INTERVIEW : VULVARINE (ENG)

PROLOGUE : Among the highlights of this messy year, dear reader, I told you some time ago that some good noise had come from the East to keep us all burning this winter. Burning indeed, with the agony of your neck, after some excessive headbanging. No more suspense: if you saw my review, you'll know I was really impressed by the first release of Vulvarine, named "Unleashed". And I thought the time was perfect to go look beyond our frontiers and get to learn more about this young band. I had the chance to chat with Robin, one of their guitar players: a talk that will give you your fix of reckless girl power and good music. Enjoy the reading, Verveneyel

P.S : Through this interview, you will see songs from other bands. These songs were chosen by the band to be the soundtrack of this interview.

TO BEGIN, HOW ARE THE BAND AND YOURSELF, IN GENERAL?

Well, I don't know if you've heard of the terrorist attack in Vienna last Monday, but there you go. Vienna is our hometown, it's where we live, so we were just shocked. And apart from that, well, Corona is really keeping us down, it's difficult to meet for rehearsals.That's the big issue for us right now. Yet we're happy we could play our albumrelease live show a couple of weeks ago, and it basically happened on the very last day it was legally possible to play concerts in Vienna. We were lucky.

SO LIKE IN FRANCE RIGHT NOW, GIGS ARE NOT POSSIBLE ANYMORE?

No, all of them are cancelled, bars are closed, and so forth...

THE SITUATION IS QUITE SIMILAR TO FRANCE THEN, AND IF I MAY SAY: THAT'S A WEIRD YEAR TO RELEASE YOUR FIRST ALBUM!

Yeah, it is. Plans were to release it earlier, because we've been working on it for quite a while. Things got so heavily delayed by the pandemic, though. It went up to not being able to meet to work on songs, so we needed more time than expected to get them finished. So you postpone the date, again and again. But at some point we didn't want to wait any longer. And we also signed our label contract this spring, in which we had settled the album's release date, so it really wasn't an option to wait for next year.

YOU SAID YOU'D BEEN WORKING ON THIS ALBUM FOR A WHILE, WHEN WAS THE BAND CREATED AND HOW?

Our bassist Ricky especially does a lot of songwriting, and she had written nine out of the ten songs of this album, instrumentally and lyrically. They were finished long before the band was formed. She decided to record those songs, and looked for musicians to do it with. She did the bass herself, her sister Birdy did the drums, but she still needed people for guitars and vocals. So when the first recording session was done, she met with whom is now the singer of Vulvarine. Suzy decided to join the band, write new lyrics and vocal melodies for these songs. And at about that time, I joined the band as well to play guitar. Then, we started recording the final stuff that was still missing: vocals with the new lyrics and all the backing vocals that we'd arranged together. Soon we knew that we wanted two guitars in the band, and that's where Sandy came in. So that was pretty much at the end of December 2019 when Vulvarine got together officially - name and all - and we immediately started finalizing those recordings. It took us about six more months to get everything done, which is a long time if you consider it was only vocals, backing vocals, and a few guitars left. Overall I think the composing, re-arranging, and recording of this album took two years, if not more.

THEREFORE I GUESS IT WAS A RELIEF TO ACTUALLY RELEASE THE ALBUM AND COME TO A CLOSE?

Yeah, of course. That's always a big thing, isn't it? You have this baby of yours, and you really want it to be as perfect as possible, so you always get caught up in all these details where you think "Let's add something here", or "We should remove this..." You always spiral around this never-ending creative process. But you have to make the effort and say "It's finished for now, and we will publish it as it is." If you don't, you will never release an album.

PERSONALLY, IS THIS YOUR FIRST RECORD? DID YOU PLAY IN OTHER BANDS BEFORE?

I did play in a band before, but that was a completely different style of music, we were a trio singing in German, and we mostly played acoustic stuff. We made pre-productions, but never really went to a proper studio or release anything. For me,"Unleashed" is the first semi-professional release.

IT'S VERY PRO IN MY OPINION.

Thanks. The sound has a decent quality because we're lucky with the guy from our label. I call him our "label dad", the guy taking care of us there, he's also a sound engineer and producer, so he has his own recording studio in the same building as the label office, and he really has high-quality equipment. I'm not an engineer, but you can tell he's got the good stuff, as well as the experience.

GIVEN THAT THE SISTERS HAD ALREADY WRITTEN AND RECORDED A LOT, WHAT WAS THE INPUT OF THE NEW BANDMEMBERS ON THE SONGS?

