Absent Sounds: The question we've been starting each interview with: if you could say your name, what you do in the band, what band you play in, and also something you've been stewing with or sitting with lately. Music-related or non-music-related, anything.

Jasmine Ming-Wai Ma: Our band is called VERTTIGO, with two T's. My name is Jasmine and I play guitar and I sing.

Absent Sounds: Hi, Jasmine.

Ryan Rathjen: My name is Ryan, I play bass and I also sing.

Absent Sounds: Awesome. And what have you guys been stewing on?

Jasmine Ming-Wai Ma: For me lately, especially being so inspired by the bands playing at this festival, I've been really thinking about performance and being a character on stage, taking on that persona and really putting on a show. So that's what's been stewing in my mind lately, being so inspired by the artists here at Treefort. How about you, Ry?

Ryan Rathjen: What's been stewing on my mind... I've been coming to this festival for three years, and I also run a festival in Edmonton, Alberta called Purple City. So that's why we're doing this showcase featuring all the Canadian bands. The founders of this festival are about my age, very similar, like-minded, community-focused people, and I think it's amazing to see what they've done in Boise, just shifting the culture and bringing all this vibrancy to a really conservative town. I have a lot of love for what they're doing. It makes me realize that Americans are our friends and we have to support them, because there are so many great people out here, even though we're in a place that has terrible laws and stuff.

Absent Sounds: It feels like such a volatile time to be alive. It's always a volatile time to be alive, but right now it does feel especially hard between the US and Canada. And despite that, we have to keep looking forward to tomorrow. Which I think is a cool segue into the album title, because "Tomorrow Is Gone" feels so poignant. We were wondering, first of all, is that a statement, or a question, or something you're still questioning and digging into?

Ryan Rathjen: I think it ties into the whole theme of VERTTIGO. The vibe is very cyclical, like spirals. I really love spirals as imagery. So it's speaking to the spiral of human existence: love, death, loss, rebirth. In a way it's hopeful, because tomorrow is gone, you can't truly predict the future, you just have to go with it. So if you're going to be in a low time, a good time is going to be on the way. So I guess it's hopeful in that.

Absent Sounds: Is the album living in the hope? Where does the album live in the process of finding that for you guys?

Jasmine Ming-Wai Ma: I feel like the album is really just showcasing the chaos that happens in life, and the whirlwind it spins you in.

Ryan Rathjen: Yeah. With the sound of the music, it's very ethereal, but also really melancholy, and that's to speak to love and death. There's beauty in change, and even though sometimes it feels like the worst things are happening in your life, you're right around the corner to something very beautiful. So we try to encapsulate that vibe in our sound, where it's kind of driving and pretty, but if you dig into the lyrics they're pretty dark.

Absent Sounds: The darkness. I know you guys have been doing VERTTIGO in various iterations for quite some time. I can only assume the darkness, or the thematic and general vibe, has stayed with you through that entire period. But what's been left behind along the way, as you've transitioned into this current iteration?

Jasmine Ming-Wai Ma: I think this is probably a question for you to answer, because I'm the newest addition.

Ryan Rathjen: Yeah. The demos for these songs were made around 2011, 2013, and co-written by a longtime collaborator and friend of mine, the guitarist in the band, Ed. We played in a lot of bands from 2000 to 2010, more hardcore bands and stuff. Our first band together was called Kill, it was an acronym, we never figured out what it stood for, but it was like horror punk. So it's always been kind of dark. But the journey has been really interesting. Oddly enough, this lineup, when it finally jelled and we were able to achieve the dream, we all had known each other from various other projects and worked together before. When we were first creating these songs, Jasmine was the first person we showed the music to, before we even had any other vocalists. I showed her the demos and she was the first person to believe in the band, and we were in a different band at that point. So I actually wanted Jasmine to be in the band back then.

Absent Sounds: Yeah.

Ryan Rathjen: So it came around. It just took 15 years or whatever.

Jasmine Ming-Wai Ma: Took many years, but the stars aligned and now we're all together again, as we should be.

Absent Sounds: Everything works out how it's meant to be.

Jasmine Ming-Wai Ma: I think so, yeah, definitely.

