by Matthew Harrison<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On the last warm day of September, I sat down with the four members of Virgo Rising shortly after their two performances at BreakOut West, only days before they went on a tour of western Canada, starting in Regina and ending in Vancouver.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The name Virgo Rising stems from the astrological sign. As lead singer Emily Sinclair explained: \u201cI have a Virgo rising in my natal chart, and Lauren and Emily are both Virgo suns, and so it kind of felt fitting when we started as just the three of us.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The band first formed seven years ago after siblings Lauren and Jenna Wittmann decided to form a group. The siblings met Sinclair at a friend\u2019s party and had seen the covers she had posted to Instagram and were taken by her vocal abilities. The final piece of the group, drummer Isaac Tate, joined five years ago.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe cover videos she was posting were great,\u201d said Lauren, \u201cand mostly because of her beautiful voice.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Members of the band were in agreement that they draw inspiration from indie sounds spanning the \u201990s to today, citing groups like Big Thief, Wednesday, and feeble little horse. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThere\u2019s a lot of modern indie rock that we really like, but also at the moment we’re kind of drawn to some \u201990s, 2000s indie sounds,\u201d said Sinclair. \u201cIsaac was just saying the only songs that play in his head are Virgo songs.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cYeah,\u201d Tate said with a laugh. \u201cI listen to them on the computer, edit them on the computer. I go to bed at night and it\u2019s just still going.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Many Virgo Rising songs were initially motivated by what Sinclair wrote but have since become a collaborative effort. Oftentimes, she will come up with an idea and present it to the group to build something more from. As they\u2019ve worked together over the years they have become well attuned to their creative flow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cFor the new album, it’s been all of us all together,\u201d Sinclair said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cEverything that Emily makes, even if it’s two seconds long, is extremely catchy,\u201d Lauren said. \u201cSo then, if [she doesn\u2019t] like it, we hear it, and we get excited, and then build off of it.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Collaborative songwriting has helped Sinclair to be more open to her own creativity, more open to finding what works in the short pieces she creates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt’s fun to hear what other people hear in their heads,\u201d she said. \u201cIt’s funny to see the way other people\u2019s brains work. And sometimes when you’re just doing it yourself you get so wrapped up in the pressure you put on yourself to do something.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cAnd so having other people helps. If I say, \u2018this song is garbage and I don’t want to play it,\u2019 then everyone says it’s really good. You work on it for a couple weeks and then end up loving it. It helps me.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The new year shines bright for Virgo Rising with the upcoming release of their first full length album. With plenty of work to do, the band had finished recording the last of their 10 new tracks only an hour prior to our meeting that sunny September day. Some of these songs were in the works as far back as 2023 while they worked on their last EP.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Performing as part of BreakOut West stirred some nerves among the group, describing the vibe as more industry than what they\u2019re used to. The group first played Park Theatre, a venue some had performed at least once outside of Virgo Rising. Another BreakOut West show, played at Times Change(d) felt much more natural to the group.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As Lauren put it, \u201cwe practice almost in, like, a circle. We’re just facing each other. When you get put on [the] Park Theatre stage, like five feet apart from each other, is so different.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt\u2019s something we have to practice,\u201d Sinclair added. \u201cThat’s why the Times Change(d) one felt better. It felt like our small little practice room. It’s what we know.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWith the release of the album at some point next year, I think that’ll be a good peak for us,\u201d she continued. \u201cThen onward from there.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The album release, BreakOut West, and planning a tour across Western Canada was a lot to have on the plate at once but the band held strong through it all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe’re learning our limits,\u201d Lauren said. \u201cBut as far as band things [go], I feel like we\u2019re in a pretty good groove.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
by Matthew Harrison On the last warm day of September, I sat down with the four members of Virgo Rising shortly after their two performances at BreakOut West, only days before they went on a tour of western Canada, starting in Regina and ending in Vancouver. The name Virgo Rising stems from the astrological sign. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":12575,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,1739],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13168","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-features","category-interview"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13168","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13168"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13168\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13170,"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13168\/revisions\/13170"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12575"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13168"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13168"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13168"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}