About VNV Nation
VNV Nation is an Irish electronic music group led by Ronan Harris in the roles of singer, songwriter and producer, with live members being keyboardists Mike Wimer and David Gerlach and percussionist Chris Roberts. The acronym in the group's name stands for "Victory Not Vengeance".
Ronan Harris was born and raised in Dublin, Ireland, where he was exposed to electronic music via radio, from which he developed an interest in bands such as Kraftwerk, DAF and the Human League. In 1983, he joined a band named Die Fabrik, whose punk-inspired noise and synth style was not well received in Dublin. By 1989, Harris had moved to London and began composing music under the name Nation, a 1984-inspired, electronic orchestral music project. Harris relocated to Toronto, Canada, in 1990, but his music output stagnated until 1994 when he revived Nation, modified by his newfound motto: "Victory Not Vengeance" to become VNV Nation.
The group's first release, Advance and Follow, came out in 1995. Advance And Follow featured industrial electronic beats heavily influenced by middle-era EBM acts such as Nitzer Ebb and Front 242, along a mixture of danceable synthesizer melodies, and elements of orchestral music. Although it was the band's first full-length release, Harris regards Advance and Follow more as a set of demos than a proper album. In 2001, it was re-released as Advance and Follow 2.0, with updated production, re-recorded vocals, and five bonus tracks, which include two Front 242 covers.
Their next release, Praise the Fallen in 1998, continued largely in this vein, and they began to enjoy a larger degree of commercial success.
During that time, Harris also wrote for the online magazine Side-Line, of which he was the webmaster until 1999.
Empires, released in 1999, was their breakthrough album, gaining them widespread commercial success and topping the German DAC charts for seven weeks. Empires expanded on the band's bombastic, melodic synthesizer lines and incorporated tighter song structures. Furthermore, the harsher 'sheet metal instrumentals' of Praise the Fallen were largely gone, and the music as a whole was far more complex with multiple-layered arpeggios and pads. The album was composed using a mix of analog and digital synthesizers, and an Ensoniq ASR-10 sampler. Notable analog synthesizers used on the album included the ARP 2600, which was used for most of the sounds on the tracks "Firstlight," "Arclight," and "Standing," the SCI Pro One, and an Oberheim OB-1. Digital synthesizers used were the Roland JP-8000, Access Virus , Korg Trinity, the EMU Proteus 2000 and the Roland JV-1080.
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