Absent Sounds: I don't want to say what changed, but what brought you now versus then?

Jasmine Ming-Wai Ma: Well, initially it was supposed to be me and Ry and the band together, and I got really busy with other projects and just couldn't commit. It came to a point where they were doing some lineup changes and the position was offered to me, and I was like, the timing is right. All the stars aligned, and for me it was just a good time to step into this project. And passion-wise, I was really feeling the urge and the need as an artist to perform original music with my buds, who share the same themes in their life.

Absent Sounds: I totally understand what you're saying. Even just on the themes of the album, I noticed one of the things you mention is self-reflection in the record, and that almost lends itself to this idea of being a bit removed from the work. How are you able to reflect on something while you're still in it? Because it came out really recently, like only about 20 days ago.

Jasmine Ming-Wai Ma: Yeah. It was a labor of love for sure.

Ryan Rathjen: I would say the events that inspired the album lyrically were a lot of life-changing events, and I feel like they were the catalyst for me and Ed working on music again together. It was kind of a healing process to create the project. A lot of that lyrical content was very traumatic, and it's in there, it's a part of us. But now we have the band being so together as a full unit, we already have a second record written and we've been workshopping it. We'll be playing some of those songs today in our set. We're really excited to have this cohesive thing. When we were scheming of what this band could sound like, now we have it, so we're starting in a place where we're all working and writing together. It's cool that the thing you envisioned came true. It speaks to never giving up on what you want to do, even if there are setbacks and challenges.

Absent Sounds: That does sound like it carries a lot. The fact that you've been holding that for so long, it feels like there's a lot of relief that comes from finally putting it out and letting it go. But sometimes for me, when I'm holding onto something for so long, there's a bit of grief, where it feels like I'm losing something. Now that you're working on something new, that must be exciting to transition into, but what is that like?

Jasmine Ming-Wai Ma: Yeah, absolutely. For all of us, it's very cathartic. The whole process has been very cathartic. And then writing the new record together is almost like a rebirth. It's very hopeful, again, like we talked about. But leaving it behind, it's never really gone, because you're performing those songs all the time and those feelings come up in performance. We're evoking emotion. But yeah, we're excited for the new stuff for sure.

Absent Sounds: How has your relationship with the songs, or the album, changed since it came out? I don't know if this is your first show playing since the album dropped?

Ryan Rathjen: We played a couple of album releases, and then last night we were in Yellowknife.

Jasmine Ming-Wai Ma: Still Dark Fest. Amazing festival, highly recommended. And a few shows in Alberta, Calgary and Edmonton, for our album release. So it's been really exciting to play these shows and play the album live.

Ryan Rathjen: It's been great. It's really exciting to finally get it out into the world and see people digest it and get into it and read the lyrics. For me personally, doing music for 25 years, it's the first time I've had a vinyl pressed. So having music etched into history, that they're going to be in bargain bins somewhere when I'm dead, it's good. That part's really exciting. And it's cool to see which songs on the album people gravitate towards, because you never really know. Seeing people singing the words, it's like, all right, it's happening.

Jasmine Ming-Wai Ma: We've been getting some interesting press as well. Brazil, Mexico, Argentina.

Ryan Rathjen: A lot of Latin-speaking countries.

Absent Sounds: They have a lot of really cool indie music scenes happening down there right now.

Jasmine Ming-Wai Ma: Absolutely.

Absent Sounds: So it makes a lot of sense. Hardcore, anything beyond the pop scene, they have a lot of cool stuff going on.

Jasmine Ming-Wai Ma: We released a video for our single "Tomorrow's Gone," the song we named the record after, and it got a lot of attention because of its spooky vibes.

Ryan Rathjen: Colombia too. Mexico, Colombia, Brazil, a lot of press from those places.

Absent Sounds: Do you think you guys would go down there and play?

Jasmine Ming-Wai Ma: I would love to. I would adore to go there.

Ryan Rathjen: For sure. I'd go anywhere. We have a lot of people that like us in Germany as well. It's interesting, the US is our biggest market streaming-wise.

Absent Sounds: I would definitely check it out, because I'd love to go down there too.

