For a band that formed in early 2005, Falkenberg, Sweden’s Vains of Jenna are making fast friends.

Within two months of their first US gig in May 2005 at the Whisky a Go-Go in West Hollywood, CA, they found a manager (former Tuff frontman Stevie Rachelle), cut tracks with Guns n’ Roses alum Gilby Clarke, and signed a record deal with “Jackass” member Bam Margera’s upstart label, Filthy Note Records. Plus, this past October, the band released its debut disc, Lit Up/Let Down. Talk about not wasting time.

During a recent interview at a private residence in West Hollywood, it’s clear the band – lead singer/rhythm guitarist Lizzy DeVine, lead guitarist Nicki Kin, bassist J.P. White and drummer Jacki Stone (J.P.’s brother) – are grateful for their good fortune. But their eyes are firmly on the prize – to be a BIG-time arena rock band.

But let’s start with the band’s name. A planned, slutty malapropism, right? No, just an honest mistake. As DeVine explained, “Stevie realized the misspelling when I bought the domain name. And the other guys are like, ‘we have to change it.’ But I said, ‘nope, I bought it, we have to stick with it.’” Any special meaning behind the name? No, said DeVine. “J.P. was drunk and came up with 10 different names.” From there, said White, “We all thought that was the best thing (to call the band).”

How they formed was more methodical. The band’s genesis lies with DeVine and White. “Me and J.P. had a band four years ago,” said DeVine. “And then he moved to Norway. Then he came back, and we wanted to start a new band. We needed a drummer, so JP asked his younger brother, Jacki, to play drums.”

Thus, VOJ was born. They set – and met – two immediate goals: Get out of Sweden and come to the US (they relocated to LA a few months ago), and land a record deal.

So any regrets about leaving Sweden?“No!” is their collective response. “We’re sick and tired of that boring town!” exclaimed White. But why not try to conquer your homeland first before tackling the US? “Everyone does that!” DeVine interjects. “They tour Germany, Italy, the UK. They come back to Sweden. And they get stuck there. We wanted a challenge. If we can make it here, we can make it anywhere.”

Admirably brave. But are the rock-gods rewarding them for their all-or-nothing gambit? It looks that way. Take their hook-up with Clarke, just days after playing the Whisky. They cut three tracks, two of which are on their Demos CD – culled from two previously released EPs – though none made the new disc (“They didn’t fit (stylistically) on the album,” said Kin).

As DeVine recalled, “We played a show at 4:00 in the afternoon. Stevie (Rachelle) was gonna play later that night, but he was dropping off some merchandise. He saw us play and he liked it. We started talking, and three days later we were cutting tracks with Gilby.”

Not long after that gig was their chance meeting with Margera, though it was love at second sight. Explained DeVine, “J.P. met Mark Weiss, a photographer. He took us to a party at the House of Blues, and he knew that Bam was in town. We knew that he liked Scandinavian bands. So we thought it’d be a good idea to have a photo taken with him. So he got there, took the photo, and he forgot about us. Immediately.” But then...

“A couple of days later, Kin was in getting a tattoo on Hollywood Blvd. and the rest of us were just hanging out outside when Bam drove by and saw us. He thought we looked cool, so he started talking to us. We told him we had a gig that weekend. He came out and about halfway through the set he was saying, ‘I need to sign these guys.’”

But why sign with a fledgling label when a bigger one was bound to call? “It’s a new label, we’re a new band,” said DeVine. “We still have lots of years to go.” Added Kin, “As long as we can sell some records and be on the road, I’m happy”.

That leads us to the new CD. Recorded in just one week in Sweden earlier this year, it was an internal affair. “We did it all on our own,” DeVine stated proudly. “It’s raw, it’s us, it’s honest. If people think it sucks, I can still be proud of it.” The band’s influences are clear throughout the CD ("Aerosmith, Stones, Guns n’ Roses. It’s the music we’ve listened to all our lives,” said Kin). No surprise that, per DeVine, they wanted to capture that “typical rock n’ roll sound that nobody does well anymore.”

So by revisiting its fancy-free, amplified past, VOJ looks to re-ignite a long-dormant rock flame in our CD players. But will the band’s sound evolve in the future? Said DeVine, “It’s gonna get better. It’s
probably not gonna be as punk-sounding as this one. It’s gonna be rock n’ roll, all the way. Someday, I want it to be suited for arenas. That’s our dream.”

So in the end, what will VOJ’s legacy be? “The band that changed everything,” DeVine slyly said. Or, “the band that killed emo,” they all laugh.

Vains of Jenna photos by Vincent McLean