Attn: Vanilla Pop Tarts

Published December 12th, 2024 at 1:54 pm, Last Updated December 18th, 2024 at 10:08 am

Taos-based duo and Vegas-style lounge act Vanilla Pop is entering its 23rd year of pounding the pavement to venues across New Mexico. The two-man act started its Duke City “residence” playing what could have been a one-time show at the long-gone Martini Grill on a Wednesday night. Five years later, they were still there. And they did it all without the help of autotune. Alan Vetter — better known as Al Dente — tells The Paper. he might be getting a little older and a little more tired these days but not to worry, he and Lester Moore — the other half of Vanilla Pop — have still got the lungs to belt out an Eminem song, and they’re still slick enough to catch a couple of pairs of panties thrown from the crowd at FUSION during Vanilla Pop’s Dec. 20 holiday show. 

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

The Paper.: You’ve developed an identity and a fan base. Can you talk about that? 

You are talking to Al Dente. That is my moniker. We knew off the bat that we wanted the show to be different, we wanted it to be visual and interactive. Because Lester and I have just seen so many bands over the years where it’s like, “Okay, you’re playing ‘Brown Eyed Girl’ like every other band I’ve ever heard. You’re standing up there in jeans and a T-shirt, and I’m kind of bored.”

So one week we put on these pencil-thin fake mustaches. That took. We started wearing some brocade jackets and clothes, and we fell into a groove of it becoming this sort of Vegas-style lounge act which was also a dance duo. It’s been a slow process, and I think that has enabled us to really find our footing, be comfortable where we are. And it’s a lot of fun, it really is. It’s been the best job I’ve ever had in my life.

Do you do original music?

We started to do some original tunes a while back, and we realized that at hotels and bars, the feedback we got is like, “Hey, play something we know.” We started focusing on a lot of the ‘80s music that we love and the ‘70s music, and the original music just didn’t fly. We tried, but that’s okay. We’re comfortable, because we definitely put our own spin on the cover tunes we’re doing. We are putting our own effort into it, our own sort of paint, if you will.

I have heard your act described as “tongue in cheek” and “satire.” Would you say that that’s an accurate representation of what you do?

Definitely. I’m interacting with the audience, I’ll go out into the crowd. I can get a little sarcastic at times, but it’s all part of the show, and it’s all done in good fun. We wanted it to be visually stimulating and interactive as well. And it’s been nothing but fantastic.

Can you describe some of the notable ways that the crowd participates in your show?

Well, for a while they would throw panties. Several times people have dressed up like us for Halloween, which is absolutely brilliant. It really was flattering. Dancing and singing along and just having a good sense of humor about the whole thing. It’s really sort established a family of “Vanilla Pop Tarts,” as they call themselves.

People will leave us notes on napkins and requests and that sort of thing, and one of the best quotes that somebody ever said to me was, “If Weird Al Yankovic and Wayne Newton had a child, you guys would be the offspring.”

What makes a good show for you? 

What we both love doing is playing music and singing. The drum tracks have all been sequenced by myself via sequencers and synthesizers. You’re getting this huge drum sound that really can’t be recreated with just a drum set in the corner with a bass, snare, hi-hat and symbol, and it really enables us to venture out into other genres and artists that we’ve always loved. There’s definitely an electronic aspect. I’ve recorded horn sections and strings and we don’t cheat anything, we don’t overdub vocals. We actually play over the sequenced tracks. So we’ve got live guitar and live bass, and I play keyboards. So it’s not like we’re just pushing the button and getting on with it.

We actually added a hip-hop set a couple of years ago just to sort of mix it up a bit. That’s called “Vanilla hip-hop.” We do a couple of Biggie numbers: “Juicy” and “Hypnotized.” We do an Eminem number and man, I tell you, I realized I wasn’t ready. There are a lot of words in hip-hop. It is a vocal test of your abilities and your lung capacity, it’s insane. We do a couple of Beastie Boys numbers right now. We do some MC hammer, some older stuff.

How current do you go? Any later than the 90’s?

I see a lot of bands that are covering these songs that happen to be on the charts either that week or that month or that summer and then they sort of fall by the wayside. The band has spent all this time and energy learning these songs that aren’t that important anymore. So the songs we do have this timeless aspect that everybody knows, even my mom knows. 

We can do weddings, we can do some Sinatra and Tony Bennett and older stuff for the grandparents. We do a bunch of Jackson 5 and Michael Jackson and Neil Diamond. Everybody just loves screaming “Sweet Caroline.” And some of the 80s songs: some Billy Joel, we’re doing [George Michael’s] “Faith,” we’ve got “Footloose” which has just turned into this massive thing. I didn’t realize how many people love Footloose, everybody. “My Sharona,” just timeless classic songs that managed to stick around. They were just fantastic. That whole decade was incredible.

Why does FUSION seem like a venue that fits you?

At FUSION the room was big enough without being too big. It was intimate enough without being too small, and they had a great time. I’m honored and just elated that we finally found a place that we feel fits us. We played larger rooms up in Colorado, like 3000-seat rooms, and that’s not what we are. We’re not a concert band, we have a more intimate martini-lounge-dance vibe. I can talk and joke with people, and when I do go out into the audience and sing, I’ll let them sing a chorus as long as they can stay with the beat.