Presentation in English:
Vicious Irene is an all grrrl punkcrew from Gothenburg, Sweden. Playin melodious punk, mixing d-beat with rock'n'roll and harmonies. Their style is raw, to the point, pissed off. The vocal melodies are right on, the lyrics are simple and straight forward ideas of breaking norms in society. The band started playin together in the end of 2001 and the years have been filled with gigs and tours mainly around Europe.
Presentation in Swedish:
Vicious Irene är ett punkcrew med brudar från Göteborg som spelar melodisk punk med en mix av d-takt och rock'n'roll med harmonier. Bandet skriver texter som handlar om att bryta normer i samhället. Vicious Irene har spelat ihop sedan slutet av 2001 och åren har varit fyllda med spelningar och turneér främst i Norden och Europa.
Biography:
2001/2002
The very beginning...
Gothenburg, December 2001. It's pitch black, freezing cold and way past
midnight. In the music-house in Majorna, what is to become Gothenburgs
finest punk trio, Vicious Irene, is coming to life. Within a matter
of weeks founding members Emzy and Lotta have written material, recruited
a drummer (My Frid of McDisneyColaWorld) and made some grand plans for
the rest of the winter. Escaping the bitter cold of Scandinavian winter
the newly formed band set off to release a cascade of noise on a bunch
of happily surprised punx on the opposite side of the planet. During
a three months long stay in New Zealand, Vicious Irene toured with Atom
& his package around the country. Since My had left to go home earlier,
the band teamed up with Auckland drummer Liz Mattews for their last
New Zealand appearance - at the all girl punk party "Get set go".
Upon returning to Gothenburg in late April, Vicious Irene set out to
find a new drummer. This did'nt prove to be difficult and many pieces
fell into place when exellent trasher Maria joined the band in May.
New material was written and in July the 4-track demo "Screaming
mean Vicious Irene" was recorded. The recording was done in the
rehearsal studio by Peter, then off Bullshit Detector. The summer months
continued with Vicious Irene's first Swedish dates - the very first
being at Uddebo festival. In September the band went to London to record
a CD, "Pink Pollution", this time working with engineer Matt
West. They also did a couple of shows at Club Crash 'n' burn at Soho's
Borderline. During the autumn of 2002 the trash glam punk chicks kept
gigging around the Gothenburg area.
2003
The spring of 2003 was a rather hectic period for the band. In connection
with the International womens day they went out on the Grrrl Riot! tour.
Directely after that they payed the UK yet another visit, this time
for a tour in the Newcastle area. The glamsters barely had time to get
off the boat in Gothenburg before it was time to set abroad again -
next stop Paris! A short movie with Vicious Irene was shown at an exhibition
about feminist struggle from the 70's and onwards at Stadsmuseet in
Gothenburg during the spring. In August Vicious Irene found themselves
in quite an unexpected situation. Namely being part of a streetart/skateboard/music
show called WAR sponsered by Riksteatern/JAM, at the very first Stockholm
New Circus festival - Subörb. The festival went on for two weeks.
For the rest of the year the band played shows in Sweden and Norway.
2004
In February 2004 it was time to get back into the studio again. The
EP "Takin the night back" was recorded during a week in Grand
glam Recordings. Of course, hanging around at home this much was beginning
to make the chicks very restless. Going to Denmark to play with Harum
Scarum at Ungdomshuset in Copenhagen and to Warsaw for two dates around
May day wasn't enough. So, in May, the band went back on tour. For a
couple of weeks they travelled around in Germany and Poland, trying
to play as many gigs as possible. In June a happy crowd saw Vicious
Irene playing at Hultsfred Festival in Sweden. For various reasons the
band had a break for most of the summer. In the end of August however
they were back - louder than ever before! Of course, the band couldn´t
stay off the roads for long, so in November they were back on tour again.
And again, it was Poland that was lucky enough to see Vicious Irene
live. This time touring together with polish band Apatia.
