Issue 41: VIAL
Welcome to The Band Bible! I’m truly glad to have you here. If you’re a new reader, purpose of this newsletter is to address, break down, and shine a light on the business of being in a band. Each issue, we do this by interviewing (and celebrating!) someone who is making waves through their incredible work with or for artists, or is an artist themselves. Learning the business of being in a band is something that is often inaccessible or shrouded in mystery, and it shouldn’t be, so I hope The Band Bible is able to play even a small role in helping to change that.
No, the best Tinder success story isn’t the couple who met within one week of signing up and have subsequently been together for years. Sorry to that one girl from your hometown.
Rather, the best Tinder success story was born when KT Branscom and Taylor Kraemer matched with Katie Fischer.
Branscom (they/them) and Kraemer (she/they) met in an after-school music program. When they later formed VIAL and needed to round out the lineup with a drummer, they created a Tinder profile for the band in search of the perfect percussionist. Fischer (she/they) proved to be “the one,” and with the final missing piece in place, VIAL was able to hit the ground running and release their debut EP, Grow Up, in late 2019.
Of course, we all know what happened a few months later.
Like most of us did during the pandemic, VIAL turned to the internet. Their TikTok videos, fun and unvarnished, made waves — and within those waves contained a current that led scrollers to Grow Up. Soon, a greater amount of ears were hearing the seven tracks that chronicle how our relationships with the people in our lives undergo a huge metamorphosis as we get older, sprinkled with longing for the simplicity that came with youth (tracks that mention not wanting to pay bills are nothing if not evergreen hits).
This success meant that by the time VIAL’s debut album arrived in the summer of 2021, people had long been hungry for it. Loudmouth was devoured voraciously, matching the degree of fever possessed by its tracks. “Mr. Fuck You” simmers and swelters as it reminds us that it is rage, often, that prevails over sadness when we realize we wasted time with someone who didn’t see our worth. “Planet Drool” and “Roadkill” sharply highlights the first-clenching fury that men in the industry who gatekeep and patronize (among other winning traits) inspire, whereas “Vodka Lemonade” unpacks social discomfort in a manner as zingy as the drink it finds its namesake in. In all, Loudmouth reminds us of the innate freedom that lies in letting yourself feel however the hell it is you feel — even if you’re still trying to work out exactly what that is or why. It’s an album ready-made for the racing mind and gnarled heart.
Photo by Madeline Elli
In the wake of Loudmouth’s triumph, things changed. Attention and demand was continuing to mount on TikTok, leaving VIAL in a situation where they wound up pulling double duty as content creators as well as musicians. That was beginning to take its toll — as was the notion that music needed to be serious in order to be taken seriously. These changes were two stitches in the tapestry of events that led to the trio’s game-changing sophomore album, burnout.
burnout is a supercharged soul-soother. Per the title, its tracks masterfully highlight the myriad of manners in which we can find ourselves at the end of our rope — and all the emotions that come alongside them. Something that makes the album magic is VIAL’s understanding that exhaustion is the ultimate shapeshifter. It can look like long-awaited liberation (“falling short”), dreams of revenge (“ur dad”), numbness (“just fine”), or ferocity (“two-faced”). Rarely does exhaustion only ever present itself by rendering us glued to something stupid on our phones and unable to do the dishes. We all know it can grind us down, but that grinding doesn’t just make us weary. It can wind us up. It can galvanize. It can awaken. It can turn potential energy into kinetic energy. It can push us into becoming people we’ve never been before. Just as it can drain us, exhaustion can also serve as a force. VIAL harnesses this acutely modern snapshot of burnout wonderfully, and as a result, the album’s tracks become canvases we can paint some of our life’s most fickle experiences onto.
Together, we experience a thousand different versions of the same events — feeling the wick of fury light when people mistreat us, watching a friendship hollow, seeing something that was once love (or resembled it) dissolve or deform, and being in a state of headlong exasperation with the world and your world, to name a few — and burnout has a unique ability to hold a mirror up to all of them. The circumstances may be specific to us and our lives, but the emotional beats act as a common denominator, a universal throughline. It’s a beautiful reminder that we all feel the same stuff, no matter what fertilized the ground for the feeling to grow. It’s a beautiful reminder that we are not islands. burnout is a beautiful reminder of the power music wields as a unifier.
