While VUA has appeared to be in a state of protracted hibernation, seemingly dead to the world by the casual observer, there’s actually been a heck of a lot of activity going on in the den. And this beast will soon emerge, hungry for action and ready to play.  And there will be blood music!

For starts, veryusartists.com has been gutted and rebuilt from the ground up. It’s wearing the original skin designed by Joshua Wentz (albeit with a few nips and tucks here and there), but there’s a lot more functionality and fun to be had, thanks to Kevin Teague! A limited version is up and running right now, but one by one, new and/or revamped bits will be rolling out. Check back later. You’ll see!

William Ian Jaws, Visual Approximation

But most importantly, I’d like to announce that William Ian Jaws—or Bilian, if you please—has joined us as a fellow Artistic Director. I’ve personally been working on music with Bilian since the late ’90s, but it’s been well over a year now that we’ve been working together on VUA. You’ll find his indelible stamp all over various projects in the works, and VUA’s output will be the better for it! But now it’s official. You heard it here first. World, say hello to William Ian Jaws.  Just be careful.  He bites!

In the midst of producing the next VUA album, co-producers Bilian and John LaSala recently got Josh Wentz  on the horn for a bit of a chat and to preview some of the new music. And you can hear it on his new podcast, Radio non Grata.  Go have a listen!

This is a re-posting from our blog at The RPM Challenge (that yearly challenge to record a whole album in one month), announcing VUA’s plan for this year.  Click to read on: (more…)

Very Us Artist superstar, Joshua Wentz, puts out a quarterly ’zine called HEY! Quarterly. The latest issue, HEY Junction!, has just come out, and it features a heated conversation between HEY and VUA. Only one can survive. And it’s three against one.

To read this remotely-conducted bloodbath, get yourself a copy today. And the logomachical showdown between him and us is only a drop in the bucket of all the cool stuff you’ll find between (and on!) the covers. There are contributions from several other Very Us Artists in there, too. It’s only $12 and all the proceeds go to charity, specifically The Anti-Cruelty Society. Being rather unfond of cruelty, your animal friends will admire you for it.Order HEY Junction!or even better: Subscribe to HEY! Quarterly(Either way you’ll be a hero to your animal friends.)

In case you missed it before, future Very Us Artist* Jeff LaSala’s first novel, The Darkwood Mask, commissioned by Wizards of the Coast for their Eberron “The Inquisitives” series, has been officially released today. There’s even a chance that if you were to pop into your local big box book store you’d see it on the shelves in the fantasy section. It’ll look like this:

You should read it. It’s really great! But don’t take our word for it. Prove it to yourself. Of course, it’s also available on Amazon and places like that too.

And why not read the first chapter for free? Here it is: sample chapter

So, a super-big congratulations to Jeff. We’re quite proud.

*At some point in the future, somehow or other, Jeff will likely become a Very Us Artist. As gazing into the future is speculative at best, it’s hard to say just how this may come to pass. But being John LaSala’s kid brother, a little bullying and arm-twisting shouldn’t be ruled out. So, taking advantage of the time machine we’re using to produce The Future Is Now, let’s just say that in the future, Jeff is a Very Us Artist. Thanks for playing along.

Inspired by A.L. Ashbaugh’s breathtaking artwork for the album cover (sneak a peek here), we finally arrived at the title, Nascence and Child.