16. ...in What is Known as the Realms of the Unreal

Interview with Brooklyn's Vivian Girls published in Plan B #39, November 2008. Transcript of other Q&As not included in original article below.

There’s a lot to be said for reverb. A veil of mystery, a lacuna in which anything the listener chooses might be written. The cavernous echo of white-hot Sixties pop, the Flying Nun groups, Galaxie 500, My Bloody Valentine – consciously or not, the Vivian Girls follow in this proud heritage. “Our songwriting is pretty straightforward, so shoegazey production is the only tool we have to make our music more of a struggle for the listener”, says singer/guitarist Cassie Ramone. On their early singles, honey-sweet melody and classic girl-group harmonies bleed through the wall of burning-red guitars, like a vengeful spirit. The initial vinyl run of their debut album sold out its edition of 500 in ten days, to be reissued by In The Red, alongside new seven-inches on their own Brooklyn-based Wild World label.

What is it about girl-group and classic pop that affects you?

“We really like the harmonies and what the songs are about. Girl groups sang about dudes in a way that few girl bands do anymore, nowadays it’s all ‘I’m gonna have sex with him’ or ‘Men are scum’. I personally can’t relate to either the sex vixen or the extreme feminist, but girl groups from the Sixties deal with men in a way that makes sense to me. Burt Bacharach is a huge influence on my songwriting, and I listen to oldies radio a lot, which is also a big influence.”

Since I have it on good authority that your songs are about “Ex boyfriends, new boyfriends”, what’s your worst break-up/first meeting anecdote?

“I can tell you what ‘No’ is about. One time I started going out with a guy that I had been good friends with for a little while, and kinda fell in love with him really quickly. Then he broke up with me – a week before my birthday – and later I heard that he went on a date with another girl the night after we broke up. I had a birthday party and he brought her with him. Then before he left he was like ‘Happy birthday Cassie, I love you’, and left with her. So devastating. It took me a while to get over that one.”

The record is extremely short – what is it about that length of songwriting, for you?

“There is nothing worse than listening to a great song and then towards the end it’s just the chorus going on and on forever with nothing else happening. Short songs get straight to the point – it’s harder to get bored of listening to them.”

Punk modernism and mid-century pop nostalgia aren’t incongruous here, they’re two sides of the same coin. In their world, imbued with some of the magic of the Henry Darger Gesamtkunstwerk they take their name from, postmodern exhaustion, breeding such chimeras, is no excuse; fun and wonder are your only options.

***

There's a large amount of 'buzz' (pardon the term) around your first album, the vinyl of which, as I understand it, sold out in 10 days – how do you feel about that kind of reaction? Do you think all the people who bought those records will remain fans of yours?

We hope so! But I think a lot of people who bought the record in its initial pressing were more indifferent - "yeah, I'm record shopping online, might as well" and then realized how much it was going for on eBay and sold it.

Part of the fuss seems to come from the fact that you live in Brooklyn – it's almost becoming a cliché, this business of interesting bands coming from there. What's it like living there? What's your relationship like with the local community of bands and artists?

It is the best place in the world! I would say that, from even before we started Vivian Girls, we were really involved in the music/art community, which has really helped us out by getting us our first bunch of shows and stuff. It's great like that, we all help each other out and respect each others' endeavors and then go get drunk. I couldn't imagine a better place to live right now.

What do your performances tend to be like? Does the fact that the band is (at the moment) composed of women tend to affect your experience of performance?

We just kinda get up there and rock. One thing we want to avoid is being cheesy on stage; a trap which is really easy for an all-girl band to fall into. So you'll never see us putting on special outfits and dancing around or anything. We just wanna have fun.

What are your plans, beyond re-releasing the debut? I understand you have a tour coming up… And is there anything in particular you'd like the band to achieve?

Yes, relentless touring for the next few months. We are also starting up a record label called Wild World and putting out our own 7" - it's gonna be in a package with a t-shirt, 2 postcards, and a button, all art and silkscreening done by ourselves. And we're gonna sell it through mail order. That's what we're really excited about right now.

Also, how do you cope with the differences between live and studio playing? 'Rocking', in the proper sense, is after all difficult with no audience other than a tape machine... Also (also), do you make any attempts to replicate studio effects (reverb, etc.) on-stage?

Yeah, we use Holy Grail reverb pedals at all our shows. When we play live we aim to sound as close to our record as possible, but we're aware that that isn't always doable so we just try to have a good time.

This is probably going to sound really stupid, but - what I meant with the question about women/men and American punk was: obviously, you are women, and punk fans; how do these two things interact? How did punk affect you (and as women)?

I guess, it started for me when I got into listening to bands like Hole and No Doubt in middle school. I thought it was awesome that there were women fronting rock bands, and that first inspired me to pick up a guitar. Obviously bands like Bikini Kill were influential on all three of us too. But overall, I never discriminated. I liked any punk band that I thought was good whether or not it had women in it or not, and I'm sure Katy and Ali would agree.

OK, to fuck with the serious questions: Who had the idea for the name? You're clearly not shambolic enough to be classed as outsider artists!

Frankie, our old drummer, came up with the name. It was the only name we could think of that wasn't totally outrageous and dumb.

How do you negotiate the hazards of there being numerous bands of Vivian Girls (I've counted 2 or 3 besides yrselves)?

It made for some funny show blurbs at first ("Vivian Girls, a dance-y German electro band, play at Cake Shop") but after the first few months it was never an issue.