Village Instincts take a page out of no one’s book, but their own. With harmonious vocals, a beat that refuses to keep you still, and a familiarity that you can’t place, you have no option but to trust yours. The oppressive heat that raised them is now the fuel that carries them. You can see it spitting out from the stage, you can hear it pulsing through the speakers with every chord, and you can feel it as if it has always been there. That’s because it has, you just needed reminding.
With their debut single, “gentrified!,” out now, we took some time to hear from Village Instincts. Read below to learn more about Village Instincts, the story behind “gentrified!,” and what’s to come.
Hi! Let’s start with how did the group’s name come to be?
Two of our members are from a small town in Louisiana called Calhoun. The town is so small it isn’t actually a town – it’s unincorporated territory and has also been called a village. One day I made a joke about how me and the other member (who’s from Calhoun) have those “Village Instincts” because of where we grew up. We all stopped and looked at each other and said, “Hey, that’s a good band name.”
What city are you all from, and where are you all based now?
Myself (Asa) and the drummer (Cole) are both from Calhoun, and the guitarist (Joel) is from Spanish Fort, AL. We are currently based out of Monroe, LA, a larger city about 10 minutes from Calhoun.
How and when did the group form?
So, “Village Instincts” is actually the new name for a band that has been around since 2022. We adopted the name “Village Instincts” somewhere in the summer of 2025. Originally, we were known as “Makeshift Tapedeck,” which was a project that we started during the pandemic in 2020 to just record and release music with different friends and collaborators. Once things opened back up, we decided to take that recording project and turn it into an actual band. We performed music from all the members’ past bands and songs friends of ours wrote for the recording project. We decided we needed a new identity that was more ours, something that we could take sole possession of, from the music all the way down. Something more intentional and focused. All three members have been performing with local bands in the Monroe area for almost 10 years now. Once the pandemic started all those bands stopped and many never restarted again. So, the three members of V.I. are three local musicians still trying to make it.
How would you all describe your group’s sound to readers who may not be familiar with you all?
This is a hard one to answer. We are funky, vintage, pop music with a little bit of that punk attitude, and edginess.
Who are some of your group’s main musical influences?
Talking Heads, The Strokes, Allen Toussaint, Southern Hip Hop, Nick Cave, 80s and 90s pop groups (too many to name).
What’s one of the proudest moments of your group’s music career so far?
Honestly, we don’t have many accolades or trophies to put on the self…yet. But being a band without much pomp and circumstance that proceeds it, we are proudest when we are forced to do an encore because the crowd won’t let it die. Not the cheesy planned encore all the big bands do these days. But, a real encore. One where the band is
backstage drenched in sweat, ready to sit down and decompress, but the crowd demands more. A crowd that was introduced to us during our set. When we get off stage knowing we just absolutely killed it. That’s when we are proudest. When we connect with people.
What would you all say are the greatest lessons that you’ve all learned so far?
Stop playing it safe, stand up for what you believe in. Authenticity is the only way. Don’t worry about being cool, worry about being you! Because you are cool.
Now onto “gentrified!” What inspired this song? What is “gentrified!” about?
I wanted to write a song in response to the racism, dispossession and neoliberal hypocrisy in gentrification, but do it in stylistic way, maybe a little cheeky? It’s way different now. The line “we finally got a place that we can call our own” was always a bit harrowing to me. It’s the dark heart of colonialism and theft, but it’s sung in such a catchy way people assume it means the opposite. And yeah, it translates well as an anthem for us because we are always behind the underdogs, ourselves being underdogs.
What was the inspiration behind the cover artwork for “gentrified!?”
This is kind of a boring and terrible answer, but it was a picture Asa took and edited. We honestly procrastinated on finding the album artwork, so we just went with it. But after the fact, we like to attach meaning to it. It is an ode to a simple life in the country. Kind of the antithesis to gentrification and capitalism. Without landlords, time clocks, bosses, and the ever consuming feeling of anxiety that you must keep doing something productive to having meaning. It’s just nature and that is for all of us.
What was the creative process like when making “gentrified!?”
Ha! So, “gentrified!” was written for the most part almost 6 years ago. Joel wrote it and performed it with his old band “Astro Motel.” They never recorded it, and after they broke up and we started doing our thing, it was one of the few songs from of our past that we felt was worth holding onto, in a sense that it fits the sound and vibe we are into now. It has changed slightly over the years, and honestly changed again for the last time when we recorded it. When you have a song that been around for so long, you inevitably want to change it up because you get bored by it and question if its any good. It’s pretty impressive
it stayed as close as it did to the original version honestly. We don’t have a sax player in the band, which might be confusing after hearing the song. But we are all huge fans of the sax in pop music and we thought it would work with the song. That being said, we will have a
sax on stage in the near future. Lastly, the vocals. We love vocals. You can stack 24 vocal tracks on a song and we’d love it. So, obviously, we had to have as many as we could. A lot of what you hear is stuff that comes up pretty randomly on the spot and just works. We try not to overthink a lot as we just end up questioning ourselves at every turn. We try and trust our “instincts” and just let things happen. It usually works out.
How long did it take to complete “gentrified!?”
Not counting the months of procrastination, probably about a month. If you count the months of procrastination, about a year. We all have day jobs, unfortunately, on top of playing in cover bands to make extra money and just the responsibilities of life. We try and tour as often as we can because that’s what our souls require, so it’s hard to carve out the time to record. That being said we are getting back in the studio for a week straight in Jan. ’26, so the next song WILL NOT take as long to complete. 😉
What message or messages do you all hope fans take away from “gentrified!” and your trio’s music in general?
We just hope they dance mostly. We aren’t necessarily trying to send a message to anyone. We write how we feel, what we see, and what we want to see. We would fail miserably if we tried to write songs with the point being to convey a msg. That being said, we feel pretty strongly about a lot, so our songs probably will sound like we are spreading a message because it’s what is in us, it’s what we want to write about because it resonates with us strongly for some reason. And for three white men in the south who seek to be allies, the injustices and hypocrisy resonate the loudest, so that’s what comes out more times than not. Growing up down here can leave a bad taste in your mouth sometimes, songs are the only way that we know how to get that taste out.
What’s next for you all? Are you all working on any upcoming projects, or do you all have any upcoming shows that we should be on the lookout for?
We are just going to keep putting one foot in front of the other. Keep playing shows and releasing music. We are getting into the studio in mid Jan. with the hopes to have another single out before summer ’26 and then hopefully one or two before the end of next year.
We do have some shows coming up!
01/23 – @ The Cove (Memphis, TN)
01/24 – @ B-Side (Memphis, TN)
02/06 – @ Bears on Fairfield (Shreveport, LA)
02/13 – @ Hal & Mals (Jackson, MS)
02/27 – @ Government Street Grocery (Ocean Springs, MS)
Where can we follow you all on social media?
Facebook, Instagram, TikTok – the link has all social media links included: https://linktr.ee/VillageInstincts.
Before you all go, let’s ask an off-topic question. If there was one thing that you all could get rid of, what would it be?
If there was one thing that we could get rid of in this world, it would be social media.
Thank you all for the great interview; wish you all much continued success!
