Interviews

Radio Vago: Pychadelic Dance Destruction

By Jeff Kile

Guitars wail, basses bang, drums crash, saxaphones squeel and keyboards echo as screams of love command you to “Dance! Fucking dance!” “You have no Idea what it took to get me on stage tonight,” shouts Mirah, the lead-singer of the psychadelic-prog sextet Radio Vago. Her erratic behavior might be a bit related to drugs. I don’t know for sure,but what I do know is that this emotion and energy is absent in far too many bands. And also that any band willing to give all of that to its audience (while still pulling out some impressive technical chops), deserves all the love (and perhaps drugs) that we can give them.

Forest Fire: So, tell me your names and what you do in the band.
Nicole: I’m Nicole and I play bass.
Olivia: Olivia Parriott and I play keyboards.
FF: You guys just got back from your big tour, how was that?
N: Umm...it was fun and exhausting.
O: Yeah, it was a lot of fun. It was difficult. We had a lot of learning lessons.
N: Yeah, it was mostly educational.
O: We booked it ourselves. We did the promo, which we didn’t do completely by ourselves, but it wasn’t like a major company was doing it or anything. When we got out there, there were definitely a lot of bad shows, but also some good ones.
N: I would say half and half.
O: You would say half and half? Yeah, half and half. There would be like a slew of shows with like three people or even just the bartender. But with those, you just have to keep going and pretend like you’re playing in front of 300 people.
N: Actually there was this one club we played in Oklahoma and there were about three people there, well five people including the bartender and sound guy. And after the show the bartender was like “I just want to let you know that I really apreciate this, it seemed like you guys were playing to 300 people.” So that kinda warmed my heart.

N+O: But it was worth it, though.
(Olivia leaves to check on her keyboards)
FF: I saw you guys about a year and half ago you guys played up in Santa Cruz with Andrew W.K. and The Locust.
N: That was a really fun show.
FF: It seems like your sound has changedfrom that show and the demo you had out at the time.
N: Oh yes, definitely.
FF: Do you think that at that was a natural evolution or more of a predetermined change?
N: Well, we worked closely with Omar Rodriguez [of The Mars Volta]. He produced our full-length album, which isn’t instores yet, but I think he was a huge part of that evolution.
(Olivia returns)
N: (to Olivia) He was talking about the sound now, as opposed to when we played in Santa Cruz and that demo.
O: Oh yeah.
FF: It sounds more complex, almost progressive
N: Yeah, I think that working with him [Omar]...he definitely pushed us.
O: He pushed us really hard. He pushed our limits. He pulled something out of us, something that was already there, but something that just he could have pulled out, you know? Working with him was a really cool thing to experience.
FF: Do you have any crazy stories about Omar?
N+O: (Laughter)
O: No, nothing crazy, there were some stories...

N: He’s a crazy genius. He’s just a hard worker.
O: Yeah, he’s a very hard worker. A good guy.
FF: How did you guys get involved with him. Did he catch one of your shows?
N: We ended up getting hooked up on a two-week West Coast tour with them [The Mars Volta]. Kinda when they first started, I think it was, what was that album...that EP...
FF: Tremulant?
N: Yeah, Tremulant.
O: Actually, I think it was before the first album was coming out. Tremulant was already out.
N: Yeah, that’s right. We did like a two week west coast tour with them and at one point Omar pulled us aside to have a private conversation with us in our van. and we were like, what is going on is he gona kick us off the tour? we had no idea what it was about
O: He was like “I want to talk to you guys in thevan.”
N: He was all serious about it. (Laughs)
N: Well, he was really nervous about it and just asked how he could help out with our music. So we all made the decision that he would produce it and things went from there.
(Olivia leaves to finish packing up.)
FF: So when is the new album coming out?
N: We’re not quite sure yet, but soon.
(Olivia returns to wrap things up)
FF: Well, what can we expect in the future?
N: We are planning on doing some writing in October. Then a West Coast tour in support of our album. Then we’ll be touring in Europe and doing the All Tomorrow’s Parties with The Mars Volta in London, so we’re pretty stoked about that. So, that’s what the rest of the year looks like for us.
FF: Awesome, thanks so much.
N: If you want to throw on our myspace page, that would be cool.
FF: Sure! http://www.myspace.com/radiovago

Troubador LA - 8/29/05