Viper Creek Club
Viper Creek Club (VCC) is the joint effort of Seattleites Mat Wisner and Brandon Jensen. Originally an idea in one of Mat’s demo songs for a previous project, VCC is their alliance, formed by their sometimes diverging fascinations. The unlikely combination of styles and ideas that emerge from this duo makes for a refreshing brand of electro-pop music. VCC is inherently influenced by Mat and Brandon’s separate undertakings and their own ideas about sound, composition methods, and genre are continually expanding through them. Outside of VCC, Brandon records, mixes, and masters local bands and acoustic musicians. Mat produces, engineers, and mixes for local hip hop artists. “Viper Creek Club’s split personality rests in a skilled balance, thanks to fresh sounds on both ends of the spectrum and the collaborative approach the duo advocates,” wrote Nick Feldman of Seattle Weekly.
Their debut album Letters was released in August 2010, receiving very positive reviews as well as regular plays on KEXP in Seattle (Top 10 on the Northwest music chart). Mastered by Grammy award nominated engineer, Evren Goknar, and recorded by acclaimed Seattle engineer, Frank Mazzeo (in his own Push/Pull studio as well as Seattle’s famous London Bridge), the album combines smart production techniques with organic percussion and piano, making it both deliberate and natural at the same time. VCC’s beats are carefully constructed and synth-focused, never failing to get a party going. The sound is heavily influenced by euro pop music but also genres such as hip hop. Wisner provides vocals, keys, beats, and loops, while Jensen plays guitar. Songs are influenced by everything from murder mysteries to lust gone wrong, creating a consistently catchy album that will make you want to move from start to finish. “We could very well be staring the next big thing directly in the face,” wrote Nikki Benson of Seattle Show Gal, “the vocal tones flow perfectly with the energy and emotion of the song, and the production is top notch.” Letters is currently charting on over 30 CMJ stations around the country and in rotation on over 100 stations.
In April 2011, VCC released its much buzzed about hip-hop remix album, Viperlust on local label, Members Only. In this project, “VCC takes an exemplary slice of local hip-hop and transforms it into a grimy electronic tumult,” wrote Feldman . The Stranger’s Charles Mudede calls Viper Creek Club’s hip hop project “the first solid, artistic connection between local indie rock and indie hip hop… In Viper Creek Club’s remixes, we hear a connection that’s convincing and alive with an energy that’s genuinely new.” The packed Viperlust release show at Neumos in April lead to a run on KEXP where the album has peaked at #3 on the hip-hop charts.
Viper Creek Club’s creations have been featured on daytime soap opera The Young and the Restless and a recent Nike commercial. They’ve been buzzed about in The Stranger, Seattle Weekly, online in URB Magazine, ShortAndSweetNYC, and popular Seattle blogs like Seattle Show Gal and Another Rainy Saturday. VCC have played at the 2010 CMJ festival in New York City and the 2011 SXSW festival in Austin as well as to sold out crowds at Neumos, The Comet Tavern, and The Crocodile in Seattle.
Mat and Brandon put all of their passion and experience to good use with VCC, making this club one that you will want to be a part of. As Mudede put it, “there’s a new sound in town, and it’s being made by Viper Creek Club.”
