Behind the Scenes on the latest Vans Campaign with Ben, Dom & Cecilia. 

@benasaleks, @motelcecil, @dominykas_babikas

There’s a lot of overlap between music and skateboarding. Both are built around community, individuality and finding your own way of doing things. They’re also both pretty good at ignoring the rules.

For Vans’ latest campaign, three musicians from very different backgrounds came together on set to take center stage - Lithuanian musicians Ben and Dom, and Milan-based artist Cecilia. Ben has spent the last 15 years building BA from a bedroom project into one of Lithuania’s most recognisable alternative acts, while Dom joined the band as its drummer after discovering music through rock and heavy metal. Cecilia comes from Milan’s DIY and skate-adjacent culture, bringing a visual and musical practice that is as instinctive as it is independent.

We sat down with the three of them to talk about where it all started, the scenes that shaped them, the importance of not chasing trends, and what happens when you put three musicians together, add a lot of water and point a camera at them.
 

First things first — who are you, where are you from and what do you do?

Cecilia: My name is Cecilia. I was born and raised in Milan and I'm 23. I'm a video maker, but I also make music. I think everything I do comes from the same approach — collages, putting different things together and having this kind of DIY mentality.

Dom: I'm Dominykas Babikas, from Vilnius, Lithuania. I'm the drummer for BA, the band I'm in with Ben. I've been playing drums since fifth grade. I studied drums, lived in London, and was a session drummer for a period when I was 18 to 25 or so, Now my identity is basically being the drummer for BA, I'm lucky to be able to put my musical focus into BA. with only occasional work with other bands or projects. I really enjoy contributing to the writing too — that's probably my favourite part of it.

Ben: I'm Benas, also from Vilnius, Lithuania. I started BA about 15 years ago as a solo artist, and eventually it became a five-piece band. We're coming up on our 15-year anniversary, which is pretty crazy. I've also worked in radio and television, so pretty much everything I've done for the last 15 years has been connected to music.

Where did your journey with music begin?

Cecilia: I started writing music as a joke. I was writing silly lyrics and little poems, inspired by people like GG Allin and Italian bands like Skiantos. Then I picked up a guitar and started trying to put those words into music. I'm still not a guitarist, but I started going to the studio with friends and making little songs. For me, music has always been about friendship and expression, it's another way to express myself, and that's still what I like about it.

Dom: My parents took me to a rock concert in Vilnius when I was in fifth grade. I remember seeing the drummer and the stage and thinking it was incredible. I started taking drum lessons and then formed my first band when I was about 14. It was a three-piece grunge/indie rock band. We made a few albums and played a lot. If it wasn't for that band, I probably wouldn't be with Ben now, because he was a fan of the band and noticed me. So it all came together pretty naturally.

Ben:  I started with guitar lessons with my sister, but I didn't last very long. My teacher had friends at a music shop,so I asked him to get a cheap electric guitar and then cancelled my lessons the next day. I wanted to make music by my own, so I started recording things in my bedroom and uploading them online. I was also filming and spending a lot of time around older musicians.

Eventually I started BA. At the beginning, one of my main missions was to write in Lithuanian. There had been rock scene in Lithuania in the 80s & 90s, but then a lot of the younger generation moved towards English-languagemusic as. When we started, singing in Lithuanian wasn’t really considered cool and I wanted to bring Lithuanian lyrics back into that alternative space. Now it's completely normalized and really popular - there are so many young artists writing in Lithuanian. It’s great to see.

How has the music scene from your respective hometowns shaped the music you make?

Ben: When we started, writing in Lithuanian wasn't considered cool. There was a feeling that the language was silly in alternative music. That's completely changed. Young people now really care about local artists and there's a huge amount of good music happening in Lithuania.

Dom: It's changed massively. When we started, singing in Lithuanian was unusual. Now there's a lot of pride around it. BA used to feel like we were at the front of the indie scene, but now there are so many good musicians and producers that we're actually looking outside the band for collaborations.

I'm really proud of what's happening in Lithuania.

Cecilia: I'm not particularly connected to the Italian music scene. I write in English because it feels more direct to me. I've only recently started working with people in the music industry, so I'm still discovering where I fit. But now I feel much more connected to the younger creative scene around me.
 

How do you deal with the pressure to constantly create and evolve?

Cecilia: I don't really feel pressure yet. I'm still at the beginning, and songwriting feels very natural to me.
I have loads of little songs. I just want to play with my friends, find opportunities to perform and have fun with it. I don't want music to become stressful.

