Grace Vonderkuhn's Reveries: Review + Interview By Jason Bates

Photo by Ryan Scott


Reveries by Grace Vonderkuhn

   You know those radio stations that play your favorite rock songs from the 70s through the  90s? You know how those iconic riffs dig into you and pull out memories? Reveries, the Egghunt Records debut from Grace Vonderkuhn, is like that only you don't have memories that root the songs in your past. Instead, these songs bump and bang around in there until they have nested themselves in and sidled up to that memory of listening to PJ Harvey for the first time in your girlfriend's car while skipping 3rd period Chemistry class.
   The 10 songs on Reveries are relentlessly enjoyable. They mix some 70s-style bottom heavy riffs with 90s garage rock fuzziness with infectious rhythms with idiosyncratic, poetic lyrics. But wait, you say, I'm not a 40 year old person and do not know these musical references. Great, I say, even better! Take 4 minutes and go listen to Candy Buttons. Give it a chance. Listen to the whole song. It won't sound like anything you have ever heard…in the best possible way.
   Cellophane, Worry, and Candy Buttons are stand out tracks, but the entire album rocks. It is definitely a play-through-without-skipping type of album.
   I had the opportunity to steal a few minutes of Grace’s time recently and I asked her about the recording process. She said, “[Reveries was recorded] on a Tascam 8-track onto cassette. I love the warmth of tape recordings and have always been inspired by Kim Deal's All Wave movement. Matt, who engineered and mixed the album, and I setup a recording space in our house in Wilmington. We recorded half of Reveries there with my band. Then we moved to a log cabin in PA and did the rest there. I do a lot of writing in the basement of the cabin because that's our practice space but we actually recorded in the living room which has a lovely high ceiling. That definitely took over our lives for a while.”
    Me: “What has been the best part of recording/releasing/gigging for this album?”
    GV: “I think getting invited to play SXSW was really cool for us and just a totally new experience. It's also been great seeing people we've never met in the crowd singing the words to the songs. The response from people has been overwhelmingly kind and encouraging.”
    Me: “And the opposite...what’s the hardest part?”
   GV: “Just worrying about missed opportunities, wondering if I'm doing enough promotion, booking, etc. I'm often thinking ‘you can always do more’ but that runs the risk of burning out.”
    Me: “What does the near future hold for Grace Vonderkuhn?”
   GV: “Soon we're putting out a music video that we are so thrilled about and we'll be doing some more touring. Also, songs for a new album are coming together…”
You can catch Grace Vonderkuhn this Summer at the Ladybug Festival in Wilmington, Delaware.


Full Album on Bandcamp
Website
Ladybug Festival

Jason Bates will interject movie quotes into conversations even when the person on the other end has never seen the movie being quoted. His writing has appeared in Before I Leave...Lit Zine, Figroot Press, and aLiteration Magazine, and upcoming in River City Poets Anthology. He is also the founder of Spider Mirror Journal. 

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