Hello, could you provide us with an overview of Virgin Mary Disco for those who might be new to your music?
Hey! We’re Virgin Mary Disco. We’re a post-punk / garage rock / new wave band from Melbourne, Australia. If we had to describe our sound, we would be something like a mash-up of The Strokes and The Cure.
The name “Virgin Mary Disco” is intriguing. Can you shed some light on the origin and significance of this unique name?
We have two stories of the origin: the first is that the name was taken from the title of a song and re-hashed; the second is that we all go to a church that’s also a disco.
You decide which one is real.
To give our audience a deeper understanding of your band, could you tell us about the musical backgrounds and experiences of each member?
Liam: I started playing music as a sprightly 13-year-old, playing in numerous punk bands through my teen years. I found my feet in a synth pop band in the UK but after moving to Australia in my early twenties, I was eager to get back into music-making with good friends.
Duncan: I started playing guitar at 11 with a love of blues and classic rock before playing and songwriting in multiple punk and garage rock bands during my teen years. In my early twenties I developed a love of funk and psychedelic rock and followed that passion with another band and solo project. Virgin Mary Disco was a way to return to my punk/garage rock roots, while still expressing these different playing styles and incorporating them in new and hopefully interesting ways.
Spencer: I started off playing drums in my church band, then graduated to start writing/recording my own songs. Eventually, when I moved to Melbourne, I dedicated myself to finding some good people to write great tunes with.
Jackson: I’m a lifelong doom and metal fan, who’s played in countless indie, rock & punk bands. I found that there’s no shortage of bands that need a drummer!
Every band has its fair share of memorable moments. Do you have any intriguing anecdotes from your journey so far that you’d like to share?
One of our favourite memories from this year was during the release show for our first single “Modern Man”. Duncan, guitars, is well-known for playing all shows with his shoes off. It is also common knowledge that Duncan is also sober. Well, just after the penultimate song, the crowd chanted for Duncan to do a ‘shoey’, to which he politely obliged. If we didn’t know better, we’d say Duncan must be one of a handful of people to ever do a ‘shoey’ sober!
“For Free” is your upcoming single, and we’re eager to learn more about it. What was the inspiration behind this track?
The song is about the experience of employment in the modern workplace and its relationship with capitalism. Many companies today present themselves as supportive, community environments, but at the end of the day many businesses, large and small, continue to thrive on a system based on the extraction of cheap resources and cheap labour, leaving us to pay the true cost of their greed. Existential, right?
In the creative journey of crafting “For Free,” did you face any notable challenges, and if so, how did you overcome them?
“For Free” came together quite easily, compared to many of our other songs, and we think that’s why it works so well. The song came about from a jam we had where we were trying to imitate a surf rock song as a joke and it developed from there.
To understand your creative process, what typically sparks the initial idea for a new song within the band?
Every song is different for us, but typically right now, one of our main ways of starting a new song is that someone in the band might come in with either an idea or maybe a melody/progression and then bring it to rehearsal.
The process of creating music can be fascinating. Could you share how you collaborate within the band to bring a song from concept to completion?
We’ll jam and chat through ideas and see where it takes us. If it’s simply a melody or small idea, it can sometimes take a little longer to fully flesh out. Sometimes someone might bring a larger idea to the table that has structure to it, that feels more like a song. This process is interesting because when one person writes a song, it can change quite a bit once we’ve collaborated, exchanged ideas and added our own creative processes to it.
Looking ahead, what’s the ultimate goal for Virgin Mary Disco in terms of the impact and legacy of your music?
We’d really like to make a difference in the Australian music scene. We enjoy writing songs that have substantial meaning to not only us but other people too. We also want to show that punk music can still be mature and well thought out without sounding repetitive.
To conclude, what can fans anticipate from Virgin Mary Disco in the near future?
After our support show with Amyl and The Sniffers, both fans and future fans can expect another single fairly soon, and potentially some brand new music in 2024… who knows?
Check it out and follow Virgin Mary Disco on social media to be updated with the new releases. Facebook – Instagram.
