In 2012, drummer Anthony Vanacore made the life-changing choice to migrate from the US to China. The band he started there, OU, became the first Chinese prog act to sign with a major western label and have just collaborated with Devin Townsend. Vanacore tells Prog about his collective’s boundary-breaking journey so far.
Anthony Vanacore was only supposed to be away for a few weeks. After finishing his studies of music at Queens College, New York, in 2010, the American drummer joined an orchestra for a tour of China. He enjoyed it so much that he did it again the following year. Upon his second return home from the Far East, he realised something: it didn’t feel like home any more.
“When I came back –I was in Flushing, Queens –I gained a whole new perspective on where I was living,” the musician tells Prog over a video call from his current hometown of Beijing. “I became more and more fascinated, and very passionate about learning Chinese. It’s hard to describe, but there is a resilience about the people here, and there’s a spirit that really moved me.”
Twelve years after emigrating, Vanacore hasn’t just settled into a new country; he’s also a cornerstone of one of that country’s premier progressive bands. He co-founded OU (pronounced ‘oh’) with fellow Beijing-based musicians Jing Zhang (guitars) and Chris Cui (bass) in 2019. After their ranks were rounded out by vocalist Lynn Wu, the collective quickly inked a deal with prog haven InsideOutMusic (home of Dream Theater, Leprous, Caligula’s Horse and more), making them the first Chinese prog act to sign with a major western label. Their first album, aptly titled One, followed in 2022.
OU’s debut was a labyrinthine mixture of jazz, folk and metal. Wu crooned ethereal melodies atop the musicians’ dense, polyrhythmic work, anchored around Vanacore’s virtuoso playing. The blissful, extended vocal melodies stood in stark contrast to the flurrying instrumentation. It made this quartet one of the few progressive metal prospects to sound truly unique in the genre’s modern landscape.
Just 23 months later, OU have returned with full-length follow-up II: Frailty, and their distinct sound has found one helluva champion. The album is produced and mixed by prog polymath Devin Townsend, mastermind behind Strapping Young Lad and myriad other projects. Townsend even lends his voice to the single Purge, his howls laying down a powerful backdrop to Wu’s more delicate singing.
Vanacore says it was being on the same label as Townsend that made the team-up possible.
“Devin is one of the sweetest guys I’ve ever met,” he adds. “R
