TERMINAL VELOCITY — (Left to right) Brian Nelson, Jim Spellman, Sarah Shannon, Archie Moore, and Kelly Riles.

By RUSS BENGTSON
Big Shout Magazine, November 1994

What am I doing? My highlight this month was hearing the new Slayer album, and here I am interviewing someone from Velocity Girl. About all I know about them is that they’re the vanguard of SubPop‘s new school, and that they play pop.

So, when the press kit comes in the mail, along with their current release, Simpatico!, I’m a little wary. Apparently, they’re a five-piece from Washington, D.C. whose full-length SubPop debut, Copacetic, garnered them a solid fan base and a ton of comparisons to My Bloody Valentine. But there’s more. Copacetic is the second-best selling album in SubPop history, behind Nirvana‘s Bleach. Now that’s impressive. Also, Velocity Girl recently signed a five-album deal with SubPop, cementing their status as an indie band.

So, on to the CD. Simpatico! is a 34-minute chunk of clear, bubbly pop, more like the Go-Gos with newer guitars than some mumbling hazy noise band who looks at their feet a lot. You can understand the lyrics and everything. So, when vocalist Sarah Shannon calls me from her mom’s Baltimore home, I’m ready. I think…

Big Shout: Are you touring yet?

Sarah Shannon: We’ve been touring for about three weeks. We’re taking a few days off, and we’ll be out again. I’m embarrassingly ignorant about our tour schedule. I mean, I know that we’re going out. I know when we’re going out, but first I started forgetting what time of day it was. Then I started forgetting what day of the week it was. Now I don’t remember what city I’m in.

BS: How long a tour is this going to be?

SS: Well, we’re going out on Friday, and it’s going to be about three more weeks, and then we’ll be home for about a week. And then we go out to the West Coast to do some shows with the Go-Gos. I’m totally psyched. I was a huge fan — that was a major junior high school crush band for me — I just loved them. We won’t be home for Thanksgiving though; that’s gonna be weird. We’ll see what happens. Maybe it’ll be like a band bonding experience.

BS: Being from Washington, and that a lot of bands now seem to want to be serious and be political, how do you keep the music separate?

SS: Well, I don’t like to express my politics through music — I’m not knocking bands that do that. It’s just that, I vote, and that’s how I express my politics. I think that’s a more effective way to get your point across. It just doesn’t come naturally to me to write songs about politics. Usually, I just write love songs.

BS: How did you decide to stay with SubPop?

SS: [The major labels] wooed us, and we talked about it. We weighed all the options, but we decided that SubPop was the best for us because they were able to offer us the kind of money that a major label would, but at the same time there wasn’t a chance of us getting lost in the shuffle, because we’d be a priority for SupPop. If we had signed to a major label, there was a chance we’d get lost in the machine.

BS: What about this album? It seems to be more straightforward pop?

SS: Oh yeah, we made a conscious effort to have it be a little more unfettered by noise… let the pop stuff shine through. The difference is the melodies just don’t get lost in the noise, you know. The hooks and the pop melodies are the most important things in the song, and they really come through.

BS: Is that a sign of confidence in your sound?

SS: Definitely. We’ve been doing this for about four years now. It just so happened that we became more proficient at playing our instruments, and we became more confident with our songwriting. So we really wanted a record that would reflect that. Noise can be like a buffer, a safety net, kind of, to could what’s really there.

BS: What about the impact of MTV on Velocity Girl?

SS: We make videos just like everybody else, and I’ve never seen videos as an art form. I see them as promotional tools. I’m more than happy to spend a lot of money on a very effective promotional tool. They play us on “Alternative Nation” and “120 Minutes,” but I’d love to get a “Buzz Clip” because that’s just like instant record sales.

BS: Do you watch MTV?

SS: Yeah, we do actually. I don’t know, I’ve developed this interest in the music industry. I subscribe to Spin and Rolling Stone now, and I’m always watching MTV. It just interests me how the machine works, and how we can manipulate it.

BS: Are you ready to be rock stars?

SS: I could be ready for that. I mean, I’m ready to be successful. I think we’ve worked really hard thus far, and I’d lie to see our hard work pay off. I’d like to not have to live from paycheck to paycheck. I’d like to be able to save money, maybe buy a car to replace the deathtrap I’m driving right now — really practical things, you know.

BS: Is there anyone you listen to who no one would think you did?

SS: Fleetwood Mac. I love Fleetwood Mac. I don’t know, it’s not so bad though because all of their music has a really strong pop sensibility, and it’s really well produced. So I guess it’s not really as subversive as it sounds, you know. It’s just pop music, and that’s what turns me on.

BS: Do you ever have the urge to be punk? I read about your 9:30 Club gig (where they destroyed their instruments).

SS: No, not at all. I hated that because I almost got hit in the head with a guitar, and I was just so fuckin’ pissed off. That was goofy.

BS: What about the crowds at your shows. You probably still get stage divers…

SS: Yeah, it’s something I don’t get, you know. We’re playing the slow love songs and they just go crazy. It’s like they’re not paying attention to the music. I haven’t the slightest idea why people do that. It’s mostly boys. Maybe they just need an outlet for their raging testosterone-fueled urges. I don’t know. They need some sort of outlet; they’re just busting at the seams.