Written by Claudia Aguilera
Claudia Aguilera, with the assistance of Nina Carrillo, interview Vetch at Streetlight Records – Santa Cruz. From stalking a drummer at the climbing gym to crafting intricate riffs, the trio reflects on their evolution and what comes next.
THE SHOW
On Sunday, May 18th, the sun was beaming down on Santa Cruz as the town buzzed with the energy of a warm spring day. Chatter floated through the air along Pacific Avenue as townies and tourists strolled through the Makers’ Market, but Nina and I were drawn by the pull of live music into Streetlight Records.
Inside, we were greeted by the loud, intricate sound of Vetch mid-set, playing in the heart of the record store. Nestled between the Reggae CDs and a patchwork of vinyl bins, fans of the band lined up politely, heads bobbing and shoulders swaying, eager for a view.
Vetch’s Instagram bio describes their music as “emo/math rock with arcane enchantments.” The band’s sound lived up to the tagline: technical riffs, odd time signatures, and raw, impassioned vocals blended into something cerebral and deeply emotional. I found myself swaying without thinking, caught in the tension of each buildup and release. Between songs, vocalist and guitarist Callum paused to tune his guitar, casually sharing moments of nervousness and gratitude, which made the set feel even more intimate.
One of the most striking moments came toward the end. As the guitar and bass faded, drummer Max held steady to a persistent beat. The room seemed to hold its breath; all attention narrowed in on the trio. Then, the rhythm surged back, faster and more urgent, climbing toward a sudden silence. The pause felt like surfacing for air only to dive back down before fully breathing in.
When Callum announced their final song, I felt the familiar melancholy of saying goodbye to the ephemeral, almost sacred energy conjured in the moment of a live performance. The track featured the band’s signature pairing: piercing vocals that teetered between anguish and catharsis, underscored by intricate math rock instrumentation. As the riff escalated in complexity, Callum and bassist Alexander grew visibly focused—their movements restrained, eyes fixed. When the break finally arrived, their tension melted; Alexander returned to his energetic groove, dancing as if pulled by the bass line itself.
Vetch’s set left the room buzzing, not just with sound, but with the shared charge that only live music can conjure. It was intricate, raw, and magical.
THE INTERVIEW
After their kinetic set at Streetlight Records, I asked for a quick interview with Vetch—Callum (guitar), Max (drums), and Alexander (bass). During our casual conversation in the sun, we learned about how they met, the inspiration behind odd time signatures, and why small shows can sometimes feel the most intense.
How It Started
Claudia: You mentioned you’ve only been together for about three months. How did you all meet and start jamming?
Callum: Alexander and I were actually in a band together in high school, it’s called Cat Passenger. We have an album on Spotify too, if you want to see what the older influence sounds like. Cat Passenger was like, neo-soul inspired. Alexander’s dad calls it “elevator music”.
Nina: Was it just the two of you?
Callum: It was me, Alexander, and three other members. I went away for school, so we couldn’t be in a band anymore. When I came back, Alexander and I were like “We want to start a band!”. We wanted to do a three piece, so we were trying to find a drummer.
I heard about this guy [Max] at a party. Someone was like, “There’s this guy that works at Pacific Edge Climbing Gym who wants to play odd time signatures”. And that’s exactly what we do. They said he wore glasses, had blonde curly hair, and his name was Max, but I didn’t have any way to contact him.
I didn’t have his Instagram or anything, so I just stalked the climbing gym until I spotted him.
Shaping Their Sound: From Grateful Dead to Faraquet
Claudia: What contributed/motivated your current sound?
Callum: My taste evolved.
Alexander: I think that we all listen to more technical/heavier music. When we began playing, I was starting to listen to that style of music.
For me personally, I played in Grateful Dead cover bands and stuff, lots of 70s rock bands. I know Callum was really into that stuff too. I think that’s how we got our start playing guitar [Callum agrees]. As we’ve been evolving we’ve been getting more emo [everyone laughs] and more heavy. I would say Callum is very jazz inspired, he’s been doing crazy jazz stuff for a long time. Callum’s actually the guy that showed me math rock for the first time with the band Chon!
Callum: Really?! Oh, I didn’t know that.
Alexander: Yeah, you put me onto the idea of even math rock.
I don’t know if I’d necessarily categorize our music as math rock – or whatever. Just the idea of changing more rhythmic styles of rock and more technical playing comes from the bands that we like.
Claudia: You mentioned Chon, are there any other bands that you think influences your style?
Callum: We’ve been very into this band called Train Breaks Down [everyone agrees]. My friend put me on it. For the past week it’s been non-stop listening.
Nina: What specifically about Train Breaks Down and their style influences you guys the most?
Callum: His riffs, I think his name is Ian. His guitar riffs are so well phrased. It’s just like, perfect blend of everything that I like in music. The drummer is super tight.
Alexander: And a good balance of the technicality vs the more open sounding, kind of heavier stuff.
Callum: Exactly! Their transitions from open sounding clean stuff to heavier stuff is super inspiring. That’s something we’re trying to work on.
Alexander: Also, Elephant Gym I think is a big inspiration for us because they also do that. They have more technical (particularly for me) bass parts. I like doing more upfront bass playing and I’m really inspired by Elephant Gym. And Faraquet!
Callum & Max: Faraquet!
Callum: Or Far-uh-quet. We don’t know how its pronounced. Far-eh-quet? We’re f***ing huge fans. If you want to talk about the sound we’re going for, it’s Faraquet.
