Vax
Wallo is:
The three artists--Erik DeBat, Kingdom Kilpatrick and Mark Vignaroli--are
musicians who work without rules or limitations.
The two founders-Kilpatrick
and DeBat--have been childhood friends for more than 20 years and share a rich,
eclectic background which separates VAX WALLO from other bands.
Kilpatrick and DeBat both born and raised in the Midwest vortex of
the inner city of Chicago, spent their adolescence immersed in the
art culture of New York
City Hip-Hop and Rock n' Roll. Simultaneously, Chicago House Music was exploding
along with the graffiti-art movement which had already spread nationally and
internationally.
Kilpatrick and DeBat, members of one of Chicago's first graffiti-art
crews--MADFAM/ABC/TAC/FEDS--involved themselves in creating art underground,
while everyone else was into classic
rock and the brand new music cable station MTV.
In the mid-1980s punk rock took its hold on the two, soon bands such
as Circle Jerks, Dead Kennedys, The Stooges, Television, and Velvet
Underground meant as
much to them as, Melle Mel, Grand Master Flash, African Bambatta, Public Enemy
and Eric B and Rakim.
The two were accepted into one of the Chicago's largest gifted technical
high schools which offered a curriculum in graphic design, fine art
and music.
Together in their high school art class things began to get interesting. Skateboarding
downtown during the day, graffiti art and punk rock shows at night. One benefit
given them was the chance to do a mural with the late artist Keith Haring, which
was later turned into a documentary, narrated by Dennis Hopper.
College beckoned, and DeBat attended the Art Institute of Chicago for graphic
design, and Kilpatrick went to Columbia College for film.
At Columbia College, Kilpatrick received the coveted Best Editing Award
(for a film adaptation of the J.D.Ballard book, "Crash") from alumnus Janus
Kaminsky. His final project was a documentary (the first) on the legendary musician
and outsider artist Wesley Willis. This film, "Wesley Willis as Himself" went
on to win numerous festivals and became an underground hit with fans from Jello
Biafra to the group The Beastie Boys.
DeBat and Kilpatrick also ran a small clothing company called SuperBest, which
mainly exported Mod Hip-Hop Skate fashions to Japan and Canal Jean Company in
New York City.
After college, DeBat got a job at a prestigious Chicago design firm, where he
worked for such clients as Nike, 3com, Motorola and Kraft. Kilpatrick went to
work in TV production. But something was missing in their lives--real creative
expression.
By now their love of music was getting deeper with a great deal of time spent
at Lounge Axe, and other of the cities premier rock venues. The
itch to make their own music was growing stronger, so, at the late
age of
24, they formed the punk rock band VAX WALLO.
