VIC THRILL

Billy Campion aka Vic Thrill has been a pillar of the NYC music scene since the early 90's, first as singer of The Bogmen (Arista Records) and then reinventing himself as Vic Thrill (short for Vicarious Thrill) in 1997, playing underground art parties and all night raves in Brooklyn.  Although he was from an indie-rock songwriting background, in this new phase he and his band mates were seeking to blend in with the electronic music scene using drum machines, laptops, vocal  harmonizers, analog synths and trippy pitch shifting guitar pedals that resulted in a “circus of sound.”  

After a series of self released EP’s from 1999-2002, the Vic Thrill band released its first full length studio album CE-5produced by Robbie Adams (U2, The Waterboys, Hothouse Flowers) on Circus Clone Records (WEA) in 2003.  The CD release party for this album was a live performance at the world famous burlesque club Show World during CMJ music festival where Vic hosted the Mistress NY Beauty Pagent where the contestants were street walkers named by the neighborhood they worked i.e. Miss Meat Packing District, Miss Times Square, Miss Queensboro Bridge, etc…  It was an ingenious way to attract new potential fans and wound up drawing 1000 people on only a few days notice.  

Later that year the band went to SXSW and was discovered by BBC Radio 1 host Vic Galloway, who brought them to the UK to tour and for live on air performances. From there the band was picked up by Ian Brown’s (Stone Roses) manager, resulting in a UK release of the album and great reviews in NME, UNCUT and and more. CE-5 was ranked one of the 10 Best Albums of the Year by music writer David Segal at the Washington Post alongside Outkast and The White Stripes.

In 2005 after constant touring in the US and UK the band became a duo and changed the name to Vic Thrill + The Saturn Missile followed by their next self releaseCircus of Enlightenment (2007).  At this time Vic Thrill had just done an episode of NPR’s This American Lifeand signed a huge movie deal with Paramount Pictures for his life rights around a story that occurred in and around his artist collective The Vic Thrill Salon, where he lived, made records and other artistic endeavors. It was being produced by Lorne Michaels, written by Tina Fey and was slated to star Sasha Baron Cohen.  Paramount optioned the story for 6 years because Fey was busy with 30 Rock and Sasha Baron Cohen became a superstar and like so many great films, it never went into production, although the interest is still there to make it and there is a documentary currently being made by director Chris Cassidy.    

After the release of Circus of Enlightenment and Vic having to perform it on his own, his focus shifted to the studio where he produced countless bands and recorded his opus work Bollywood Hula Bard (vol 1-3), a triple album where all of his years of production experience and songwriting combined with a vast amount of influences came together during a period of emotional turmoil and spiritual searching to yield his most powerful work to date.  

A punk'd up futuristic and old timey mix of East meets West music that Vic refers to as both "Lo-fi-Sci" and "Himalaychian" (imagine a mountain - Appalaichian on one side and Himalayan on the other where the musicians from both sides meet at the top to jam around the fire!  From NY to LA, SXSW, UK, Ireland and Italy, Vic Thrill has rocked many stages in various combinations opening directly for such legends as Devo, Iggy & The Stooges, The Ramones, World Inferno Friendship Society and countless more as well as performing in major festivals like the Amsterjam with the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Snoop Dogg. 

 Along with BBC Radio 6 Mark Riley from The Fall's show and so on.

Bollywood Hula Bard is the third major full length release by Vic Thrill