'Flying V' — In-depth with Buffalo Guitarist Vinnie Lema
(EDITOR'S NOTE — Vinnie Lema, lead guitarist for Buffalo punk band Pretty Good State University and the heavy rock power trio Girl Stuf, is one of the scene's most notable shredders. And recently, he was nice enough to speak with us about his art, his bands, the influence of his late father, and how, since childhood, the guitar was always his "endgame.")
1120 PRESS: Thank so much for taking the time to speak with us. Before we get into the bands in which you play, we wanted to talk to you first about your musical path because not only are you noted for your skill as a guitarist, you’ve also been performing since you were a kid really. Do you remember the first time you picked up a guitar and what that was like for you?
VINNIE LEMA: Oh man, I do actually. It was back around 7th grade. It's interesting because I actually started on violin, classically, when I was a real young child. And I was fortunate enough to be surrounded by music in my household growing up. My older siblings all played different instruments, and my dad was an awesome musician, an incredible bass player, and guitar player for that matter. So, as far back as I can remember, I was always fixated on guitar — to the point where there was this guy who played guitar at church and Sunday school, and as a kid I would follow him all around just because he always had a guitar on him. It was always in my brain: Guitar was my endgame. And so, I developed a lot of my style while on that instrument.
I remember, once, my dad was out on a hunting trip. He was gone for a few days, and he left one of his bass guitars in the basement. That was the moment I just said: ‘Okay, let's go for it.’ And I picked it up and plugged it in, and over the next three or four days, I hashed out my own understanding, my own version, of ‘Free Will’ by Rush. When my father got home, I was like, ‘Dad, check this out!’ He was very clearly surprised but also happy. Then I overheard him on the phone later, and he’s saying to the person he’s talking to: “I'm gone for three days, and Vincent learns ‘Free Will’ by Rush, and he doesn’t even play bass!’
1120: How long did you play bass before you touched the guitar?
VL: I played for a couple years and sort of tried to start a couple of bands with friends in school on and off, all the while working on music I loved and trying to learn everything I could. I was messing with guitar almost simultaneously because I started making these little demos on my computer, and I needed something to cover the other rhythm and melodic parts. So, I started picking up guitar more and more, just to hash out chords to fill out the little demos I was making. I got together with my buddies, Justin and Max. Justin was on drums, I'd play bass, and Max would play keyboards. Right before what was pretty much going to be our first gig at Elmwood Village Charter School, Max informed us he couldn’t make the gig. So, Justin was like, ‘What are we going to do?’ My dad had just seen this ‘new’ band at the time at Townball Room who just happened to be the Black Keys and said, “I just saw these two guys from Ohio, and they sounded like a band.” So, taking that as inspiration, I said, ‘Justin, I'll play guitar, you play drums, and we'll just get through it ourselves.’ And that was the show. I just felt the rush. We got people moving and everything with little renditions of classic rock songs, just the two of us. And Pandora's box was opened from that point.
1120: Was the guitar something you just adapted to quickly, or did it take some time?
VL: I was obviously more rudimentary in my understanding of guitar at the time, but from the very beginning I was very focused on sounding tight. I had this philosophy that I would play within my limitations, within my skill level, and make every note sound really good. Even though I couldn't play lightning-fast passages necessarily yet, I wanted every note I played to sound like it had meaning. And so that's something I was very conscious of from the very beginning.
1120: So, your dad was a significant influence on you. Was he an active musician?
VL: Oh yeah. He played in quite a few bands through the '70s and '80s, through the '90s too, actually — one of which is actually still going. That’s the one he created with his friends when I was probably a baby. They’re called ‘Coda’ and they're a local Led Zeppelin tribute.
1120: You started playing bars actually when you were just 15. When you look back on those early days now, what goes through your mind?
VL: Oh, it's been a blast. It's funny; a lot of things have changed in just the past decade alone as far as venues opening and closing. There's a lot of places that I started out playing that don't really exist in their original form anymore, like Club Infinity, Waiting Room, the list goes on. But every day, other cool spots open, whether those are underground places or traditional venues.
1120: What was the name of your first band?
VL: We were called Satellite Nation, and actually, it was with the very same guys (Will Tutuska and Alex Meldrum) I am doing Girl Stuf with now. Really, we’ve never stopped jamming, even during the time I went to college and even though we each ended up in different bands and stuff over the years. We’d always go back and jam with each other no matter how much time had gone by. Then, right around quarantine during COVID, we started seriously hatching out new material because new riffs were coming to me. And they're such inspirational people to play with. We literally grew up playing with each other. So, a lot of times when I come up with a riff, I'll have Alex and Will in mind, and I could picture what they might add to it. And I'm even more pleasantly surprised when I show it to them and it turns out even better than I imagined. Anyway, we were making all this great new music with one another — each of us adding different parts and dubbing songs, joking around, giving things little names and everything — and it was clear we had a whole new project on our hands. So, we cycled through a few different names because even though we’re the same three people from Satellite Nation, spiritually we had something new entirely. We finally we arrived on the name ‘Girl Stuf’ just recently.
