Vampire Boyfriend is a new indie-pop outfit led by Janine Van Osta who applies familiar horror tropes to subvert real-life traumas and anxieties. Joined by Sophie Reekers, Mitchell Quitz and Arno Geers, they’ve shared a live performance of their band name-sharing single featuring Van Osta’s raw vocals that quiver between despair and joy.
The “Vampire Boyfriend” in question is incidentally a creation of Van Osta herself, an archetype of a person she had relationships with in the past, adding:
“I think a lot of people choose to date someone who hurts them in some way, a way that they want to experience themselves. I had that a little bit in the past. Then I had the realization, “Shit, am I actually not dating the same guy over and over again in different forms!? I had made an anthem with “Vampire Boyfriend” to keep toxic people away. I searched for a nice band name for a long time. This song was my favorite song, and I thought it also worked well as a band name at the same time.”
Watch the catchy blood-sucking single here and listen to their two demos on Spotify.