This interview was done early this November in Minneapolis by Mandapocalypse. We drank coffee and beer, and chatted and laughed in a grimy basement before their practice for the Midwest Doomsday Festival. All photos are done by Twin Cities punk photographer ADAM DEGROSS.
PE: Varix! I remember your first show, and how ready, excited, and nervous you all were to be a band. Since then, it seems like you’ve all exploded with creativity, confidence, and punk ambition. Knowing you all personally, I’ve just got to say what stand-up, rad womyn you all are, and how stoked I am to know ya! Alright…. enough of the flattery, time to inform the punx about VARIX! First things first, who are you, and what do you do in the band?
Emily: I’m Emily, and I play the bass.
Angie: I’m Angie, and I play the drums.
Stacey: I’m Stacey, and I…. sing? (laughter)
Ashley: I’m Ashley, and I play guitar.
PE: How did you start up VARIX and come together as a band?
E: Very drunkenly….
Ash: Interesting question, don’t really remember, you were there, Manda! (laughter)
Ang: Well, I learned how to play a D-beat. Then Emily had a riff, and Ashley had power chords and distortion, and we were drunk, and that pretty much did it.
Em: We wanted to sound gross. Nasty.
Ash: We accepted early on it was going to be nasty.
Em: We embraced the nasty. (laughter)
Ang: But then at a point we worked on it and realized we had some songs and should get a vocalist. We really didn’t want to have a girl vocalist because we didn’t want to be a “girl band. J.P. Toulon (RIP) was actually going to be our singer early on. We saw Stacey could do it and we realized we were being sort of sexist not wanting her to do it at first because she was a girl. (laughter.)She came to a practice, yelled, and it was really great.
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