The Origins and Future of Victoryland | Feature Interview

Victoryland started as Brooklyn’s biggest secret; then My Heart Is A Room With No Cameras arrived.

The lo-fi-marries-hi-fi project of Julian McCamman began in 2024 while he was a member of the Philly punk outfit Blood. Fatigued by Blood’s demanding collaborative process, McCamman sought something of his own. He moved to New York, quickly establishing Victoryland as a legitimate band, and now, he understands it’s evolved into a small business.

The day before Victoryland’s sold-out show at The Hancock in Brooklyn, I hopped on a zoom with McCamman. “I’m at the bank right now, applying for a credit card,” he told me before turning on his camera. He apologized for the circumstances, but can you blame him? That’s what happens when your band becomes the new indie obsession. McCamman didn’t think this record would be the one; he actually stopped trying to make the one, but months after Victoryland’s label debut, it’s still charming indie circles.

When the third track on My Heart Is A Room lands, it clicks. Victoryland’s it is the press’ fixation, the sweaty shows, the gritty production. And once “I Got God” fades, the remaining tracks expand his niche. My Heart Is A Room is punchy, but subtle. Present and focused without pretension. And loud, thankfully. It’s the type of record that’s only possible after establishing a home after years of discomfort.

Although escaping Philly for Brooklyn birthed McCamman’s dazed solo sound, Victoryland is not a singular effort. Producer Dan Howard, a young wiz behind the board, functioned as half of the creative output on the record. Victoryland is a fundamentally solo project, but McCamman praises Howard’s contributions more than his own. Together, they’re currently working on the next Victoryland record, and with their upcoming tour with LCD Soundsystem, perhaps LP3 is shaping into Gen Z’s Sound Of Silver.

After beating the heat wave, I spoke with McCamman about My Heart Is A Room With No Cameras, transitioning from Philly to NYC, touring with LCD, and what’s next for Victoryland.

Sam Cohen: What has it been like to receive so much attention and fanfare over the new album?

Julian McCamman: Mostly really amazing, man. It feels really special to have people respond to your music in this way. There are definitely elements of it that have been really stressful and kind of crazy and unexpected. I mean, it's all really unexpected. But Dan (Howard) and I have been grinding it out in the DIY sphere for at least a decade each, and I don't think either of us has really had this kind of violent response from fandom.

The shows, especially, really feel like the embodiment of that special thing that’s happening. It's been kind of a whirlwind because, very quickly, the band became a small business, and that comes with a lot of responsibility and having to think things through and plan stuff out. But yeah, we have a really exciting year ahead of us now, and we're really stoked.

SC: How has being a band from Brooklyn shaped your approach to the indie scene?

JM: If anything, it's that people here are really trying. I've lived in a lot of places where the relationship to art and music felt kind of slow. People in Brooklyn are really trying to work and push themselves to make the best thing they can. You're confronted with a lot of life here, and that's really inspiring. But, mostly, I’m kind of pushed to work more here.

SC: The Philly music scene is so different than what’s going on in NYC. How did coming up in Philly inform your approach to Victoryland?

JM: People in Philly are really creative, all the music had a really interesting edge, and the bands weren’t necessarily concerned with catering to the listener. I think in Philly more than New York, I was confronted with truly amazing projects, but I'd say on the flip side of that, I feel like people never really attached to the music I was making there, and I didn't really feel like I fit in musically.

I felt very inspired, but the stuff I didn't like, which was the really popular shoegaze scene, in spirit, was about hiding in the music, or being effects or aesthetic forward, à la a guitar tone rather than a voice, and all my music has always been pretty confessional. So what I was doing wasn't really a thing in Philly. I didn't feel like there was a lot of that going on. I didn't really resonate with the scene there, and I don't think people resonated with me necessarily. But I did have friends, and I still have really good friends there, and some of my favorite creative heads still live there.

SC: Was that what influenced you to bring Victoryland to New York?

JM: When I quit Blood, it felt right to amicably split from everybody. It was a lot of time and experiences culminating into one moment of being like, ‘I think it's time I go to New York.’ I’ve lived in a lot of places and realized that there really is nowhere with the sort of industry presence that New York has.

If you have any hopes of trying to poke your head above water, it’s here. Not that that was our ultimate goal, but I just felt like I would like to be in a band that has an attempt at being legitimate to some degree. You know what I mean? Legitimate in a sense of like, I really wanted to tour overseas, and I really wanted to see if I could do it for real.

SC: How did your experience in Blood influence your solo career and your approach to music as a whole?