Branscom, Kraemer, and Fischer all share vocal duties on burnout, with each having several standout moments. You can hear the rictus grin that gradually seeps its way into “friendship bracelet” as Kraemer sings of a dynamic that grows increasingly toxic by the line. “apathy” serves as a fantastic showcase for Branscom’s ability to unleash a powerful belt. Fischer brings warmth and whimsy to the delightful “broth song,” one of two tracks on the album that specifically tackle physical burnout. The other, “chronic illness flareups,” also serves an example of the album’s use of comedy. The thirty-second schoolyard style chant about “having chronic illness, chronic illness flareups” emphasizes how necessary it is to treat certain things with a brighter touch in order to cope. The comedic tracks (“ur dad” and debatably “broth song” join “chronic illness flareups” here) are palpably joyous. They’re a byproduct of VIAL’s embrace of music as an agent of fun, and in doing so, they revealed a true talent that listeners may not have known they had up their sleeves before.
burnout arrived in early 2024, and VIAL capped the year with a heartwarming yardstick — they released a re-recorded version of Grow Up, retitled Grow The Fuck Up, on the album’s five year anniversary in November. Grow Up is one hell of a debut, but when listening to Grow The Fuck Up, it’s apparent that you’re hearing an artist who has truly arrived. The project paints a wonderful portrait of just how much VIAL has, well, grown over the course of the past five years.
Those five years, of course, have also led to changes in how VIAL handles the business of being in a band. They’ve come into a position where they need a team, and they have one, but they choose to maintain roles in the band beyond creating and performing nonetheless. Kraemer manages their socials and website, Branscom takes care of Trout, the trio’s touring van, and Fischer handles bookkeeping and merchandise. Artists who reach the point that VIAL has are often told that they need to relinquish nearly all control in this aspect, but VIAL’s choice to keep the DIY flame lit serves as a wonderful example to other artists — particularly those who often feel backed into a corner by deal offers. It’s not always a matter of being solely DIY or fully outsourcing to others when it comes to the business of artistry. You can do things yourself and also have help, and there are people out there who will let you.
In the interview you’re about to read, Branscom and Kraemer discuss maintaining these jobs, how they strike a digital balance, the commandment they’re leaving in The Band Bible, and more. Enjoy.
Photo by Madeline Elli
You re-recorded your debut EP, Grow Up, in celebration of the five year anniversary of its release. When you look back on your younger selves who made that initial recording, what are you most proud of in terms of how far you've come?
Taylor: I’m most proud of the deeper connection we’ve made with each other as friends and bandmates, and I think you can really hear that synchronicity in our new version Grow The Fuck Up. We’ve all really grown as people and as musicians and I’m really grateful to be a part of this project.
KT: I am deeply proud of the progress we have made as people. When we were recording Grow Up in 2019, we were all extremely young, and naive in certain ways when it came to the theme of the EP: growing up and finding your place in the world and in relationships. Five years later, we came back to the songs with different, wiser perspectives and I attribute that all to us growing as individuals as well as bandmates and friends.
Many people first discovered your work via TikTok. How do you strike a digital balance?
Striking a digital balance is nearly impossible. Our main rule is to always be asking ourselves “Is this fun? Or does this feel like a chore?” As soon as social media feels like a chore, I think we’ve historically done a great job of pulling back and re-assessing our relationships with social media, specifically TikTok. We’re very thankful for all it’s brought us, but the dopamine release from the attention can be very negatively addictive.
You've previously mentioned each having "behind the scenes" roles in the band despite now having a team. Why is keeping this personal touch important to you?
Having “jobs” within the band maintains our DIY ethos even now that we have an incredible team behind VIAL. We started as a house show band, and have always wanted to keep that intimate control we had over the project, even now.
How do you maintain your sense of fun while creating?
Taylor: Writing with my bandmates is probably one of the most fun things about being in VIAL. It’s an extremely vulnerable position to present something you created to the full group without knowing if the group will like it, but the end results are always extremely rewarding. I think our writing process sometimes takes a longer time because we’re having a little too much fun with it.
KT: Creating should be inherently fun! If something is getting in the way of your enjoyment of creating, then it’s important to take a step back and reassess. Otherwise it becomes a chore. Luckily, we’ve always been good at knowing when it’s time to take a break from creating and focus on something else for a little while. Coming back with three fresh sets of eyes and ears often makes songs we’re writing even better.
Lastly, which "commandment" would you like to leave behind in The Band Bible?
Taylor: If you’re in music for anything besides the whimsy and joy of it, step back and reassess. Start a band with your best friends. If your tour van is smoking, pull over.
KT: Comparison, envy, and jealousy kills creativity. Three meals a day on tour reduces chances of strangling your bandmates tenfold.
Photo by Madeline Elli
Thank you to VIAL for taking the time to share such thoughtful answers. To keep up with the band, click here to visit their website. There, you can access streaming and socials, check out upcoming tour dates, buy merch, and more.