The world is just days away from this Pete Wentz-backed artist hitting the road with K. Flay… get ready.
Just a week after the life-altering fires of Southern California, The Aquarian sat down via Zoom with Vienna Vienna. The rising singer-songwriter currently resides in LA and had to evacuate the area due to the devastating wildfires, but he was lucky to return to a complete home, see his coveted guitars untouched, and experience a new sense of graciousness – and a hope that those typically mundane, average coffee shop trips will come back for everyone, because it felt different that first morning back. It felt like something that should no longer be taken for granted.
Vienna Vienna felt good, though. “Me, mine, and myself are doing well,” he told us at the start of our conversation. He’s getting back into the swing of things, preparing and rehearsing songs new and old for tour. We couldn’t be happier for the queer icon in the making.
In the entertainment industry, and as a creative, life moves fast; it can be easy to fall into patterns of ungratefulness, and these major life and weather events can serve as immense wakeup calls. For this musical star, that wasn’t the case. Vienna Vienna exudes two things: excellence and appreciation. He stands tall on his evocative, artistic feet. He is grounded and honored to have this career taking off. He is enamored by music and its effect on both himself and those who listen. His mindset is raw and his approach to creating is organic; sweet, too, but not sugary – Vienna Vienna’s perspective is real, spontaneous, grounded, spirited, and fulfilling. The latest releases to his name embody that and hint at his otherworldly trajectory. (Go listen to “God Saves The Queens” and “Best of Me” once you have finished reading our below conversation with the honest, glimmer rock act.)
The EP cover for Wonderland is so cool. The more you look at it, the more introspective it gets; you could take many different things away from it. Also, the first song I heard of yours was
“Best of Me,” which has great art as well. I’m excited to ask you: how much of the creative and the visual part of Vienna Vienna is done by you?.
Thank you, I appreciate that. I’ve been very involved with the visual aspect from the start. I feel like right after I finish a song, I’m pretty certain of the visuals for it. I feel like they come to mind, even most of the time while I’m writing it. There are a lot of notes in my notebooks from where I’ll be in the middle of writing a song and I’ll flip the page and write a little bit about how the video should look or what the cover art should look like, and then flip back. It feels kind of like all the ideas hit at the same time.
I think about David Lynch, rest in peace, and how he talked about ideas and how you don’t really have them, you kind of catch them like fish. I feel like once I have the first idea that comes to me, pretty quickly the rest of it follows, which is great. Then I have wonderful collaborators that help me bring that to life, both at Pulse and also personally. I shot the “Best of Me” art with my good friend Achi McCormick, who is just amazing. I knew I wanted there to be like an element of surrealism to all of it, because I think for me, that kind of captures the feeling of growing up, which felt surreal in some ways. I wanted to curate that feeling. That one always felt good, like my head was flowers in a way. I don’t know, but it does all come pretty quick, which is cool.
I love that it comes about in a way that feels right to you in the moment and in the creation of the song itself. That only benefits how the entire release resonates with a listener like myself. I felt the same with “Beauty Queen,” and somehow I discovered an a connection between that song and “Best of Me,” just in how the personal narrative evolves.
Interesting; I hadn’t thought of that. Wonderland is definitely my coming of age story, though, and when I look back at it, I see and hear how it was made over the course of the last two to three years, from age 19 to 21. I feel like I was really coming into my own then, so it’s definitely like a coming of age story. It’s cool that it’s reflective of that for you. That’s awesome […]. The best part of music is obviously making it and performing it, but also connecting with people on that emotional level. That is really special. I’m glad it was able to connect with you; it’s really exciting.
Of course. This idea of finding who I am, knowing who I am, accepting who I am, and getting to this place where I can look back and see how far I’ve come, but also have the strength to look ahead and see where I’m going… all of that is felt in Wonderland, and I love that you kind of echo that. The structure of these six songs play into that, I find. How much time did you spend on the sequencing of this EP? Because it’s small and mighty and seems quite thoughtful.
Well, thank you. You know, it went through a lot of permutations. When it started out, there were like five more songs, and then I was like, “You know what? Some of these don’t fit.” I pulled those out and used them as singles, like “Best of Me.” I wanted to put those songs out, but I’m wasn’t sure that they were right for Wonderland. The tracklist went through a lot of changes, but it was actually Pete [Wentz] who helped a lot with that, which was great. He was like, “Oh, maybe we should try it this way.” I was like, “You’re right – that’s awesome.” He notices the little things, you know? And it works. I think [Wonderland] was originally gonna open with “Sex, Drugs, Whatever” and then it was gonna be “Everything’s Fine,” and then we just kind of switched things around until it felt right and until it felt like it told the story effectively. Both lyrically and musically, I wanted it to be structured in a certain way. One thing I have done for a very long time is be very careful with the crafting of the setlist for shows, so I wanted to make sure that my sort of method for structuring those live shows came through on this EP, too. You kind of have to sit in it and flow with it, but then there are still surprises, so with the tracklist, I feel like it came out really good. I’m really happy with the sequencing of things. I think it tells the story the way I want it to, which is good, and in the order that I think a lot of it happened, which is great.
