Music
We sat down with Romy Vager to chat about RVG's quick ascent and why their tunes always make people cry.
Melbourne’s RVG have been one of those inspired examples of when members from various bands form with an immediate alchemy, creating a beautiful force that propels outwards, seemingly effortless, to great heights and success. Last year was the instant that RVG (Romy Vager Group) became Australia’s most acclaimed new guitar group.
Romy Vager’s songs -- that were written in isolation -- have been transposed into anthemic rock’n’roll with otherworldly echoes of The Go-Betweens. Their debut A Quality Of Mercy came by giving the songs over to collaboration with Angus Bell (The Galaxy Folk, Drug Sweat) on bass, Marc Nolte (Rayon Moon) on drums and Reuben Bloxham (Hearing, Gregor) on guitar.
The four have known each other for years. “Putting them all together was a bit of an experiment. And it all paid off in some weird ridiculous way,” says Vager. “I didn't think I'd ever do anything so lush, you know? All my other bands have been very coarse and grungy.”
She recalls writing the RVG songs in 2015 while living upstairs at The Bank, a recording and performance space in an old bank building in suburban Preston, Melbourne. The space was literally home for many left of centre musicians like Gregor, Jaala and Hearing, including her bandmate Bloxham.
“Heart Paste and Vincent Van Gogh were two of the songs I wrote quite earlier on than the other ones. I feel like I was writing really boring grunge songs and when I made the demos, tapping into the lyricism that I was going for, for me put everything on that sort of path,” Vager says.
“I think people respond really well to Vincent Van Gogh which has been really beautiful. I’ve had so many people come up to me and say, ‘Is that song about me? It’s okay you can tell me. Is it about me?’ And it’s like, ‘It’s not about you.’”
You say you’re hard done by. You say you’re a wreck. But the damage you do is worse than the damage you get … You should really stop drinking. You should really stop fixing. You should really stop thinking that you’re Vincent Van Gogh.
Vager says the song is actually a pastiche of a lot of people and she believes that the more vulnerable people in the music community relate to its story. Vincent Van Gogh describes a masculine sort of person, one damaging to themselves and those around them, a type Vager says was all too common in Melbourne five years ago. “A lot of things have changed since then in Melbourne I think. I think people can really feel that in that song maybe. I think that’s why it resonates with people,” she says.
A Quality Of Mercy puts Vager in the mind of one of the Bali Nine, destined for execution and responding to the baying bloodlust of Herald Sun readers. “I don’t know if I’ll ever write a song like that again. It’s quite political and I’m not generally that political.”
She says, “I remember thinking this is quite rare for me to write a song about death. And for me hitting all the boxes of what I was trying to say and actually managing to do it in the small amount of space. It’s my baby. It’s my number one child.”
Before RVG was assembled to perform Vager's material, she’d been closed off as a creative person, very isolated and internal. “I thought to myself I must have all the ideas before I bring them to a band. I must be in control of the kind of thing that I’m making. Then when I started playing with everybody else in RVG it was all about collaboration. It was something the band definitely gave me.”
A Quality Of Mercy was recorded at The Tote with some later overdubs at The Bank in Melbourne. “We just recorded it for us and we borrowed stuff and probably only spent like $150 on it.” Bassist Angus Bell took a strong hand in its production. “Gus has got a really good ear for things that are lush and big and kind of transposed that onto the band, which was really good,” Vager says.
Audiences respond unusually strongly to their performances and Vager suggests the band's realness might be part of it. “We seem to have a lot of people crying constantly when we play, which I suppose is a compliment but who knows?”
We seem to have a lot of people crying constantly when we play, which I suppose is a compliment but who knows?
The closing track from the record That’s All seems to be the one that really does it. “When we were at Meredith, when we played [That’s All] it was just a bunch of people weeping. With their shoes in the air, which was bizarre. So bizarre.”
Their afternoon show on the Saturday at Meredith Festival, December 9 was the culmination of their extraordinary year. “Reuben [guitarist] has been going to the festival since he was in high school, you know? So it was kind of a big deal. I'd never been before but I know that it's a very special thing.”
Whatever RVG had thought, the actual show exceeded their expectations. “I still get shivers thinking about it because it was a very special gig that we got to play. For a lot of reasons - people's history and a lot of connections with people. A lot of our friends were there and it's something that I'm still trying to figure out,” says Vager.
Watching RVG has been an exhilarating sight for the music community. Everyone likes this band. Their first show was late 2015, and here they are experiencing this triumphant Meredith Festival and soon to head for South By Southwest in March 2018.
“Well, it's pretty incredible. I have to hold myself back from thinking about it too much, I guess. Two years ago I didn't personally have a band. I was just playing solo. And I reached a point where I just didn't want to do it anymore. So this came about and it went well. Now it's going really well for us and it's really unbelievable,” Vager smiles.
“I do try to not look at it directly in the eye though because it's not good for writing songs if people are trying to come and speak to you all the time. How am I going to write Goth ballads if people are complimenting me? It's ridiculous.”
While everyone is asking her about a follow-up, Vager is set on doing what they did with their first record. Taking it slow and not rushing anything. The material is coming along, perhaps only a song or two away from a whole album. They may record around April or May depending on how things go. Maybe even in a studio this time.
Vager says her new material is actually a lot more depressing than the first record in parts. “There's fewer points of hope than the first one maybe. I'm trying not to let it get that way and I might write another song or two to rearrange it. But at the moment it does look that way.
“It’s been a pretty beautifully ascending kind of nice thing to write about for the band. But personally it's been quite difficult. So I think the songwriting has reflected that in some degree.
“Being a kind of prominent trans person who's being pushed out of their comfort zone, out of the Melbourne bubble that I live in, out of my house in Coburg, is scary and challenging. And I think that's a lot of the things that I've been thinking of. They're kind of related to that, I think, more than anything.”
RVG's A Quality Of Mercy is out now via Bandcamp.
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