ArtistInfo

Vicious Irene

voc, *2001 SE
Singer of Alternative

Vicious Irene is an all-girl punk band from Gothenburg, Sweden. Playing melodic 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 playing together in the end of 2001 and the years have been filled with gigs and tours. Gothenburg, December 2001. It's pitch black, freezing cold and way past midnight. In the music-house in Majorna, what is to become Gothenburg's 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 didn't prove to be difficult and many pieces fell into place when excellent 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 women's day they went out on the Grrrl Riot! tour. Directly 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 street-art/skateboard/music show called WAR sponsored 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 traveled 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 Existence (US). During the autumn Vicious Irene was being filmed for a documentary by Patrik Eriksson (which 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 web-radio station 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 sound engineer, Hella Collett. 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 bass player/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 sound engineer 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 car problems, the band got a few days off in Amsterdam. In June Malin was back in Sweden and she became a full-time 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 remembered 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" was 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 summer gig 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 Vicious gigs 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 rehearsal place. In December Emzy decided to leave the band and Vicious Irene kept on 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 band vacation started to grow. 2010. As a trio Vicious Irene left snowy Gothenburg in March for the sunny California and played 6 gigs in the Bay Area. There was also time to have a great vacation together! Back in Sweden the band didn't really know what to do. To continue as trio was not a permanent plan so Vicious Irene started to try and find a new vocalist/bass player. In May "Trash Your Future" was released as a 7" by the German label Ruin Nation Records. In June, Frida who played with the band during Emma's maternity leave, became a full-time member of Vicious Irene! The new happy crew played a few gigs/summer festivals in Sweden and Denmark. Then it was time to make plans to enter the studio again, this time to make a full-length record. Many new songs were made during the fall. Vicious Irene also started to make plans to tour Europe once again. 2011. In February and March Vicious delicious Irene went into the studio Spikstudio in Gothenburg and recorded 10 songs for the full-length album "Distorted State Of Mind". The mixing of the record dragged on and wasn't finished until almost a year later. Alongside this the girls kept on gigging as always having most of the gigs out in Europe on two great European tours: Trash tour and Zoro-tour. Line-up: Maria Chaos - drums Lotta Trouble - guitar & vocals Mad Molly - guitar & vocals Freddy Venom - bass & vocals