Vlads: How This Gold Coast Band Went From 800 Followers To Ten Thousand In Two Weeks
“We’re not any masterminds. We're still trying to figure it out ourselves.”
Vlads (Supplied)
Going viral isn’t just a pipe dream for Vlads - it’s a reality. On New Year's Eve, the Gold Coast band had 850 followers on Instagram. Two weeks later, they had ten thousand. And now, on the date of publication, they have over sixteen thousand people following their journey on social media.
But how did this happen? Well, it all started with a simple cover of The Neighbourhood’s Sweater Weather.
“We’re not any masterminds,” band member Callum Watson explained to The Music. “We just uploaded a cover, just for content, and it just blew up. We'd tell each other that every TikTok, or every reel, was a lottery ticket. And if you could buy a thousand free lottery tickets, you would. So we just post as much as possible.”
“We've been posting for, like, probably a year straight, and got nothing out of it,” frontman Kai Vladusic continued. “It was literally New Year's Day, we were at a festival, and Callum posted this video. Like, we post a video as usual, and then a day or two later, we were just checking our phones, and we went from 850 followers to 2000 overnight. We were like, ‘What the hell? That was a bit crazy.’ And then it just kept on going and going for two weeks straight, to 10K. It was probably the biggest thing we’ve done in our lives so far.”
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Unfortunately, despite many a call for Vlads to release the Sweater Weather cover on Spotify, it’s not in the plans… yet.
“I don't think we would professionally record it. We’d just do Triple J and then put it on Spotify,” Vladusic explained.
“If Triple J approached us for a Like A Version, we would definitely record it. 100 percent. We’re trying to get their attention,” Watson added.
Don’t fret, though. Vlads (thankfully) have their own catalogue of indie-rock music for you to enjoy - including the newly-released Just Let It Go. And, thanks to their newfound fame, the track is garnering more attention than they expected, hitting over 8,500 streams already.
"It's probably been our fastest song, like, it normally took a month for one of our songs to even get over 1000 listens. It’s definitely been pretty good,” Vladusic said.
“I think it's all authentic listens,” Watson added. “So there's no playlisting or radio plays at the moment, like we just have people that have gone out of their way to listen to the song.”
Despite the lack of radio play, the Gold Coast band have caught the eye of industry figures, who have been reaching out to discuss their future.
“It's been pretty crazy. Our email line is always giving us a crazy hit of dopamine. They're just reaching out, touching base with us and hearing about our future and our ambitions and stuff. But we’ve gotten a lot of shows out of it as well, which has been really good. Every weekend of March has multiple shows, when we were not even playing a show every two months last year. So it's pretty crazy,” Vladusic laughed.
The grind doesn’t stop, though. Since posting their viral cover, Vlads have been posting consistently every day, from more covers, to gig photos, to funny videos - any and all content. But their main goal?
“Basically, we just want to be international rock stars. That's basically the be all and end all. We can say all these little gigs and stuff, but they’re just little steps onto the road to the big finale. I guess it sounds cringe and stuff, but like, we always talk about it - and we just want to be rock stars.”
And they’re one step closer now, being announced as the support act for Perth rockers Dear Sunday on their Have Fun Be Safe tour, alongside The Colliflowers, today.
“There’s big things coming. 2025 is going to be big. This is just the beginning. It’s only February and the Vlads are taking over. Just jump on. Jump on now and enjoy the ride. That's the main part. Join the Vlad Army or perish.”
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