Claudia: It goes back to them.
Callum: For sure.
Alexander: But our sound is also evolving!
Claudia: I’ve noticed that in newer bands. You can’t put yourself into a defined genre because you’re evolving, figuring things out.
Alexander: Exactly! We started three months ago, we’re baby mode.
Max: Nothing is really permanent until it’s recorded and we don’t have anything recorded yet.
Callum: We’re experimenting with stuff all the time. Even on the band stand, I was like “What if I put on this effect right now? What if I played this differently?”
On Recording & The Joy of Sounding Good
Nina: It seems like you have experience recording with your previous band, would you be interested in recording soon with this band?
Callum: Yeah! We’re already talking about that.
Alexander: Something in the works
Callum: We have our guy.
Alexander: Our last project was so ass. The recording was so bad, we just did it all ourselves, and we didn’t really know what we were doing. We did all live recordings just with our sh**** gear. It was really bad.
Claudia: It’s a learning experience!
Alexander: Max is also passionate about sounding good, but with particularly me and Callum – in the sense of recording – I think we really want to dial our sound for this next recording.
Max: You don’t gotta worry about tone
Callum: Our tone is… still.. lowkey… chopped.
Alexander: Still in the works!
Structure vs Spontaneity
Claudia: You mentioned you’re still working things out – how do you think chaos and spontaneity influences your sound when you’re playing a set vs a practice session?
Max: I feel like it’s not spontaneous. I feel like you have riffs that you write, you bring it, and that’s sick, we’re playing to it.
I think the sh*t with weird time signatures is that you can’t really play around in that – or else you’re just going to get lost.
Callum: You can improvise if you’re like Chick Corea – in odd time signatures. I like to think of it as a piece of music. I like classical musicians, most of them read off a piece. It’s not like jazz where it might be 5 minutes, it might be 15 minutes. It’s this long. We do this, this, and this.
Nina: It’s a bit more structured in comparison?
Alexander: Definitely. We’re definitely focusing on structure with this project. To try to weave chaos into what we do, I do feel like when we’re writing songs or taking a song into practice, we’re very trial and error in the sense that we’re down to try all sorts of stuff and just see how it sounds – always bouncing ideas off one another and trying to figure out new stuff to make the sound different or better.
Max on Odd Time Signatures
Nina: I’m curious, Callum mentioned he found out about Max because he had an interest in playing in odd time signatures. Can you talk about why?
Max: I grew up playing drums and I always had to play other people’s music and I always thought it was hella boring. Just because people wanted to play like, I don’t know, Coldplay or some sh*t. And I f***ing hate Coldplay.
Callum: I f*** with some Coldplay…
Alexander: I f*** with Coldplay too! I just want to make it clear, the Coldplay stance is not an official stance. Just want to make that clear.
Max: It’s an official stance of Max.
I feel I started listening to heavier stuff because of that. It was just a way to play harder and faster and heavier. Then that heavier stuff got boring because it was all 4/4. I’m super inspired by this band called Cherubs – they all play in 7/4 but they have like, no instrumentality. They can’t play guitar.
Callum: You like Don Cab too.
Alexander: Don Caballero.
Max: Don Cab, where the drummer is like the frontman – I can’t play like that. Yet. But yeah. I guess it’s more fun, more mental.
Under the Record Store Lights
Claudia: One more question and then I’ll let you guys go. You mentioned today’s crowd was made up of a lot of friends and family, how do you feel the atmosphere of the venue and the space itself influences you as you perform on stage?
Callum: We were talking the other day: What environments make us more nervous when we’re playing? Is it scarier when there’s more or less people? And I thought, “Man, it’s obviously going to be more scary when there’s more people”. And they were like “No, if there’s less people then there’s more focus on what you’re doing.” But after playing today, I changed my mind [Max and Alexander laugh].
Even though there were friends and family, I was still nervous because it was so intimate. Which I really appreciated, I really love playing in that setting. But, it was nerve wracking.
Nina: Would you describe the pressure as being “higher” since they’re people you know well?
Callum: No, I wouldn’t say that the “pressure” is “higher”. No one is saying “You better play well or there’s going to be some consequence”. It’s just so much attention. Even though there’s less people, there’s more attention.
Alexander: That’s how I feel about it too. When you’re in a dark, crowded room, there’s all sorts of sh*t going on there. And probably half the people there are going to be drunk and it’s just a good time, you know? I feel it’s easier to “tap in”.
Max: Even at a house show, well some people are paying attention obviously, but no one’s like “Oh, he messed up right there!”
Alexander: “You hit a wrong note!”
Callum: “That note was off!”
Alexander: I also feel that I’m thinking about it less if I’m having more fun. If I see a lot of people there, enjoying themselves, I’m like
“This is fun! I’m having fun and this is great, so why would I be nervous?”
Whereas if there aren’t as many people, I feel people’s energy is more quiet, which I feel the same way. If I’m at a show with less people, I’m not exactly head banging as hard as I would if there were people around me. You get that response from the audience [in larger crowds] to a higher degree, which feels nice.
Claudia: So smaller shows have more individualized attention?
Alexander: And it’s less hype, so I can think more actually about what’s going on versus “This is hype and I’m locked in and I’m having a good time.”
Claudia: So do you think when there’s more energy from the crowd, it influences you?
Alexander: Definitely.
If you want to see Vetch at their next show, keep up with them on their Instagram @vetch____.
Thank you to the band for their time!