The Vices Take Us Backstage For a New Era of Indie Rock

Last month, Dutch indie rock upstarts The Vices — Simon Bleeker, Mathew Louwsma, Jonathan Kruizenga and Floris van Luijtelaar — shared their third album, Before It Might Be Gone. Following its release, they headed out on tour, backing the energy of their LP with equally larger than life performances.

With stops from Brooklyn’s Sultan Room to Rock Cafe in Prague, the foursome has been spreading their post-punk preaching to the masses. “Playing live is really important to us, so we thought it would be good to show that side of it too,” they told PAPER last year. “When we play live together, it’s like nothing else matters. You forget everything and your whole mind and body is in the music. That energy, man.”

Exclusively for PAPER, below, The Vices share everything from on-stage antics to post-show pizza. "We just came off our US album release tour and it was wild and great," the lads say. "We love playing live and we love touring, so we kept a little tour diary with pics and words to show the fun."

Jonathan having a smoke in the motel.

When we’re in the US, we love to stay at motels sometimes. US motels often have this movie-like atmosphere. We heard that in this specific motel, parts of Once Upon A Time In Hollywood were recorded. Look at that interior.

Snow in New York. We just arrived in New York and it was snowing. It was very fucking cold, but snow in New York was quite magical. Just ate some of the best tacos ever and here we are walking back to the venue.

Sometimes you have to multitalk. Setting up and eating dinner at the same time.

This is what it’s all about. Playing live with your best friends. Thankful to be in this band.