“VAINS of JENNA formed in the small town of Falkenberg, SWEDEN in January 2005. Lead Vocalist Lizzy DeVine and bassist JP White had talked the previous summer about putting together a new band. Both had eyed a teenage guitarist named Nicki Kin as the final piece to the line-up along with his classmate drummer Jacki Stone.

During the spring of 2005, VAINS of JENNA was offered a chance to play the world-famous “Whisky-A-Go-Go” in Hollywood. They stunned the crowd with their raw energy, young bravado, and sleazy throwback appeal. Four days later, the band was cutting tracks with Gilby Clarke (ex-Guns N’ Roses guitarist) at his Redrum Studios.  In the summer of 2006 the band attracted the attention of skateboarding legend Bam Margera (MTV’s Viva La Bam/Jackass) who signed the band on the spot to his label (Filthy Note Records) & released “Lit Up-Let Down” (October 2006)

Following a small club tour the band headed out on a 55 date US summer tour supporting Poison & Ratt on the main stage of amphitheatres coast to coast. Home for less than 3 weeks the band was back playing theatres on the “Viva La Bands” fall 2007 US tour with Cradle of Filth and G.W.A.R.

After playing over 250 shows the band spent 2008 writing and recording new music in Los Angeles, played select dates, and appeared on “Jackass 24” (MTV) & “LA INK” (Kat Von D). The bands track “Enemy in Me” single was featured on both.

Early 2009 the band returned to Europe and played sold out shows in SWEDEN, ITALY, DEMANRK and ENGLAND including the SWEDEN ROCK festival.  Now the band is back in the US having just released their follow up CD "The Art Of Telling Lies" and make more believers that Rock N’ Roll is VERY much alive!

Drummer Jacki Stone checked in with us to talk about the new album on the eve of their co-headline tour with Dirty Penny!

Firstly, congratulations on releasing the new album "The Art Of Telling

Lies".  What are your personal thoughts on the album and the reaction to

it so far?

JACKI: Thank you very much!!! I’m very excited to have a new fresh album

out there!  All songs on “The Art of Telling Lies” kicks ass… It’s got a sweet classic

rock feeling to it with a variety of songs, everything from funk, pop, ballads to hard rock… we are all happy with the finishing product and can’t wait to play ALL songs live.  The reaction has been great so far! We haven’t heard anything BAD from people. Just POSITIVE reactions all over the world from fans, magazines etc. etc. We are on the Itunes chart in Sweden, hitting 3 on the rock chart and 65 on the “All genres” chart. That feels very cool.

Whilst the music listening population can often be an unpredictable beast,

are you guys reasonably confident that this will be the album that stamps

Vains Of Jenna as a force to be reckoned with in the rock scene worldwide?

JACKI: We aim high and I hope that will happen. With a lot of work, many,

many shows and the right push I think this album can be big. It’s very

much about getting lucky in this business… If the right persons like the

band they can give that little extra to reach out to the world. But we’ve

already sold the album to countries worldwide and building the name as we

speak!

Can you give us an insight into the songwriting process for the new album?

How did it differ from Lit Up/Let Down and where does the band draw

inspiration from lyrically?

JACKI: Nicki and Lizzy did most part of the writing with some help from JP

and me, where we came in with our straight ideas. Our producer Brent Woods

did a great job to get all the best out of us. Nicki usually came up with the song idea and Lizzy worked on the lyrics…then we all worked together on the AMAZING stuff Nicki and Lizzy worked on.

Lit up/Let Down was recorded by ourselves in a cabin in Sweden, over a

week…. The Art of Telling Lies had more work behind it. We were in a real

studio, and had a producer to help. I think the new CD shows that the band

has grown since our debut album.  Lizzys lyrics are so much better now too… He worked hard on them and I think they came out really GOOD!

Brent Woods produced the album, who you have used in the past.  What did

you set out to achieve from a production point of view, that you perhaps

thought was missing from the last album?

JACKI: Well first of all we knew that working with Brent Woods would make

us even better. The song writing was so much better already, and Brents

touches on the songs, helped as well. The producer has an outside

perspective on the songs and can here stuff that the band can’t… that’s

why having a producer like him is great.  Also, the overall sound on Lit Up/ Let Down

wasn’t that good… now on the new one, it rocks!

