VBO: The America of Franceso Cavalieri
"I love the eighties. My dream growing up was to live in the US."
Francesco Cavalieri did not grow up to become a daydreamer. He's become a visionary and a doer. As he logs in to our videoconference, he's wearing the same shades and luxuriant jewelry than he is in the video for Fire Fire, the first single for his new project VBO (Vice Business Only). Cavalieri becomes and embodies what he dreams about.
As a fellow non-american, I share Francesco’s fascination not with actual America, but with the image it has been projecting for many years. A dreamscape of pleasure, opulence and opportunity. A place that could be whatever you wanted it to be. This is not a very metal idea at its core (it’s more of a rebellion of the downtrodden thing), but VBO is not metal. Not quite. It’s a synthwave-influenced rock band that sounds like a Sunset strip band that somehow aged well.
As stereotyped as it can look firsthand, you will find a refreshing tweak on a familiar story: there are no girls in the video for Fire, Fire. “Doing that would objectify them for the sake of objectifying them, I mean. We sing about love in VBO, but it’s toxic love. Lovers running away together to a life of crime and whatnot. It’s not desire."
Before he was one half of VBO, Francesco was (and still is) the frontman for Italian power metal band Wind Rose. Although it’s a new project and a different sound, he sees VBO as a natural development in his creative ecosystem. "The project concretized itself when my old friend Simone Giusti saw me mix some stuff live on Instagram. He was like 'bro, this shit is good. There are eighties elements, but it’s more aggressive. Somewhere between rock and metal. We could put some good vocals lines on it and make great music."
That how the project was born. Francesco and Simone are the two thinking heads behind VBO, but it’s a full band who also features Claudio Falconici on guitar, Frederico Merenda on keyboards and Angelo Carmignani on drums. The textures and the colours of VBO are familiar, but its sound thrives in the negative spaces of its own influences. As it is the case for successful modern synthwave, the listening experience is akin to a dream or a long lost memory about something you’re not sure you’ve experience in the first place.
"This is VBO, I do this because I want and I can. That’s the vibe", says Cavalieri many times over during the interview. "We got a mix of Italy and America. Everything is more arrogant, everything is more excessive, luxuriant. The music is catchy, but it’s all about the idea of excess."
Francesco isn’t afraid of the stylistic clash between VBO and Wind Rose. "It's a big gamble for sure, but Wind Rose is not touring right now and I had the self-confidence, guidance (the project is managed by Maurizio Iacono from Katalysm who Francesco credits for a lot of his career success) and time to give to VBO. You have to put the music out there first if you want to grow the audience and now is the time to do so" he says confidently.
This is VBO: How to Create in 2026
What makes VBO enticing is that it’s not only a music projet. It’s an aesthetic. An allure. It’s an alternate reality Francesco and Simone Giusti have created together. This is VBO, as Francesco says.
This is not just cosplay. I mean it kind of is, but there’s more to it. Creating a strong and consistent visual universe is quintessential to the success of a music project in 2026 according to him. "Take Céline Dion or anyone who succeeded in, let's say the nineties", says Francesco, riffing on an example I’d given him earlier in the conversation. "You heard their song on the radio, on television, whatever. You were exposed to it Someone could succeed with their voice alone. With social media, this is no longer the case. People scroll and scroll and you need to give them a reason to stop."
Franceso Cavalieri is a performer first, but he is also a businessman and he’s quite aware of this new product he’s about to show the world. "There will be some people that complain that it’s not metal. But do you like the song? If you like the song, who cares that style it is. The music I make with VBO is music that has been with me my whole life and this is what I’m doing now. Wind Rose is nto going anywhere. It’s my day job. My business. When I do Wind Rose, I’m 100% into Wind Rose. Now I do VBO, I’m 100% into VBO."
VBO is not for every ears and not for every vibe, but it will intuitively make sense to you at first listen if it is. Even synthwave enthusiasts will find it quite different. It has an antiquated feel by design, like a malfunctioning radio tuning back into the eighties and it’s not a problem, it’s the design. You can take an active and a passive listening. Dance to it in a crowd or crank the volume while you’re takin a spin on the freeway. There’s a smooth, anachronistic, almost overproduced quality to it. I’m not criticizing here, I think it’s brilliant.
It doesn’t make VBO bad, it makes them different.. “At the end of the day I'm just being myself. I’m making the music I want to make" says Francesco.
VBO’s self-titled album Vice Business Only will be released via Reigning Phoenix Music on July 24th and the band will be in the US in the summer to make you feel the heat.
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