2005
The spring of 2005 saw Vicious Irene playing a couple of Gothenburg
shows, as well as making appearances in a few other swedish towns. In
addition to this, they were working hard finding ways to distribute
the EP "Takin' the night back". On the fourth of May, a new
member of the vicious crew saw the light of day for the first time,
as Emzy gave birth to a baby boy. For this reason of course, the band
had to stay off the roads for a while. There wasn´t much of a
maternity leave though as their next gig was played in Stockholm, already
in August. In September the EP was reviewed in PROFANE EXISTANCE (US)
Read the review here. During the autumn Vicious Irene was being filmed
for a documentary by Patrik Eriksson (wich was shown on swedish state
television in October the following year). They also played some more
swedish dates. The end of the year was mainly spent in the rehearsal
studio, working on new material for a planned 2006 recording.
2006
The year started out in a true rock'n'roll manner with the band appearing
at a Copenhagen show. In February Vicious Irene was a "featured
artist of the month" on the US webradiostation CHICK ROCK RADIO!
Alongside of working on new material Vicious Irene kept on gigging in
the Gothenburg area and south of Sweden throughout the spring, until
it was time for them to enter the studio yet again. During some hot
early summer weeks they finished the recording of their EP “Don’t
suffer in silence”. The vicious crew also expanded with their
very own soundengineer Hella Collert.
In October, the documentary "Feministerna" was shown on swedish
television, with Vicious Irene appearing in it with a live version of
"Piss me off".
2007
In the spring of 2007 the band started making plans to go on a Germany
tour. Emzy couldn’t come along this time so the band hooked up
with Malin, a guitarist who joined as a bassplayer/vocalist on the tour.
The summer was spent rehearsing with Malin and in August they hit the
roads as the most vicious crew, with Hella as soundengineer and the
German band Insel des Laechelns. The tour consisted of four gigs in
Germany and especially the Ladyfest gig in Leipzig will be remembered
for all time. Back home the band couldn’t let Malin go so she
started to play guitar in the band and the new quartet made some great
gigs in Gothenburg and Malmö that fall.
2008
In the beginning of 2008 it was time to go on tour again. This time
in Holland. Malin left for Japan and back as a trio the crew hit the
roads. Hella as part of the crew of course. The tour was great and total
chaos at the same time. But the gigs and the people in Holland were
great and due to carproblems the band got a few days off in Amsterdam.
In June Malin was back in Sweden and she became a fulltime member of
Vicious Irene. The same month the release of the 2006 recording “Don’t
suffer in silence” was finally made. There were some more gigs
in Sweden before the summer, the most rememberable one at Punk Illegal
festival! The summer was dedicated to making preparations for the coming
recording in October. This time five songs were recorded in the rehearsal
place by Pontus Redig (Agrimonia, Martyrdöd). The EP “ Trash
your future” is planned to be released in January 2009. After
the recording Emzy decided to take a break from the band for a while
cause of another small one coming. Due to that Frida (Nödslakt,
Faas) joined the band on bass and vocals. It was a perfect match. After
only one month Vicious Irene stood on stage with Frida.
2009
The
EP" Trash your future" was finished in January as planned
but it took until August for the CD release. In the beginning of the
year Vicious Irene started to make preparations for an European tour
and in March it was time to hit the roads with the new trashy tour-van!
The crew were on the roads for two weeks and played 10 gigs in Germany,
Switzerland, Italy, France, Belgium. In April the new EP got a good
review in an issue of Close-Up Magazine and that led to a summergig
at the big Gothenburg-located festival WEST COAST RIOT. In May Emzy
came back from her maternity leave and Frida left Vicious Irene to keep
on gigging with her other bands. Most of the viciousgigs during the
year were in the Nordic countries. The fall was dedicated to making
new songs and a lot of hours were spent in the rehearsalplace. In December
Emzy decided to leave the band and for a while Vicious Irene will be
playing as a trio with Lotta on bass, Malin on guitar and Maria on drums.
Plans on going to California in the beginning of 2010 to play and have
a bandvacation started to grow.
Photo
by: Christina Blom 2007