Oh, wow. Really?
Yeah. Like, looking back, I was like, “Oh, this is kind of the pacing of it for real.” It’s pretty awesome.
There are some really electrifying moments on the EP, and a nice ebb and flow with the stories and beats that back it up..
Thank you! Listening back on it retrospectively, I was like, “This is the right order,” but then I was like, “Oh, this is the actual order of events,” which is cool. It’s very fun.
You mentioned you pulled some songs out that didn’t necessarily fit the vibe of the EP. We have your cover of David Bowie’s “John, I’m Only Dancing,” which is one of my favorite covers of a Bowie song to date.
That’s great. I didn’t want to do a replica, because I felt like he would’ve hated that. He’d have been like, “Just do your own thing.”
His whole thing was originality, so I think so, too.
Yeah, and I love that song. I truly love that song. I don’t think anybody else could have written that song, so it was really special to cover it and to do it in my own way. It was done totally live, and the vocals you hear on the video of “Beauty Queen,” where I play it live in the garage? That’s the part on the song, but we beefed it up a little bit. I just felt like I had tapped into something there that day that I kind of wanted to capture with “John, I’m Only Dancing.” I was like, “Ok, I’ll just do it the same way with just guitar and vocal.” It wasn’t totally live, but I think it definitely has that same thing to it where I didn’t want to overproduce it, and I didn’t want to do a replica, so I kind of just went for it. I practiced it really hard [Laughs], and then I went into the studio and just started tracking things until it felt done, but not overproduced. There was a chance for that story to shine, because I think it’s a pretty awesome story, but all of his stuff is. I think “Heroes” is a perfect song. Oh, man… Bowie.
He was a true character as a human and an artist, and I’m getting that distinct quality of his approach to art in you. With this cover, it’s naturally a pretty bright song, but the way that you did so personally gave it more airiness and some warm, dreamlike qualities. I guess that was your ‘not overproduced’ goal paying off!
Thanks! Bowie’s really good at the concept of something being said in a hundred ways. The conversational aspect of him and this song is very strong. He sings, “John, I’m only dancing. She turns me on, but I’m only dancing.” There are a lot of ways that conversation could happen and I wanted to capture as many of them as I could and be in different moments for different parts of those. Yeah, he was always great at that. With any lyric or phrase of his, there are5 just so many different conversations that it could be said in, so it’s really special. I’m really grateful that I got to do this, I really am.
Your version of the song just feels immediate, off the cuff, like “I needed to get that off my chest. This is my song, these are my words and memories.” It felt very owned.
I think that’s part of practicing, for sure. I definitely want to feel that in my stuff, too. I want each line to feel like I’m coming up with it as I’m saying it. It keeps things feeling fresh, but like you said, it’s also about being very in the moment and making sure that everything feels very present. That was really important in Wonderland now, too, where I was like, “Everything needs to feel like it’s happening right now to keep the listener invested, but also to make it so that performing it ends up being really, really exciting.” In those moments, each time I can kind of re-access that feeling and the moment of what I feel. Usually I do something and then I write about it like right after, or I’ll have the idea right after that thing that just happened that ‘this is a song’ feeling – I usually just don’t know what it is yet, so I’ll write down what I’m feeling and then I’ll go figure it out later. I think that has helped it to feel very present and in the moment, like you were saying. I’m grateful that it came across.
A big part of the reason I started writing music is because it was an easy way for me to process feelings. It helps a ton in my life; I don’t know what I would do without it [Laughs]. I have no idea, but I know I would be a bit of a mess. I notice that, too: in times when I’m not writing as much, I’m like, “Oh, I’m kind of a mess right now. I need to zoom in and process some things and write it down.”
We are all glad that you not only write it, but also share it with us. We’re learning and observing and listening to it all, and that’s a testament to what you’re doing as an honest, in-the-moment artist. Do you think that is going to expand even more when your tour with K. Flay starts soon?
Yeah, and, man, I’m excited for that run. I’m having some of these first shows since new music has been out, so I’m like actually meeting fans of these songs for the very first time, which is pretty unbelievable. To go to a show and look out and see that there’s people who are singing the words back to me is really trippy and very exciting. God, I mean it when I say it – I’m so grateful. In these interviews, I keep going back through everything and then having these moments where I’m like, “Wow, I am so grateful to get to do this. I’m so, so grateful.” It’s such an honor to be able to share my feelings and have that shared catharsis with people. It’s such an honor. God, I’m really excited. It’s gonna be a beautiful time. I think K. Flay is the best, too. We hang out a lot and we write. She is the best, and I also don’t think I’ve done a tour that is this long, so it’ll be a test of stamina. I’m excited, though. I’m really excited […]. Tour is magic. It’s a magical thing. I’m excited for all of it.
CLICK HERE FOR TICKETS TO VIENNA VIENNA’S TOUR WITH K.FLAY, INCLUDING IRVING PLAZA ON MARCH 12! FOLLOW VIENNA VIENNA ON INSTAGRAM TO KEEP UP WITH EVERYTHING!
