After playing one last show opening for the Epilogues in October of 2014, it was back to the drawing board for the band. “After the split, we sort of realized how everyone had wanted something different out of the band and everything creative had grounded to a halt. Once we started playing again, we realized that literally nothing was off the table” says Mike Moroni, the group’s frontman and lead singer. “There was such a freedom in having absolutely no boundaries… At this point, I had written over 30 songs that had never been played before. We picked out the twelve BEST ones, called up our old high school buddy, drummer Jon Cales, and hashed them out in a basement for 6 months until we had a completely new catalog. Each practice was literally putting up a new song, crossing it out, and slapping a new one up there. We made a ritual out of it, and it ended up saving the band.”
This ritual not only saved the band, but brought new life and new sound to a band Denver had already come to know and love. Hunkering down during the winter, the band began to work on demos they would eventually record with Denver’s own Joe Richmond - former drummer of Churchill and Tennis, and the audio engineer who has produced the last three songs to win KTCL’s Hometown for The Holidays competition. “We first met Joe in 2012 when we won Spare Parts' Battle of the Bands, and got to have Isaac Slade (The Fray) produce one of our singles; Joe was our engineer. He got to record us when we were still teenagers, and we got to meet him before Churchill really blew up. Three years later, he's exactly the same guy. He's goofy and fun and super humble.” Guitarist Rob Moroni points out what I think has helped solidify the new music track Viretta has taken: “What he emphasized above everything (else) was making something that didn't feel sterile and over-produced. Something signature and unique that we could be proud of."
“Over-produced” and “sterile” are quite the antithesis of what’s being released on Viretta’s upcoming EP. Hearing some of these songs for the first time live, the band’s headlining show at The Moon Room in October was an open canvas; their chance to really try out this new material on fans for the first time. Rip-roaring loud, high energy, and full of angst that can only come from real-life struggle, the band’s new material is heavier than ever before, but packed full of more truth as well. The energy feels real. It’s intense, it’s electric, and it’s something unique in Denver’s eclectic rock scene right now. Their new EP, People Are Snakes, focuses on the bands single, with 2 b-side tracks included as well. A unique approach, this EP feels like the right way to introduce a band who’s faces may be familiar, but who’s new music is entirely different. “‘Snakes’ is our idea of a rock single. Rock isn't about thinking, it's about feeling. When you strip all of the technical aspects of it away, it doesn't even seem complicated, you just get this beat. BOOM. BOOM. BOOM. BOOM. It makes you wanna shake some booty and tear up the room in the best way possible.”