I would say that lyric-wise, almost all songs changed. I think forsix out of ten songs, the lyrics were completely replaced. Most of the ideas came from Suzy, and then I helped her with the little details. Instrumentally, most of the songs were left the same, especially considering structure and length. But Sandy and I added new licks and harmonies, some solos were improved and replaced. Instrument-wise, theguitars were definitely what changed the most. Then backing vocals were a very good thing, because everybody brought in their ideas. On the album you can hear all of us sing in the background.

I ALSO GUESS HAVING THE WHOLE BAND ABLE TO DO BACKING VOCALS GIVES SUZY SOME FLEXIBILITY ON STAGE.

Yeah, definitely. I mean it's probably not the rarest thing ever for bass and guitar players to also have a microphone and use it, but it's also not too common to see four out of five band members actually sing on stage, I'd say, and to have five out of five sing on the records.

WHAT ARE YOUR LYRICS ABOUT?

Each song is different from the next. Suzy has a very strong, individual approach to lyrics, she bases a lot of her writing on personal experience. But it's also important to her to deliverpositive messages, you can hear that in "Pure Flow", for example. The lyrics really are about "You can do whatever you want, if you work for it." Some of our lyrics are more problematic, like "Streetcat", for example: it's about a person contemplating suicide, very troubled. Then we have "Rock Bottom", which strongly relies on feminist topics, because it's very important for us to raise attention to sexism. "Randy Haze" is a song about a stalker, which is also related to sexual assault. We're trying to fight that with our music. And then you have "Animal", which is basically a party song, talking about putting on your leather jacket, going out and having some fun with your friends. We're covering the range from serious to funny, from realistic to fictional.

SPEAKING OF FEMINISM: DID YOU SUFFER FROM SEXISM IN THE MUSIC SCENE?

We did have moments where we witnessed attitudes like that, not always from musicians, but also from listeners or viewers, or even from friends. There are a few male individuals who are trying to belittle what we're doing, saying we're only getting the attention because of our boobs, stuff like that. Especially after releasing our video for "Dangerous", we got a few remarks saying we're trying to profile ourselves through our bodies and not throughthe music. But I have to say overall it's not that negative - we also have a lot of support from male audiences, motivating us to keep doing what we do.

THE ALBUM IS VERY RICH IN TERMS OF INFLUENCES. WHAT'S PLAYED ON YOUR HEADPHONES?

I'd say in the bands we have a few â€œcampsâ€. The sisters are very much on the punk side of things. Suzy and I are really into heavy metal, the classic stuff, bands like Saxon and Iron Maiden. Sandy is also an Iron Maiden fan, but she has this love for high energyrock 'n' roll, and listens to a lot of modern bands, especially from Scandinavia. I'm probably the most retro of us in terms of my playlist. I listen to so much 50's, 60's and 70's music - I can listen to Led Zeppelin every day and never get tired of it. So, if you take all of that, I think it sums up what our influences are. And of course, we get a lot of motivation from past and present female bands. But then again, you can hear in Ricky's songwriting that she listens to a lot of different genres: jazz, blues, soul. And she's trying to incorporate these different elements in her compositions.

FOR EXAMPLE "RANDY HAZE" IS A QUITE COMPLEX SONG...

I would say it is the closest thing we have to progressive rock on this album.

YOUR ARTWORK IS ALSO REALLY NICE. WHO TOOK CARE OF IT? AND CAN YOU TELL US MORE ABOUT ITS CHARACTER?

So the character you see on the album is Vulvarine herself, how we imagine her. Of course she is a fictional character, but for us she's 100% real. She represents everything we relate to being a strong female individual. The cover artist is Andrea Beré from Spain. In the process, the band tried to come up with the images we had in our minds as precisely as possible. We asked ourselves: "Okay, so what does Vulvarine look like? What color is her hair? Is she humanoid or completely alien? Does she have arms and legs?" And then we came up with the important idea to add animalistic elements - tentacles, tiger stripes, fins. We really wanted to incorporate those features to highlight her forceful character, her supernatural powers, as well her descent from nature. With the image we had of her, we wanted to make a story so that people would know who Vulvarine is, where she came from and what happened to her. The main idea for the story plot came from Ricky, and then I refined the details. I'm really the person who sits down and works on the details, sake and curse at the same time.So we had the plot, and we had the instrumental track. Then, it was decided that I should narrate the story for the album intro, andthat's what you hear on it now: "The Saga of Vulvarine".

DOES YOUR CHARACTER DEVELOP WITH EVERY ALBUM, LIKE WITH IRON MAIDEN?

That is definitely something that's on the table. "Unleashed" illustrates a genesis. It's the start of something, even though the character is thousands of years old. This is the point where Vulvarine's spirit is set free, through the music, because the band has formed.So "Unleashed" means it's time to start letting everybody know who she is. The next albums will most likely continue this idea. But that's in the future, we don't have definite plans yet.

