isn’t always the easiest balance to find. Sometimes we use those harmonies sparingly depending on the vibe of the song, but catchy and heavy is kind of our goal always.

RD: I definitely get that from listening to the music. Another characteristic I’ve noticed is the guitars having this really interesting effect where it seems like a little bit of synth or an electronic sheen is going on with the riffs. I don’t know if I’m picking up something that’s not there, but what made you want to create this unique sound?

AR: I don’t know if that was the idea, but we used a bunch of different amps that were meshed together. We combined a Bad Cat amp with a Marshall head while meshing those sounds together.

CC: That was a lot of Kevin Billingslea’s work. I don’t think synthy was what we were necessarily going for, but it’s definitely a different kind of sound. A lot of folks have had difficulty putting their finger on what’s going on with the guitars on the album because he did some wizardry with his amp head choices. He ran a lot of sound through a lot of heads simultaneously and things like that, so it definitely has an interesting sound.

RD: It’s very unique, but I like it a lot. Being from Portland, Maine, what are your thoughts on coming down to play The Stone Church?

CC: We’re so excited, it’s actually going to be our first New Hampshire show and Alexa is originally from Portsmouth. We feel like it’s a long time overdue for us to be playing there, we’ve played in a lot of states but not in New Hampshire so we couldn’t be more excited. We got a lot of family coming and stuff like that, so we’re super pumped.

RD: It’s going to be cool to have a little bit of a homecoming. For 2024, what is Viqueen’s main goal when it comes to either recordings, getting on major bills with some bigger acts or anything else?

CC: We want it all.

AR: We want to keep the momentum.

CC: Yeah, we want to keep the momentum going. We’ve been super flattered by some of the bills we’ve been asked to hop on, so we definitely want to keep that going while playing live throughout New England as much as possible. We’ve been enjoying the opportunity to play in new places like New Hampshire and we’ve also been writing new songs. We have a ton of them in the chamber and they’re ready to go so we have a lot going on.