Local hotshots VV just went on an extensive tour and have released some new music, so CJ Payne thought it was time to sit back down with the band and pick their brains about the state of the RVA music scene, how it has changed, and how they have adapted.
CJ PAYNE: So we interviewed [ VV ] back in 2018 and a lot has changed in that time. Until your recently released tape (Spring Tour 2023) you had 4 members and now you’re a trio. How has that change affected the band?
RACHEL: There was a period of time pre Christie where we had a fourth member CJ, who played bass in the band. And, when they left, there was a brief period of time where we relearned all the songs as a three piece. For a while, we’re like, ‘maybe we could do this. Like maybe we could just be a three piece because it’s like a perfect base where we all know how to communicate and talk.” And when Christy came on, it was great. Like she had never been in a band before and like picked it up really, really quick. But Christy due to professional reasons and personal reasons needed to step away to focus more on herself and what she wanted to do, so we just went back as a three piece and I don’t think we’re looking to add a member. This is just going to be VV for the future.
KELSEY: We’ve definitely come to realize after she had to step away that we all mesh. We’ve been doing this for so long with other people and you know, on and off as a three piece that at this
point, after making so much different music that there’s not a missing element.
LIZA: It works for us. It’s easy for us to do it. Yeah, adding other people is always fun, and I like playing with other people and jamming with other people because you get different energy — different ideas. Everyone has something that they bring to it. But sometimes the more stuff you put into a soup the the harder it becomes to get a good product.
CP: I can see that when you guys are on stage; there’s that chemistry there. You have the same energy and you guys are really tight. It’s really awesome to see.
R: Yeah, if we weren’t being asked to play shows we’d still be doing this. Like every week. I’m never quitting VV!
L: There’s too much joy there.
K: Even if we don’t have it in us to practice. Sometimes we’ll still just be like, do you want to just like go meet up for a beer and hang out?
CP: So I don’t think I’ve ever heard how you guys all met to form the band.
L: Oh, wow. Digging deep.
R: I remember Kelsey used to run a DIY spot, and she approached me. She was like, “if you ever want to be in a band, we should play music together.” And I was like, “okay, yeah.” Liza, our former bassist, and I had just moved into a house together. We’re like, let’s take this pilgrimage down to Orlando, Florida to go see the final like Total Punk fest. So we all drove down and we met up with our buddy Ryan Feder. He was living in Atlanta at the time, and so we were all hanging out with his band Predator at the time, and he was like, “Are you guys in a band?” And we were like, “Yeah, we’re in a band…” we weren’t. We like all knew that, like, I had done one year of middle school percussion, and, like, CJ was learning bass, and Kelsey was like, I could play guitar. So we’re like, we got a band. We had, like, not practiced at all, but then Ryan was like, “Oh, we should play together!” And we’re like, yeah, and then we’re like, “shit, we gotta start a band.”
L: What was cool is that we engineered it so that every song somebody could step off their instrument and be a front, that was big. That was part of it, switching instruments like, ‘okay, Kelsey is gonna sing now. I’m going to play guitar.”
K: We are also like, learning some things about our instruments and maybe can’t sing and play at the same time. I’m proud of where we’ve come from.
R: It’s really comforting to be in a space where like, all the members say if you want to do it, do it. If you want to try and play keys, you can play keys, or I could try and do drums and Kelsey was like, ‘you know, I want to pick up bass and try and write songs with bass.” But that’s how we started; VV was based on a lie.
CP: That’s gonna be the title, “VV was based on a lie.” We talked about Strange Matter previously, which was sadly before my time. I moved here almost three years ago now and Richmond is changing a lot as a city. Since you’ve been around longer than I have, what do you think of the Richmond music scene as a whole in terms of how it got started, where it’s at now, has it evolved?
L: It’s always evolving. Yeah. You get younger folks coming in bringing new energy and new bands; people moving here all the time. The scene when I moved here… I moved here in 2011, and Kelsey was running Strange Matter. And I remember coming to see shows there even before I moved to town. I loved playing there. Such a cool spot.
K: And just for the record, I was just running the bar.