SPEAKING OF A CLOSER FUTURE: WHAT WOULD BE THE NEXT STEPS FOR THE BAND?

We have a livestream on December 18th, if the situation allows it. That really is the next big thing for us on our schedule. From the beginning of next year I expect that we will spend a lot of time in the rehearsal room because there probably won't be many concert opportunities.So we'll get back to songwriting and maybe start pre-productions for a new EP or album. In October 2021, we actually have a UK tour with five dates planned. I really hope we can pull that through.

IN GENERAL: HOW CAN PEOPLE SUPPORT YOU?

The usual thing: listen to the music, buy merch, buy the shirts, follow us, give us feedback, tell us what you think, what we can improve, what you would like to hear. We're getting a lot of support I must say, and we're super thankful for it.

WHAT ARE THE AMBITIONS OF THE BAND?

I think it was never just a hobby. From the beginning it was more than that. We've been thinking very professionally from day one. I think you can tell, if you follow us, from the way we present ourselves and our "product". Everything is very thought-through. We try to act professionally in everything we do, because we have this "bigger plan". And we plan to increasethis level of professionalityas we go along. We're open for more cooperation, more business relationships. Of course the ideal would be to reacha zerodeficit, and not just invest without getting anything back. But don't get me wrong -'cause now it sounds like we're doing it for the money.We know we'll never get rich from it, and that's not the plan either. We want to make music together being five women, stepping out of the comfort zone, going on stage, and showing everyone that we can do all this shit too, especially in a genre that is so male-dominated. We want to set an example especially for other women, to show them that they can do it if they work for it. And that you don't have to be perfect on your instrument, or be the perfect singer, or have all the skills. You just step out there and do it!

THERE IS SOMETHING TO TAKE INDEED BECAUSE MANY MALE BANDS ARE GROWING OLD, AND THERE'S A REAL YOUTH ENERGY COMING FROM SOME FEMALE BANDS.

I agree, there's an uproar. More bands with female members are popping up everywhere. The first important step is exactly to increase this number. But also, I have to say it's not our aim to exclude men. We love working with any creative individual. And we would never say, for example, "Our gigs are only for women". It's not in our interest to separate people. We want to do the opposite. I think the ultimate step, which will take many years - and we probably won't be alive to see it happen -would be to detach music from gender altogether, because your gender doesn't say anything about your taste in music or your musical ability. Globally, music - no matter the genre - has a huge mission to tackle here.

IT'S TRUE THAT THERE'S A LACK OF GENDER BALANCE, FOR EXAMPLE IN THE ACQUISITION OF RECOGNITION. SOME FEMALE BANDS LIKE GIRLSCHOOL OR VIXEN DON'T GET THE LEGENDARY STATUS THEY DESERVE...

I completely agree. Girlschool is actually an interesting example because of their close relationship to Motà¶rhead. I think Girlschool were lucky in that sense, because, from scratch, I can't think of another example where a band like Motà¶rhead took another female* band so much under their "umbrella". I don't want to say it was not entirely Girlschool's effort, I love that band and respect them with every fibre of my body. But I think the relationship with Motà¶rhead made people notice Girlschool who normally wouldn't have. And that's actually a shame.

WHAT IS YOUR VIEW ON THE AUSTRIAN MUSIC SCENE?

Musically, we were a very quiet country for a very long time, except for classical music of course. Classical music is the thing in Austria. And then next to that there's Austropop, which is musicians doing pop songs in Austrian dialect. But then in the last five years or so, there was an increase in the presence of Austrian music. We really had a couple of bands that managed to gain international success. They, too, are more in the pop genre -but it's happening, you know? I have a feeling there is more and more bands, more and more support, also from the local media. I can't remember that ten years ago theywould have played songs from local bands on the radio. Today, theydo! It's a big step for our scene, I think. And though it might not be the biggest scene, it's growing, and increasingly supported.

IF THERE WERE THREE OR FOUR SONGS THAT SHOULD BE THE SOUNDTRACK OF THIS INTERVIEW, WHAT WOULD IT BE ?

Wow... You got me there. Let's say Girlschool's "C'mon Let's Go", "I love Playing with Fire" by The Runaways. And then... that's difficult... From our album, I would say"Dangerous", and... shit... The current situation makes me think a lot of Led Zeppelin's "The Rover", with the virusdoing its job. In one line Plant's singing about "a new plague that's on the land". I've been listening a lot to that song since the pandemic started. It's haunting me at the moment. It's not connected to this interview, really, but it's connected to my current state of mind.