1120: A lot of people now know you mostly from your work with Pretty Good State University, but Girl Stuff is starting to play out more and becoming known in its own right. You once characterized the band as your ‘passion project.’ Can you talk more about those feelings?
VL: First of all, I love Pretty Good City University, and we're still doing awesome things. We have a few cool shows coming up and we're still working on our second EP. But I feel like Girl Stuff is some of my purest expression yet, artistically and musically because we have total freedom in that group to add whatever intricacies we want to songs. Sometimes, right before a set, we'll be like, ‘Oh, let's cut this part to halftime or something.’ And it's just a blast. We get together at least once or twice a week just to jam and see what happens. It’s been amazing. In PGSU, we’re always rocking in that group. But in some ways, for some of my more prog tendencies or fusion influences, Girl Stuff is like a return to form.
1120: You mentioned you can anticipate what the other guys in Girl Stuf are going do when you're playing with them. The fact that you’ve all been friends since childhood and have been playing together since you were kids, how do you think that connection and chemistry between you guys translates to the music you make together?
VL: It really simplifies a lot of issues that some other bands might have because, more oftentimes than not, we're on the same page. If one of us wants to cut a song in a set for a certain show, it’ll be brought up to the two other guys and chances are one of us were already feeling the same way. We read the room in a similar way. And immediately that makes things so much simpler and that's what you want when you're creating with people.
I couldn't ask for a better relationship with the band, honestly. Similarly, I feel like that’s what makes PGSU great too, because we’ve been friends for so long and there are so many inside jokes and things like that. You can sort of see we're friends first, and that translates into how tight we are musically.
1120: Speaking of PGSU, take us through the origin of that band.
VL: Tobias — (PGSU frontman and rhythm guitarist Tobia Prey) — and I originally met
when I was going to college, and he was friends with a couple of people I was in a band with at the time. We met on my 21st birthday and ended up having a blast. The friendship just seemed to be already there, like we were on a similar wavelength. We just really hit it off. From that point forward, we'd find ways to hang out with each other whenever we were in the same area. Later on, at different points, both Tobias and I worked at Guitar Center. And through that, we met (drummer) Noah (Logan) and (bassist) Clayton (Duffy). Tobias had actually already moved on to another gig by the time I got to Guitar Center, so I got to know those guys separately. Eventually, Tobias got his band Headspace off the ground. He released his first Headspace EP with a couple of friends of ours. It's such a small world because the two people that were originally part of Headspace were part of the band I was in when I met Tobias. So, it was like some big family affair.
The name Pretty Good State University came about when we were hanging out during quarantine, and we'd always get together after our respective jobs and watch movies, and stuff like that. I'm a huge fan of the movie ‘Repo Man.’ That's one of my favorite films of all time. And I always loved how in the film, when Otto opens the fridge, you see ‘beer’ or ‘food’ on a can. And I was like, ‘how funny would it be if there's this universe where there was a ‘Pretty Good State University’ and a ‘Really Good State University,’ and everything about the world is otherwise pretty normal, but there’s these little zany quirks — like things are just labeled food or beer, and we go to Pretty Good State University.’ I thought it would be a great punk band name. And at that point we sort of decided if we ever had a project with each other, we'll call it Pretty Good State University.
Eventually I joined Headspace very last minute before a show in Fredonia with Tobias, Noah and Clayton. I learned their music within 20 minutes, and we played that show and had an amazing time. And it was just sort of this unspoken thing that the four of us were now a band all of a sudden. A few months down the road after that, Tobias comes to me and he said: ‘How would you feel about using Pretty Good State University for this band?’ By this point we had worked together on new music and everything, and sort of, without realizing it, created Pretty Good State University, which was a thing we always joked about making.
1120: How do you think your relationship with Tobias has evolved musically over the years?
VL: Oh, it's grown a ton. There are so many things you can learn about yourself through jamming with people, but you never really know until you take it out in front of people and gig. It's funny because with PGSU, we all have different work schedules, so the past couple of years we found the time to practice only a few times. Our practices are primarily on stage. And that's where you really learn what works. Tobias has always been an awesome frontman, but just to see how he's grown in that role has been awesome. And as we've taken on different lineup changes and stuff, we’ve both had to adapt. So usually, he's rhythm guitar on an ideal day when we're a four-piece, but sometimes he has to pick up bass, and I have to do both rhythm and lead. I have to sing the harmonies Clayton always did (before he moved out of town). We've gotten really good at adapting to the changes around us. That’s made us closer, not just as musicians, but as friends as well.