Dom: I think we allow ourselves to evolve, which takes away a lot of the pressure. The band will be finished when we stop creating. If we tried to recreate a song or an album because people liked it, that's when we'd start feeling pressure. Five years ago people thought of us as a rock band. Now our music has changed a lot. We're not trying to recreate the past.

Ben: There was definitely a period when I felt pressure because people saw us as a rock band and expected the same thing from us. When you change, some people don't like it. But that's part of the journey. You change as a person, so naturally your music changes too. Once you stop feeling like you owe people something, everything becomes easier
 

How does your personal style and interests overlap into music?

Cecilia: I grew up around Milano Centrale, which is the main skate plaza in Milan. I was never a skater, but the community was really important to me. There were people there from 15 years old to 40 or 50, all together. Older friends introduced me to music, underground culture and DIY. That definitely shaped the way I think creatively.

Ben: Skateboarding is a huge part of my life. I got my first pair of Vans about 20 years ago when I went to Poland with my dad. Skate videos were also a massive introduction to music for me. Tony Hawk games introduced me to rock music, Need for Speed introduced me to drum and bass, and skate videos always had amazing soundtracks There's always been this connection between skating, music and other action sports.

Dom: I'm actually the opposite. I'm not a skater at all, and I'm not going to pretend I am. But I love the culture.
Travis Barker was one of my earliest musical influences. I saw him wearing Vans and playing across different genres, and that really stayed with me. I didn't want to be just a drummer. I wanted to be part of different kinds of music, and I think that's something I took from him.

Where do you find inspiration?

Cecilia: I'm really inspired by late-'90s riot grrrl and DIY culture. Strong female artists are a huge inspiration for me — Kathleen Hanna, Kim Gordon and a lot of female writers and poets. I'm attracted to people who have a strong voice and aren't afraid to do things their own way.

Dom: When I'm writing, I actually like to have an empty mind. I don't want to listen to music immediately before playing because I'll probably copy something without realising it. I prefer to play the first thing that comes into my head and then work backwards to figure out where that idea came from. Ben is the opposite. He's constantly digging for music, so we're always sending things to each other.

Ben: Hip-hop is probably my biggest inspiration right now. I'm also really into the Bristol trip-hop sound — Massive Attack, Portishead — and Gorillaz. Our last album was partly recorded in Morocco, and I became really interested in Moroccan percussion and traditional music. I wanted to combine that with Lithuanian alternative music and the Bristol sound. Travel is a huge inspiration too. I spent a month and a half in Morocco, and I've been working on the next part of the album since then.

So, what was it like bringing all of that into the Vans campaign? 

Ben: Surreal. I'd wanted to work with Vans for years. I've been wearing Vans for about 20 years, so when the message came through it was one of those moments where you're like, is this actually happening? Two or three weeks later we were shooting. I was nervous because it was my first international campaign and I didn't want to underperform - however the crew were amazing and that feeling disappeared pretty quickly.

Cecilia: It felt like a natural connection because Vans is so connected to skateboarding and music. For me, the challenging part was being in front of the camera. I'm much more used to being behind it. The first day was about warming up and getting to know everyone. By the second day we had a really good connection with the crew, which made everything much easier.

Dom: It was a no-brainer. You just say yes. We were playing as a band, even though Cecilia isn't actually in the band, so Ben basically told her she was our band member for the shoot. We became this little band for two days. I liked that we weren't trying to make it look too serious. We were allowed to be goofy and authentic. There was also a Lithuanian director, which made the whole thing feel quite special.

And I had to wear size 42.5 shoes when I'm normally a 44.5, which was definitely not ideal.
 

Describe the shoot in three words?

Ben: Surreal. Loud. Wet – I will say the shoes work thought, I stood in water for about three hours and my socks stayed completely dry.

Cecilia: Natural. Challenging. Fun. I was nervous about performing and feeling like I had to somehow belong in this fake band, but once we got into it, it felt really natural.

Dom: Hot. Intense. Fun. We were wearing winter clothes a studio shoot in the middle of summer, but everything actually worked. The clothes felt good and the whole crew were really warm. It didn't feel like we were just there to make an advert. We actually had a really good time making it.

One last thing — what does making music mean to you?

Cecilia: Freedom. Friendship. A way to express myself.

Dom: It's still about creating something that didn't exist before. That's the best part.

Ben: It's everything. I've been doing it for 15 years and I still don't know what else I'd rather be doing.