JM: There were certain things with Blood that I saw as chronic flaws that we had in the structure of how we made music. For example, it was extremely democratic among six people. We kind of got to a place where it felt like everybody had to agree on everything, and the process was so painstaking. So, among a handful of things, there were strong learning lessons for me, as far as how I wanted to approach a project afterward. I felt confident in myself to make strong decisions rather than having to compromise with people. Dan and I compromise sometimes, but for the most part, we work really well together, and we can play mostly everything we need.

From a leadership perspective, it makes way more sense if one or two people are in charge of the ultimate decisions, you know. Being in Blood influenced how I wanted to approach the music and the creative side of things, as well as the business side of the band. On the promotion side, having a clear visual aesthetic was really important to me because I just felt like I couldn’t tell what we (Blood) were aesthetically.

SC: Given that Blood was so collaborative, what was it like to take the responsibility of songwriting and vocals for Victoryland?

JM: It was awesome. Toward the end of Blood, people's lives started to get in the way, and they started to prioritize other things over the band. In that time, I started to write so many songs that it didn’t make sense for me to wait to finish them. And that was kind of the inception of Victoryland, which came at a time when I really started to trust myself musically. I knew what I liked, and was confident in what I liked. There were some missteps earlier on, but the whole process of making music is kind of like fucking up a bunch and stumbling on something that you think is cool.

This last record was the culmination of Dan and I figuring out the sound of the band. Obviously, he is a massive part of that. The project is a solo project, but it's mostly a 50/50 thing with Dan and me. I'd say we take equal creative stock in the record.

SC: Because My Heart Is A Room is the first release post-Blood breakup. Did you feel more pressure than on your debut?

JM: What was cool about finishing the record is that, for the first time in my life, I felt free from any sort of fear. In Blood and the first Victoryland record, I was always so afraid of what other people would think, to the point where I almost didn't put out my debut. I was caught in this world of self-perception and fear, so when we finished this record, because I really felt good about the music, the fear went away as far as what people were gonna think. I was like, ‘I really don't care anymore because I made this thing I love,’ and it's kind of ironic because, of course, that’s when something starts to happen for you.

I mean, I felt really good about the record, I thought we were probably going to take two steps up as a band, and probably sign to a smaller indie label in Brooklyn. But then it just went way, way further than I expected. Instead of two steps, it kind of took 10 steps, and here we are. Overall, there wasn't a whole lot of fear, but of course, with putting anything out, there's a little bit of a prism of your own doubts and your own self-consciousness. But the response has been otherworldly, and it makes you love the album more when other people are responding so positively to it. I definitely feed off of audiences' responses in that way.

SC: What’s it been like to play shows with the crowd singing along to all the new songs?

JM: It's been really magical. I'd say those are the moments where it's really like ‘Holy shit, what is happening?’ The live shows are magic. I'm really trying to take it in right now because I know this period of time for the band is going to be a particularly special one.

We played three shows really quickly after that album came out, and all of them sold out. But the third one at Baby’s All Right was the first one where people had enough time to actually know the album, and that was just a super surreal moment for everybody in the band, especially Dan and me. I didn't even know that it could feel that good because I've been playing music for a long time, and I've played great shows and stuff, but never like people singing along. Blood was kind of a crazy punk band, so we'd have crazy mosh pits, but I will say that something about our shows is that people have a hard time telling if we're a moshing band or if we're a standing and listening band.

SC: What do you think? Is it moshing or is it standing and swaying?

JM: Um, I don't know. You know, that's for the people who decide. We'll see. I think it's a combination of both. Hopefully, the whole spectrum of emotions is hit at some point.

SC: Can you walk me through the album title? Was it always going to be the title, or was it just a lyric off “No Cameras” that you pulled and really loved?

JM: It was a lyric first; I can't remember when I decided, but there was a day when the line came to me. Sometimes you're writing lyrics, and you write a lyric that captures the essence of the whole idea of the album, and I think that's just what that was. That's also kind of what made “No Cameras” feel like the obvious first single. We're working on an album now, and I've probably written down 20 potential names, and I'm really glad I didn't have too much time to think about it for the last one because I'm just an overthinker.

SC: The first track that really hooked me was “Keep Me Around.” I definitely gravitated toward the production, which really shines. Obviously, that’s where Dan comes into the mix. Can you tell me a little bit about your collaboration process and how you feed off each other?

JM: The essence of Dan and my creative style is that I make a demo at home, and then I bring it to Dan. The demo usually sounds like shit. So, I bring it to Dan, and Dan adds a bunch of stuff that sounds really cool. And I think there's sort of a conversation, if you will, between Dan and my recording style and process. I think that's where you get the sort of hi-fi sounding stuff in with the lo-fi sounding stuff, and even stuff that I make, Dan usually likes to re-record through an amp or something, or we find a way to just like meld it to the studio sound and make it sound big, and make sure it has a presence. I'd say it's a pretty open playing field.