Ryan Rathjen: Yeah, come to Brazil.

Jasmine Ming-Wai Ma: We would love to do Europe as well, I think that would be amazing. Like Ryan said, Germany.

Absent Sounds: My thing I wanted to transition into was the record as a statement. There's always what we call the north star of the record. Maybe that's the thing you're most excited to hear when people are interacting with you as an audience, or maybe it's the one thing that stuck out with you guys as you were making the record. What track would that be, if there is one?

Jasmine Ming-Wai Ma: Ooh, really good question, thank you for asking. I think everybody has a song they gravitate towards. On this record in particular, for me, I think "Light Bearer" really hits. It's very emotional, very cathartic. But I've heard a lot of people gravitate towards "Dagger," and it's a bop. I think everybody has their favorite, it's so hard to choose, it's like choosing your favorite child. They're all my north star. How about you, Ry?

Ryan Rathjen: I think "Tomorrow's Gone" is a really interesting one, because it was the first song we wrote, and it's very unique to its own thing. We went in with no idea of what style we were going for. So I think that one's really cool. But the last track, "Nightlife," is a big one too. It kind of tells a story.

Jasmine Ming-Wai Ma: It's probably my favorite one.

Ryan Rathjen: It's a bit of a story you'd have to talk to Edward about, the guitarist, about the true concept behind it all, because a lot of the lyrics came from his own personal lived experience.

Absent Sounds: I love that. We're big lyric people. I'm the type of person who kind of forgets to listen to lyrics, but when I do listen, I wonder about everything that's happened. So I would love that.

Jasmine Ming-Wai Ma: Ed is our resident poet. He's a very good writer and painter.

Absent Sounds: How much has that contributed to the visual development for you guys?

Jasmine Ming-Wai Ma: He actually sold a painting on our Kickstarter, that was amazing. But our artwork is actually done by an artist named Brandy.

Ryan Rathjen: Eminent artist Brandy Strauss. She goes by Static Control on Instagram. She's a collage artist, and she's actually the bassist in Home Front, from Edmonton. So all of the artwork on that album is done by Brandy.

Absent Sounds: Oh, that's awesome.

Jasmine Ming-Wai Ma: Home Front is here at Treefort.

Ryan Rathjen: They played already.

Jasmine Ming-Wai Ma: They were here yesterday.

Absent Sounds: Great band, great people. The one thing I underestimated was how far some of the venues are from each other. But on collaboration, how have you always been able to collaborate with other people?

Jasmine Ming-Wai Ma: Ryan and I have collaborated lots throughout the years. I personally love collaborating. I think it always has a really beautiful and interesting outcome. How do you feel, Ry?

Ryan Rathjen: I'm huge into collaboration, and looking forward to doing some collabs in the future, even featuring extra singers and stuff, just to switch it up. I'm all about community and uplifting other people's art.

Absent Sounds: Community is what keeps us going to tomorrow. I think the last question I wanted to ask: you mentioned you've already kind of... did you say you finished the next album already?

Jasmine Ming-Wai Ma: Yes. Well, it's almost done.

Ryan Rathjen: We have demos, and we're hoping to record the actual versions, but we've been playing some of the songs for sure.

Absent Sounds: Is there a question you guys are digging at with that one, and how does that contrast with the one we just released now?

Jasmine Ming-Wai Ma: I think this newer album is a little less chaotic, more digestible, I think, for the average listener. Still just as fun and emotional and all the things, and all the VERTTIGO.

Ryan Rathjen: I think the next album is another very melancholy album, but the vibe is very uplifting. It feels happy. I call it the happy-sad. A lot of my favorite artists are like that, like Beach House, or Elliott Smith. The melancholy, to me, makes me happy because it's all the feels. You're really feeling it. And happiness in life isn't linear. It's just like relationships, it's not going to be perfect at all times, and there's beauty in sadness.

Jasmine Ming-Wai Ma: Yeah, absolutely. I think we strive to pull heartstrings, no matter what we're singing or playing about.

Absent Sounds: We're excited to see you pull the red strings of everyone today.

Jasmine Ming-Wai Ma: We can't wait.

Ryan Rathjen: Thank you.