Vyllanore formed in a music class in school, during the year 2008. Guitarist Nick and bassist Sito quite rapidly found their sounds, music taste and state of mind in music and life matched quite well. During their music classes they often withdrew to the hallway and played mainly Pink Floyd songs on acoustic guitars. The actual forming of the band was quite some time after they first met, when their mutual arts teacher told them they'd really should start a band together after seeing them play at a schools music night.
Not knowing what exactly to play, Nick and Sito just asked some musicians they liked at school and got together to play some covers and jams. None of the people they initially asked stayed very long though. When their drummer didn't even show up once, Sito asked Chris, the drummer of the punk band he then played in, to drum with them. Chris did stay long, up until this day to be exact.
Eventually they ended up being a three piece band for a long time. They agreed they needed a keyboard player to play some of those Floyd covers and such, but they soon found out that good keysmen were damn difficult to get by in their neighborhood. Having played with a handful of people that just weren't what they were looking for (or them not being what the keyboardist was looking for) they decided they should move forward. Chris actually took keyboard lessons when younger, and the guys decided they'd just start writing songs, and let Chris record the keyboards next to the drums.
None of the guys had much experience in writing songs, and they still didn't have a concrete idea of what kind of songs they should write. They decided they should all just give it a go. The first song they ever wrote was 'Autumn Leaves', of which the idea and pre-written lyrics were Sito's and the music was written by Nick. The song was written and recorded in just one day, and pushed the band towards their current style. More songs came quite rapidly, mostly written by Sito, who began developing his songwriting skills to what it is now. But the songs always remained blank acoustic demo's untill Nick and Chris got their hands on them, turning them into the rich and dreamy songs they are. Sito still isn't the only songwriter in the band though. Songs written by Nick include 'Autumn Leaves' and 'Crashing Heights' among pieces of other songs. Chris wrote the biggest part of the 11 minute song 'Ice Queen' and the song 'Day in June'.
Having written quite some music, the urge to perform came in. The band was still unable to do so though, because they still didn't have a keyboard player. They shortly experimented with click-tracks, which should enable them to play as a three piece while additional tracks would play on the background. They were not totally satisfied with this idea though, because it meant they were going to play along with a computer, which disabled them to experiment with the song structures. It was in this period that Chris came up with the idea of asking the guitarist of his other band, Mentally Retarded Friend, to play keyboards with Vyllanore. Jeroen Baltus is originally a guitarist, but plays keyboards quite well too, also he'd been a friend of the band for quite some time. Jeroen came to play with Vyllanore and it turned out just great.
In the spring of 2012, the finally complete Vyllanore played their very first gig at a local band contest called the IJmond Popprijs. After playing in their rehearsal room for nearly four years, it was still to be questioned what people would really think about the music, so playing a band contest was a good test. Eventually Vyllanore ended up quite high and won some studio time at studio JP in Wijk aan Zee. This is where they recorded their titleless debut EP in the summer of 2012.
The show that released the Vyllanore EP would also be the last show the band played in the known line-up. In the period of recording and releasing the EP, they had also begun working on new material, channeling the new aspired direction Sito wanted to go: a more electronic based sound, with unconventional beats, multiple layers of synths, a more minimalistic guitar sound, just floating around to create layers of depth, and more Mysteries. As more songs supporting this idea reached the rehearsal room, more and more difference in opinion rose, to the point that the new songs wouldn't get finished because the band couldn't agree on them and be confortable with what they played. Sito, not being able to play the songs he wrote and wanted to write, eventually decided the band couldn't continue in its current form, and decided to quit for a while, to find out how to make the Vyllanore he wanted to have work. The winter of 2013 saw the new beginning of Vyllanore, after a break of a few months. Sito and Nick finally continued to work on the songs that had floated around for so long, and meant the end of the band. In a small studio set-up in Sito's house, the new Vyllanore began working on what will later be their very first album. A period of new found creativity and sense of a clear direction drove the two to the sound and songs Sito so long wanted to make. And now it's waiting for a new stage.
