Vivian Girls spielten auf ihrem selbstbetitelten Debüt den lautesten und wunderbarsten Girl-Group-Sound, der im letzten Jahr auf Platte gebannt wurde. Mit ihrem zweiten Album „Everything goes wrong“ und neuem Drummer begibt sich die Band in Songgefilde jenseits der 2 min ohne irgendwie langsamer zu werden. Ein Interview mit Cassie (Gitarre) and Ali (Drums).

auftouren: When did you start to play music? And I heard something about a „Tortilla – Story“ concerning the formation of your band. What’s that about?

Cassie: As a band we started in March 2007. And, yeah, I don’t know we’re at Brunch, just kind of happened like that, we ‚Re at Brunch and a Sharpie was used to write my phone number on a Tortilla chip. No, it was just a Tortilla. We just wanted to start a band for fun. And then it was fun. And now we’re still having fun!

Ali: I started playing in bands when I was sixteen. None of them really did anything. When I went to College I met Katy and we were in like three bands together over the course of College, just stuff for fun playing in basements.

auftouren: Which artists and/or musicians do you think are inspiring for you?

Cassie: Musicians I think are inspiring are: Greg Sage, Thurston Moore, Kim Deal, Neil Young, Dick Dale, that’s my wholelaundry list of influences.

auftouren: And which record should everybody listen to at least once?

Cassie: The Wipers – „Is this Real“

Ali: I would say, Sebadoh – „Bake Sale“

auftouren: Your first record sounds very raw, just like your life performances. Do you think there is a major difference between the „life – experience“ and the „studio – experience“?

Cassie: They are pretty similar actually. Most of our recordings are done in the first or second take- Like in the studio they only thing we like labour over are vocals and everything else is just spontaneous.

Ali: We recorded all the instrument live – with the first album and the second. We tried to capture the life feeling. We tried to „inject energy“ into both.

auftouren: The title of your new record is „Everything Goes Wrong“. Sounds kind of sophomore. What are the major differences between the first and your new record?

Cassie: The title is taken from one of our songs. And it just fits the overall theme of the album, the mood of the album. I think it’s well incapsulated by the title. First of all there is a different drummer. Allie replaced Franky who was our original drummer. Songs are obviously bound to be a little bit different because we are a three piece and we all contribute to song writing. That’s a pretty major difference, I guess. It’s longer, it’s darker, it’s moodier, it’s more diverse within itself. We are really proud of it.

auftouren: There has been a buzz around the „Brooklyn Sound“ quiet recently. In your opinion, is there something like a Brooklyn Scene and do you feel part of it?

Cassie: There are a lot of different scenes but everybody is still friends with each other. I think we feel connected to a lot of different scenes but the one that people give us most comparison to is the scene with Crystal Stills. Out of all our friends that’s the scene that is the scene that has recently come to the most recognition. But there are a lot of other important scenes in the Brooklyn family. It’s a strong an vital part of our upbringing as a band.

auftouren: You already mentioned, that bands from the Riot Grrrl Scene are influential to your music. Does the poltical content of the movement also mean something to you?

Ali: We all grew up listing to Riot Grrrl. I mean – not grew up – we were like five. But when we started getting into punk music I think that was a very important part of it. As for the politics though I don’t think we don’t really inject to much political stuff into what we to. We are more like an – emotional band.

Cassie: Yeah, like an EMO band! (laughs) It’s more like personal stuff. I’m definitely not very politically well versed so I feel I wouldn’t have that much business singing about feminism and politics. It’s more about the way that we operated.

Ali: It’s more about how we do everything than what we’re saying.

auftouren: Has something really good or really bad happened during this European tour? Tell a really awkward story!

Cassie: Nothing bad so far. Oh, we got pulled over by the police!

Ali: Cause our van has licences plates from the Netherlands so they probably thought we had drugs. But we did not. Maybe they though we were drug smugglers.

Cassie: And Ali was wearing Weed Socks.

Ali: Oh it was terrible! Because I had bought socks with weed leafs on them in Amsterdam as a joke and as we are pulled over I look to my socks and I’m like „Oh my good!“ And I took my socks off.

Cassie: We also went to Berlin – and to a flea-market.

auftouren: Flea-markets in Berlin are great! What did you buy?

Ali: I got a Super 8 Camera, for 15€ and a Wipers records and Lemonheads Record.

Cassie: I bought a Wipers record and a Nirvana record and a Foo Fighters record.

Ein herzliches Dankeschön geht an Vanessa Leissring für das Bereitstellen der Fotos!