With a sound inspired by 70s and 80s electronic film soundtracks and lush synthpop filtered through a long-time appreciation for post-rock and IDM, Vieon is the project of lifelong synth aficionado and producer Matt Wild. Matt launched Vieon as a solo project in 2013, evolving into its current incarnation as live four-piece featuring Stephen Dorphin on samples and engineering, Ricardo Autobahn on live keyboards and Adrian Brian Thompson on live visuals.
A driving, upbeat homage to the iconic Inter-City 125 train, Inter-City features a modified ‘motorik’ 808 beat joined by a driving modular Moog bassline, pulsing sequences, Roland vocoder and the soaring keytar solos that have become a staple and firm fan favourite of Vieon’s live shows. Meanwhile, the track’s lyrics are a hazy daydream of a summer seaside holiday by train never taken in the glory days of British Rail.
Matt explains the inspiration for the track:
“We’ve spent the last seven years on-off touring the UK and beyond so it’s long past time we were back in the studio for a new release. I’ve always been fascinated by the machines that move us, and I’ve had ephemeral plans for years to write a song or album on that basis. My partner bought me a copy of the British Rail Corporate Identity Manual (highly recommended for fellow graphic design nerds everywhere) around the time I was looking for inspiration and so it finally stuck.
“The Inter-City 125 was an easy first choice of subject material. One person in charge of 4500 horsepower slinging 500 tons of man and machine down two steel rails at 125mph – the essence of energy, dynamism, movement, all the things that make exciting music too. As a mechanical engineer by trade and a sucker for history, transport and graphic design in my spare time, there’s a lot to explore through the lens of British Rail too.”