SC: Were there any tracks that were challenging to work on together, or that either of you saw going in a different direction than the studio version?

JM: I think something I've had to get over, and it still comes up, is "demoitis,” which is like if I make something I really like, I'll listen to it a lot, and I'll get really convinced that it is like it sounds perfect already. And then once I think that, there's always a little bit of fear when somebody starts changing your idea. But what I learned from this last record is that the songs are better when Dan has a lot of pull and say. Dan thinks about music in a way I sometimes have a hard time noticing at first.

SC: Will the new album be the same process as My Heart is Room?

JM: Yeah, I don't want to say too much, but yes, for the most part. It is different a little bit, but some of it feels the same. Dan and I's whole thing is that nothing is wrong with our process, so there's nothing to fix. We kind of want to see how much we can make with this process and push it more. We're not going into other studios or anything. We're making it in the same two rooms that we made the last one in.

SC: Okay, sick. Without giving much away, what can you say about the new record?

JM: The main thing I'm thinking a lot more about is the lyrical content and the presence of the voice. The vocals might be generally a bit louder, and it might be more about capturing little nuances of the voice and having a really present goal. Instead of my whole musical journey, which has been about hiding my voice. I think this next one might feel kind of awkward, but in a way that feels interesting. I don't even think we really know the full picture yet.

SC: Awesome. Next up is your tour with LCD Soundsystem. How are you feeling about playing with them and playing your biggest stages?

JM: It's totally surreal. I don't even know where to—I can't even—To me, it feels like thinking about infinity, where my brain isn't big enough to conceptualize it yet. I've had a lot of time to accept that it's actually happening because at first I was like this is actually surreal, and of course, tears did fall, happy, joyous tears. It's definitely going to be a thing we remember for the rest of our careers. No matter how far the band goes or whatever happens, that's some shit where we can just be like, ‘Yeah, we did that.’ To me, I feel like I'm opening for the Talking Heads or something. I don't even know–I'm just at a loss for words about it, honestly.

SC: The layers of you both being New York bands really adds to it.

JM: I think James (Murphy) is particularly excited about us being a New York band that he likes.

SC: Outside of LCD, what are your favorite New York bands of all time?

JM: One that comes to mind immediately is definitely Suicide. To me, they’re just timeless. That's music I listen to, and I'm like, ‘That's some of the most creatively brilliant shit I've ever heard.’ I'm a big fan of all the classics, like Television, and the Ramones are amazing. I love the Ramones. I think that's some genius shit.

SC: It’s hard not to go with the classics.

JM: I wanted to prove my deep-cut knowledge, but nothing came to mind.

SC: In that case, who are some up and coming New York bands that people need to pay more attention to?

JM: I always tell people that the bands that Dan works with, which are all of our friends' bands, is the coolest pocket of music that's happening in the city. But, there's a band called Fernette, it's our good friend Danielle, kind of impossible to describe, but it's some sort of ethereal jazz rock ghostly shit. Dan plays drums in that band. Our guitar player's band is Family Vision, an amazing band. And then I'm a big, big YHWH Nailgun fan. They're obviously not up and coming anymore; they played a big role in what I'm doing now. They were very inspiring when I saw them for the first time, and I've been a big fan for a long time.

Victoryland is a rock band from Brooklyn. Their sophomore album, My Heart Is A Room With No Cameras, is available now. Find them on tour this August with LCD Soundsystem.

EU TOUR

Fri, 10/30
Amsterdam @ London Calling Festival // https://tickets.paradiso.nl/361dc145c067468ca1dc2b9a3ea9776b/

Sat, 10/31
Brussels @ Les Nuits Weekender // https://botanique.be/concert/les-nuits-weekender-avalanches-many-more-2026

Mon, 11/2
Berlin @ Neue Zukunft // https://dice.fm/event/yowdn2-victoryland-2nd-nov-neue-zukunft-berlin-tickets

Tue, 11/3
Rotterdam @ Rotown // https://rotown.stager.co/shop/clubcard/events/111651610

Thu, 11/5
Paris @ Pitchfork Music Festival // https://pitchforkmusicfestival.fr/

Fri, 11/6
Reykjavík @ Iceland Airwaves // https://icelandairwaves.is/tickets/

Sat, 11/7
London @ Pitchfork Music Festival // https://link.dice.fm/d0be0daeaefa

EU TOUR

by: Sam Cohen