R: I have my critiques about venues around here because there used to be a lot more all age shows. After COVID I don’t know anywhere other than like the National that does all ages
shows. I will say a lot of the venue’s here haven’t been taken over by like Ticketmaster or Live Nation… actually more like Live Nation where they bought out midsize venues and it’s really
hard to pay to play.
L: You have to put down like 300 bucks just to secure a day.
R: Yeah. And it’s not guaranteed. I know a lot of the venues around here are solid and they, for the most part, treat the bands pretty well. But it’s not like the all inclusive that I remember it
being when I was here going to school. I’ve been here since like 2009 but I know there’s new stuff, like new DIY spots popping up. It’s cool to see that people are starting to do that because I
think Richmond has more music than it can handle. With the loss of Strange Matter, and if there’s new coding or permitting with restaurants, their owners may not be as stoked to have live
music in their doors.
L: It’s a shame because we were really missing that mid size venue that could do the bands that weren’t big enough for The National. But we’re too big for something like Cobra Cabana now. That
was like the Strange Matter spot.
R: I wish there was more noise in spaces and more hip hop or electronic. There’s only like, a few spots that will do that — a large breadth of genres. I think there’s a lot of people who would be motivated to do more venues or spaces that will cater towards entertainment, but don’t have the funds or the capital to do such things, and do it in a way that’s sustainable and
ethical and community minded.
L: I just think it would be really beneficial if there were more mid-sized venues that weren’t reliant on food sales to keep their business afloat.
K: Yeah, it’s a difficult thing; they’re two competing businesses and they got in each other’s way because it can’t cater to the bands and also cater to people eating.
R: I think a lot of the people who have the capital and maybe the drive to do a midsize venue can’t think outside the box that way. So it’s not a working investment.
K: They can’t fathom the love of community, art and music, they just have dollars.
R: I am excited with VCU back up for this semester, like walking around and hearing people playing music in the backyard. I’m glad that people are trying to do it and make space for it. And
like that there’s new folks creating space to be creative that are outside how we used to play. It’s never gonna go away. I just can’t wait to see what new stuff comes out.
L: There’s so many really talented people coming that are playing that aren’t 21 yet. And that’s a shame that they can’t just come play the club. Like just, let them come play the club. The
people deserve to hear them.
K: When we were on tour, we played with a band that wouldn’t have aged into any of the places in Richmond that aren’t a DIY space. And I was like, “Y’all are quite young, but like, this is fucking
awesome! Inspirational. Please keep playing music.”
R: Tell us when you hit 21 we’ll get you a gig.
CP :You guys were just on tour with Gusher. What was that whole experience like?
L: It was fantastic. It was so perfect. Great. Great turnouts all around. Perfect sweeties. Such a good balance of people. The bands together were really good. Rachel played double duty
drums every night.
R: It was the most sober I had been out of a show because I didn’t want to fuck up.
L: The shows were great. And Rachel booked that tour.
R: Seeing how different cities do it is pretty cool. It was spots like St. Louis, where our friend Richard was like, “oh, I’ll just do this one off crazy synth electronic project performance art
gallery,” and it was so cool. And also seeing spaces like in Atlanta, where we play like a community library, because like all the venues down in Atlanta all got bought up by Live Nation — all the places that we would have played five years ago.
L: And we have planned to be places that I’ve been going to for years to see shows just traveling to Atlanta. If I needed a spot on tour, I could always hit up this one place and have a place to
play. It’s not that way anymore, because you have to put down 300 bucks to secure the day.
R: It’s all for the consideration for the day
L: Consideration. Yeah. And it’s like, how can you have a community? How can you have a music scene in that kind of environment? When I was considering places to move in 2011 it was either Baltimore, Richmond or Atlanta. I came to Richmond because this place was like, still fringe still weird. Still dry. And now I see Atlanta has gone just so sideways and pushing people out. All the
creative people have been pushed out.
CP: Where can people listen to your new tape and do you guys have anything you want to plug for
the future?
K: It’s on Bandcamp right now. And it’s just divided between Side A and Side B so you can listen to it on there. And we have a few left that we made but as of right now we don’t have plans on putting that in a larger format but we are working on possibly doing a few more new songs and recording with our friend Trumpy who has recorded with us before and putting something out in
the new year.
Photographs by CJ Payne