1120: How do you view your roles in PGSU and Girl Stuff?
VL: I think I'm very unapologetically me no matter where I go, especially musically. But Girl Stuff is interesting because being the frontman of that band is a whole different role than in PGSU. It's been super interesting and a cool new perspective.
1120: Are you digging your role as lead vocalist in that band?
VL: It's awesome. But I'm not going to lie; before our first Girl Stuf show at Secret HQs, I was practicing my vocals the week leading up to the show because I was just so worried about every little thing. ‘What if I'm slightly out of key? What if I miss one of my own cues because I'm playing guitar at the same time?’ But then, as soon as you hear yourself through the monitors, it's a rush. I love it. I love being on stage. It's your own corner of the world for anywhere between 30 minutes to three hours. And once you get the line checked and you hear your amp buzzing, tubes are warm, the lights are on and everything, you switch into ‘go time’ and it's pretty amazing. The more I can gig, the better.
1120: Your skill on guitar notwithstanding, where do you want to take your playing? In what way do you want to get better?
VL: There are so many areas. It's interesting because it's almost like, the better I've gotten, the more aware I am of how much better I should be. It's this constant thing you feel when you're trying to better yourself as a musician. And it changes every day. The goalpost always moves, and there's nothing like the rush of when you accidentally chance upon a new technique or a new lick, and you start finding ways to incorporate it into your music or your arrangements or in a live setting. There’s always something to discover, especially nowadays. All you have to do now is go on Instagram and there's a million prodigies ready to make you humble. Every time I come across something new or outside of my world, and it strikes my fancy, it's like, ‘how do I incorporate that in my playing?’ But also, there are some things that were done 50 years ago that I'm still trying to figure out, like the ‘art of subtlety.’ For instance, Keith Richards; I love his guitar playing, especially on some albums like ‘Tattoo You,’ because he always knows exactly when not to add more. I think that's a big lesson.
1120: You exude a sort-of throwback-like aura. Besides your father, who else were your influences?
VL: There's so many. I don't really know where to begin. There's a lot of the big heavy hitters that are pretty much an influence on everyone playing rock. For Girl Stiff, as a collective, we love Rush, Van Halen, Led Zeppelin, the obvious ones. But also, I'm a huge fan of The Cars and Devo. It’s a pretty eclectic mix. I love Jethro Tull, and sometimes there's nothing like lighting up a doobie and putting on those records. Fifty years later, there's still something to learn from them or something you catch. The world is getting increasingly entropic and confusing, so we could almost use a little throwback, now and then. And as far as my modern influences, it would be King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard. They’ve always been album-oriented.
1120: So, what can we expect from Girl Stuff in terms of new music? You guys don't have anything out just yet, so in terms of a debut release, what will that look like?
VL: We’re working toward an album at the moment. And we're just chomping at the bit to get this stuff out live. We just want to play in front of people and feel the rush of playing live with this new material. We started to work with Nate Weise, an awesome local producer, (owner of Sycamore Sounds recording studio and a member of the bands Rom Com Victims and Velvet Bethany). We’re also showing our stuff to Noah, from PGSU, who’s also a great producer. Both Nate and Noah possess incredible minds in different ways. They bring different strengths to the table, but they're equal. We started working with Nate to record things live because that's a big deal to us. All three of us on the floor. We have our amps in a separate room, mics mic'd up. We can hear each other through the studio cans, and then Nate puts the red light on and we go for it. Pretty much like a live show. We're looking forward to dropping a couple of singles and then an album within the next couple of months, hopefully.
1120: And what’s happening on the PGSU front that you can talk about?
VL: We have a couple gigs we're very excited for, one of which is a Halloween show in Fredonia. We've also actually started within the past year working on some new material. We’re re-recording some of the first Headspace record because we have a few favorite songs that, over the years, we've changed the arrangements on to the point that they've taken on a new identity as PGSU songs. We want to make these songs sound bigger. So, we're going to drop those and some new songs that we've introduced into a couple of our last few sets. So that's pretty exciting too.
1120: Thanks so much for speaking with us. Before we wrap, is there anything else you want to touch on that we haven't asked?
VL: Catch Girl stuff upstairs at Mr. Goodbar on November 7 with Little Liar. That’s our next show. We're going use October to try to record. We have a great song called ‘Keon Coleman Grill.’ We're excited to try to get that song out first. So, look out for ‘Keon Coleman Grill’ in the next couple months and ‘Go Bills!’
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