Last fall (how is it May already?!) I had the privilege to sit down with the alt-pop duo Vitruvian Soul, early one morning in my favorite neighborhood coffee shop (one of them, anyway. Shout out to Crimson Cup Coffee!). The band have accomplished a lot in a short period of time. Notably, they sold out their first two headline shows EVER – at the Basement and A&R Music Bar. They have supported Judah & the Lion at the 2000+ capacity Kemba Live! venue and sold out Rumba Cafe as well.

Josiah and Jordan Rice, two brothers from Pickerington, OH have lofty goals. We talked about a lot of stuff. Growing up as pastor’s kids. The ever cliche interview question of “what are your influences?” Live show inspiration. The philosophical. And more.

Vitruvian Soul is an idea that comes from the Vitruvian anatomy the Leonardo DaVinci mapped out during the Renaissance Period. We spend a lot of time looking at the surface – how about what’s inside? There are a lot of interesting moral and spiritual implications that follow this topic. But, the Rice brothers seek to tackle life’s big questions with a suave persona that doesn’t take itself too seriously. They ask, “what does an ideal soul look like? What does it mean to pursue a lifestyle that creates the grounds for taking care of your soul before everything else? In our culture, a lot of people might pursue, uh, physical (fitness), fame. Money… We need to ask the question, like, the health of my soul. I’m going to test it”

The band puts a lot of thought into their vision and presentation, which is of course backed up by fun, catchy music (otherwise Tuned Up wouldn’t be having this conversation with them!). When asked to describe their aesthetic in three words, they replied “vintage, modern, and quirky,” after initially saying “crispy” and then laughing at themselves for how ridiculous that sounded. While using both vintage and modern as self-descriptors seems to be paradoxical, there is an explanation. The brothers recall, “It’s very down to earth. It’s very much like in the nineties, I would go visit my great grandparents in West Virginia. It’s like their house was, like out of the forties or fifties. They had like the record player. They wear kind of fifties style clothing or whatever. And so our stage aesthetic is very retro in that respect.” They would later name Blade Runner and Fallout as additional inspirations for their look.

In contrast to the props, the band weaves in a “modern, futuristic, and dystopian” storyline. The storyline is still being unveiled, but it involves a general plot of being characters in a post-apocalyptic world who meet an AI Television they’ve dubbed “Tru-V.” The TV can time-travel and bring the characters to points in the past in which they can explore how to change what might have been. “It’s essentially like, asking the questions of like, what would you do if you were at the end of your life looking back?” Put another way, “the story is us basically going back and course correcting, and then somewhere along the way we keep getting redirected by forces outside of our control.”

Intriguing. There’s a lot you could do with that.

You may be asking yourself, what does Vitruvian Soul sound like? On paper, it would be easy to just call them another alt-pop band. However their inspirations have a lot of depth and sometimes come from surprising places. One of their early singles hearkens to The 1975, but as they’ve evolved even in the short time they’ve been a band, they’ve pulled inspiration from church worship to JUICE WRLD to Bon Iver to Twenty One Pilots. How’s that for an eclectic blend of art?

In a particularly memorable moment from our meeting, the brothers were discussing what drink would best pair with the band. They start off with a club soda because its “clean and sober” but then speculate a Manhattan could be in the cards as well, in spite of one of them never having drank one. But, it an odd way, that tracks. They come across as clean cut and classy, with a slight mischevious undercurrent.

On a more serious note, they left me with some great advice; “…trusting the desire, the dream or whatever that God gives you, even if it doesn’t line up with like your reality.” This advice comes from the experience of being essentially creative mad scientists in a Christian community where they aspire to break the cliche worship artist path. Me too, guys. Me too. I think part of the reason I’m so intrigued by this project is that I feel like they are kindred spirits with me; an unashamed Christian wanting to push the envelope for how creatives and music can bring people together through media and community. It’s a bit of a twist on a biblical question – Can anything good come from Nazareth? A remix of that phrase might be – can anything good in alt music come from pastor’s kids? The Rice brothers are definitely here to challenge that stereotype.

Vitruvian Soul is going to be selective with their shows in 2025. There are no big headliners on the horizon, but plenty of music is coming. We’ll be sitting the corner with our blend of noir and outrun trinkets, ready to absorb it all.

Follow Vitruvian Soul on Instagram.