Interview: Times New Viking

“We were three art school students who all liked Fluxus, Dada and new realism,” says Times New Viking’s keyboardist/vocalist Beth Murphy. “Our senior year, we were all struggling with the relevance of contemporary art, so we would leave class to go write pop songs.”

Wow. As far as opening gambits go, that’s pretty full on. But then Ohio residents Times New Viking are pretty full on, electrifying the spirit of Robert Pollard and Stephen Malkmus with the ear-frazzling propensity for racket of The Sonics. Throw in the adolescent swagger of Richard Hell and it all makes for a potent, very noisy concoction.

“Teenagers have their whole lives to look forward to, so anything is possible,” continues Beth. “We like to incorporate that message into our songs. You don’t have to resign yourself to a bad situation, political or private. You don’t have to be so nervous.”

The band describe their art as, “Primarily idea based, meaning expressing the concept is of first and foremost importance and displaying technical skill comes second.” It’s a philosophy that results in the kind of fantastic lo-fi shambles that has you frantically reaching for the nearest Guided By Voices record, desperate to fall in love with indie rock all over again.

“We like the qualities that lo-fi brings to mind – immediacy, urgency…” says Beth. “On the other hand it would be fun to hear our whole album recorded by Timbaland.”

As amazing as that would be, you don’t want Times New Viking to change. Their new album, Rip It Off, is being released by Matador, the stable of such indie stalwarts as Yo La Tengo and, yes, Pavement and Guided By Voices. So what does being on a ‘bigger’ label (the band were previously on Slitbreeze) mean for the band?

“More emails, opportunities – it makes us think of being a pop musician as an occupation rather than a hobby.”

And really that’s what they are, deep down. Strip away the fuzz, the layers of noise, and you’re left with the perfect pop songs Beth wants them to write, but technical proficiency prevents. And, as she admits, “Everything has been regurgitated already ad infinitum, so you might as well just rip it off, and with that you’d better know your history.”

Times New Viking know it well enough, and the most important thing – on communication: “Punk music and rock music is supposed to be loud. When you want to get someone’s attention you yell, right?”

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