The Vivian Girls are stuck in the past. Or at least they wish they were. With a sound that summons the spirit of ’60s girl groups like the Shangri-La’s and Ronettes, the distorted punk of the Wipers, and the indie pop released by ’80s label 53rd & 3rd Records, the Brooklyn trio are like a perfect artifact dug from a dusty crate of records. (Vinyl, that is.)
That was definitely what was running through their minds when they recorded their second album, Everything Was Wrong. “We recorded the album all analog, which is something we’ve been wanting to do for a while,” explains singer/guitarist Cassie Ramone. “The process was awesome. I loved not staring at a computer screen and just listening.”
The decision to eschew easier, more modern recording measures was as much to do with getting a specific sound, one similar to that of their ancestors. “In general, I like the way records from the ’60s and ’70s sound way more than a lot of the stuff after that,” says Ramone. “So it was cool to record our album the way it would have been recorded back then.”
Having risen to buzz band status last year when their self-titled debut album immediately sold out its initial pressing of 500 vinyl copies, Ramone says she and her bandmates were in a very different place back then.
“The first album was more just a collection of almost all the songs we’d written up to the point of recording,” admits Ramone. “We were always on the verge of breaking up around that time so we figured we’d record all the songs we had just to have a document of being in this band.”
In recording their second album, Ramone, bassist Kickball Katy and drummer Ali Koehler (who replaced Frankie Rose last year) decided to just try and have a good time and ignore any of the pressures that came with following up such a heavily favoured debut.
“Writing and recording this record was really fun,” says Ramone. “We weren’t scared of the ‘sophomore slump’ at all. I think it excited us that we knew people would hear this album. If we’d known so many people would have heard the first album, there are a bunch of things we might have done differently.”
This quick turn around between records is something Vivian Girls look to keep up. For Ramone, it’s one more way to try and do like they did back in the day. “I don’t think we were rushing,” she says. “Bands in the ’60s put out two to three LPs a year!”
