Chris Baio is changing direction from Vampire Weekend

Baio is the stage name of Chris Baio, bass player with arena alternative rockers Vampire Weekend. But the music the 31-year-old New Yorker makes as a solo artist is quite a distance from Vampire Weekend’s preppy jangle-pop, writes Ed Power. 

On Baio’s debut album, The Names, he moves briskly from burbling electronica to Eighties-tinged synth pop, singing in a voice between The Human League’s Phil Oakey and David Byrne of Talking Heads. Even if you could care less for Vampire Weekend, it’s an entrancing 40 minutes of rainbow-hued escapism.

“The odds are that for my entire life I will be defined by Vampire Weekend, at least in the eyes of the vast majority of people,” says Baio. “People who know Vampire Weekend — even [hardcore] fans of Vampire Weekend — will, in the overwhelming majority of cases, have no idea I made this record. That’s fine with me. I get it. When I was in college I would go see bands like Interpol. I didn’t know what else they did. I just went to the gig and was none the wiser. I’ve been on the other side of that divide.”