What was the concept behind calling the album "The Art Of Telling Lies"?

JACKI: To answer that one short… The whole world is build up around lies…

it’s fucked up, but that’s how it is… too many people are using the art of

telling lies in their lives.

Further on the new album, what was the inspiration behind the album cover?

 It's an impressive piece of "artwork", here's your chance to give the

artist a bit of a plug too :)

JACKI: VAINS OF JENNA against the world! Hehe… I have never seen a cover

like that… J.P and Lizzy had the main ideas about the covers and I think

like you said, it’s an impressive peace of artwork!

Jimmy Johansson is the artist behind it… Great job dude! :)

A track I was surprised to see on the new album was a cover of Tom Petty"s

"Refugee", which I have since learnt you play in your live set.  What is

the band's particular association with this song or do you simply think

it's such a kick ass song like me haha!

JACKI: Yeah we’ve played that live since the summer of 2007 actually! It’s

a great song, Tom Petty rules!  It shows that the band knows what some of the roots

to great rock n roll is right? Hehe.

During your time in LA you have made appearances on TV shows such as

Jackass, MTV and LA Ink. How did you find those experiences, given I am

sure it was a whole differen't world from what you would of been used to

growing up in Falkenberg, Sweden!

JACKI: Hahaha, ohh yeah, stuff like that doesn’t happen in Falkenberg

Sweden! It’s great experiences to do TV appearances and radio and so on.

You learn more and more how everything works and are able to se behind the

scenes what’s going on. It’s always fun doing thins like TV.

Visually, the band has a very strong image with things like your myspace,

photo's & artwork, video clips etc.  Do you guys come up with all the

concepts for your visual presentation and videos, or is this something

that you totally hand over to an outside director/producer?

JACKI: We are always involved in the artwork, design etc. for the band. If

you are able too I think you should try to be involved a little bit in

everything… All band members have different things we do for the band… JP

and Lizzy are the two main guys that communicates with directors, t-shirt

printers, etc.

You have now travelled many miles all over the USA playing smaller clubs

to hitting the stages in larger stadiums playing with the likes of Ratt,

Poison and Cradle Of Filth. What have been some of the valuable lessons

learnt and words of wisdom gained from these experiences?

JACKI: Yeah, It’s been great!!! All shows matters for sure! Just because

it’s 5 people in the audience doesn’t mean you shouldn’t give it all as if

it was 10 000 people! Those 5 people still came out and paid to see you

play!  We met many cool people along the way and learned a lot from being on the

road so much as we have… and we don’t plan to stop EVER!!! We gonna be on

those arenas soon again, trust me on that one!

What kind of a fan base are you aware of in far away destinations outside

of the USA and Europe. Could you ever see yourself travelling to far away

destinations to eventually play shows?

JACKI: Absolutely! I know we have fans all over the world! If a promoter

hits us up and wants us to go somewhere far away to play… We will

definitely do it! We love being on the road and seeing new places and

rockin in front of new and old fans!

Whilst fellow Swedish bands such as Hardcore Superstars, Crashdiet,

Backyard Babies,  Babylon Bombs and Gemini Five have largely remained

Swedish based bands, why was it that Vains Of Jenna decided to head over

to the USA and take on the world?

JACKI: This was our dream since we were kids… and when we started the band

we had the opportunity to come over here to play and met Stevie Rachelle,

that’s been our manager since then. I strongly believe that the states is

the place to be, so you can be a BIG band that can tour the world… If you

make it in the states, you will have it a little more easy to take over

the rest of the world. BUT there’s a lot of work behind it… IT’S A LONG

WAY TO THE TOP IF YOU WANNA ROCK N ROLL!!!

Thanks for taking the time to chat with us, all the best with the new

album and upcoming tour with Dirty Penny!  May the rock be with you!

JACKI: Thank you very much! Yeah, we are going out on a 2 month tour with

our buddies DIRTY PENNY all over U.S.A starting in October! Be sure to

check our myspace, facebook and twitter about more updates on the band and

this KICK ASS tour!!!  RnR