http://www.freewebs.com/viviangirls/
People go crazy for these girls. I won’t lie, I did/do too. Here’s a quick chat with signer Cassie Ramone of the Vivian Girls, in town for Canadian Music Week.
By Kristin Kent
Kristin Kent: So 700 bands this week, do you have time to check any out?
Cassie Ramone: We’re going to try and see Fucked Up, but they’re playing the same night so I don’t know if we’ll be able to make it over there. We’re headlining our show, they’re headlining there’s, so we’ll see.
KK: Tell me about your connection to Fucked Up, how did that start?
Cassie Ramone: Katie’s a really big hardcore fan; she started to go see them in 2005 in New Jersey. So she started to be friends with them, just from going to see them so much. And I think they thought it was cool that we named our band Vivian Girls, because they have a song called Vivian Girls. I think that’s why they asked us to play on their record.
KK: In a short amount of time, you’re life’s changed. Tell me about that.
Cassie Ramone: It’s a funny question, we all graduated college a month before the band took off. So it was a well-timed transition. So we were like, ‘I guess this might do well, lets do the band full time.’ So we leapt right into it. How has life changed after that? Well, it’s hard to say because we still have all the same friends. It’s not like we go hang out with celebrities or anything, so I don’t know.
KK: You seem to be touring quite a bit.
Cassie Ramone: We just started our new tour last night in Boston, and it was an awesome show. Hopefully the rest of the tour is as good as that show.
KK: What’s your ultimate gig so far?
Cassie Ramone: We played this show in El Paso that’s been my favourite ever. It was in this dive bar and this amazing guy opened the show, it was this one guy and his acoustic guitar and it was the most beautiful thing I’ve ever heard in my life. Ad then we played and everyone went crazy and knocked over our equipment which we loved.
KK: How does a given song get made?
Cassie Ramone: Not all our songs fit into this general category. But for the most part, I write the songs. I try to play guitar everyday that I can. I usually just play some chords, sing some gibberish and if something sticks I’ll start singing words. And then I write more lyrics based on that, then write more parts and then I basically have an acoustic song. And then I show it to Katy and Aly and we all work together or harmonies and arrangements and all that stuff.
KK: How would you describe your sound?
Cassie Ramone: People don’t know what to do with us, they peg us down to be this thing that we’re not. I don’t think we’re any genre in particular, mainly we’re just doing our own thing. The Wipers are our biggest influence, Neil Young,
KK: Why do you think so many people relate?
Cassie Ramone: Because it comes from the heart.
KK: What can Toronto expect from your CMW show?
Cassie Ramone: We’re playing two new songs this tour, one is the longest we’ve ever played live, it’s 6 minutes, and it has Neil Young-style jamming and a weird choral harmony that sounds like a wave rolling down the ocean.
