Conversing in Alleys With Vienna Vienna

toronto, canada - march 10, 2025

After opening up Toronto for K. Flay on the “I’m Making Friends With The Silence” Tour, we sat down (or rather, stood) Vienna Vienna. Check out the insightful words from the self-proclaimed glimmer-rock artist, from the writing process to his top albums to hypothetical coming-of-age films. We cooled off in the brisk Toronto air in an unlikely, but somehow endearing, environment littered with cigarette butts and leaning on dumpsters to chat all things Vienna Vienna.

Peyton Mott: We’re with Vienna Vienna in…an alley…at the Danforth Music Hall. Thanks for chatting with OTR.

Vienna Vienna: Shout out this weird alley. 

PM: I fuck with this alley. Let’s get into a few questions.

Vienna Vienna: Let's do it. 

PM: So you had a new song drop earlier this year. Assuming we're gearing up for new music?

Vienna Vienna: We're gearing up to do more shows for sure!

PM: Okay, more shows…

Vienna Vienna: Yeah, more shows, and then I have a bunch of stuff I'm working on right now. That I am still, I'm still conceptualizing, you know? 

PM: Great. Still figuring it all out?

Vienna Vienna: I want to make sure that I deliver the right thing for me, you know? So I've been collecting songs and trying to put things together and it's close, I'm almost there.

PM: What's going to be different from what you've put out before if you can say? 

Vienna Vienna: Hmm, that's a good one…I would say what's going to be different. Yeah. I think that as a guitar player I've put in way more hours. So a lot of the parts that I have been writing now, I feel like have captured a, maybe a stronger sense of my voice as a guitarist. Okay. So that is maybe what I'll, what I'll offer. 

PM: Mysterious

Vienna Vienna: Yeah. 

PM: I like to say we're like in the age of eras, what era would you say you're in or going into? 

Vienna Vienna: We’re still in the Wonderland era. We’re doing it. We're doing it. So walking in this is kind of what I said: when “God Save the Queens” came out to like my friends, family, and team, I was like, this is like the exclamation point at the end of Wonderland where I'm kind of bringing it all together. “God Save the Queens” is like my exclamation point and then the tour. 

PM: I love that. So since you're in the creating process, what's your favorite part?

Vienna Vienna: No, I mean, it's all incredible. I think when there's a moment when you're in the middle of it, that it all kind of floods at the same time.

So, you know, I'll start writing and usually, it’s like little thoughts or little ideas and I'm collecting these, I call them seeds, I'm collecting my seeds. I'll like read through everything I've written. I try to just be flowy, a stream of consciousness.

There’s 40 other ideas to me all at the same time. And that's when I know I have, I feel like I have something. And that idea will be a verse, sometimes the chorus, sometimes the guitar part, sometimes the music video idea. And then I flip a page and I write all that down and then all those will collect into something new.

Then it kind of just blooms really fast. And that moment for me is the most exciting because everything's happening all at the same time.

PM: Like an exploration period? 

Vienna Vienna: Yeah. Totally. Where it's like, I'm getting 40 different, It feels like 40 million fucking ideas are hitting me, and I have to write them all down or I'm gonna lose them forever.

PM: That sounds about right. It's like what David Lynch said.

Vienna Vienna: Yeah, “you catch them like fish.” Yeah. Exactly. 

PM: If your music could be like a soundtrack to a movie, whether that's real or something you made up, what would that be? 

Vienna Vienna: Wonderland is my coming of age story. So I think it would be like a college coming of age tale. Because that's sort of what it was for me. So I was like, I had just gotten into college, which I dropped out a couple years in — because when Pete Wentz hits you up…

PM: He calls, you go for sure!

Vienna Vienna: I know. It's like, I guess I'm doing all right. I moved to LA. Like I'm gone. Sorry guys. It was awesome. But that time for me, I knew there was something special happening in my life. Lorde talks about this too, that there’s something magical happening and I just need to make sure I write it down. And so I felt like that. Like, there was a lot happening for me all at the same time. And a lot was changing when I was growing so much. And I just wanted to make sure I wrote all of it down. So, I think a coming of age tale. Sort of that college, messy 

PM: Is there like a party scene song? You're talking like college coming of age?

Vienna Vienna: I mean, “Sex, Drugs, Whatever”. “Everything's Fine”, probably. I would even say like, the party ends on “Make a Man Out of You.”

PM: Well, speaking of “God Save the Queens”, there's a lot of references to growing up in the church, and then still has, like, that punky feel to it. How do you think that scene has influenced you, those two elements of life?

Vienna Vienna: Yeah, so, growing up, religious. 

He gives a brief sardonic laugh

PM: I know that kind of laugh. 

Vienna Vienna: It’s unlearning. Unlearning. And I think a lot of fear is sort of where I was at. I was really scared, , kind of of myself, which is hard and kind of not the way you want to be living. And pretty certain that like I was doomed in some way. Whether it was that I would stay Christian and pursue that life of celibacy that they all talked to me about. Or I was, of the belief that I would never find love or never find what I was looking for in this life. Any sense of community, a sense of home. A sense of oneness. 

And it all turned out to be bullshit. And I wanted to feel empowered. So I wrote “God Save with Queens” because every line I added in those, you know, those first few ideas made me feel stronger. I knew it might do the same thing for other people, and so it just felt like I had to, I had to share it. Then, for the other side of the question… 

PM: Yeah, there’s a lot to that one..

Vienna Vienna: Yeah, that’s a hefty one. When I got to college, actually, I made friends with like an emotional, hardcore band. So we were just hanging out all the time and I started going to shows and, I felt like I had found what I had been looking for. Not that this is like a hardcore record or punk, but I felt like I had found what I was looking for and I'd wanted to bring that to my show and to the world.

There was that oneness. And I think everybody is all, you know, feeling the same thing. We're having our group catharsis. And I just, I needed that in my show. I needed it. And I felt like “God Save the Queens” was leading me there. 

PM: It's like a beacon. 

Vienna Vienna: Yeah, totally. Oh my gosh, yeah. 

PM: On the same note, obviously a lot of the project revolves around queerness and the queer community. I guess this is the third part of the question. What about the community inspires you?

Vienna Vienna: We love deeper. Yeah. I think. I'll just leave it there. 

(He doesn’t)

I just think we love deeper. You know, like I wouldn't say I really knew what friendship could be until I made friends with queer people and women. You know? 

PM: Totally.

Vienna Vienna: I didn't have any fucking clue how to love or how to receive love or what I wanted out of my life. And when I fell into community with queer people, I felt more safe. 

PM: Okay, this is completely shifting away… Letterboxd style; what are your top 3 albums?

Vienna Vienna: Holy fuck. Yeah. Oh god. It's a tough one, okay. I can do this. 

PM: Yeah. Maybe a fucked up question. Gotta spike the adrenaline after a deeper one.

Vienna Vienna: Okay, give me a second. I'm just deciding which Radiohead album is gonna taste the best.

Okay… I’ll do all time: “Destroyed by Hippy Powers”, wait no, no it’s from Teens of Denial by Car Seat Headrest. Yeah. Teens in Denial by Car Seat Headrest. This is so controversial, maybe The Bends? 

PM: No, that’s a great pick.

Vienna Vienna: I just love, I just love that. It's either The Bends or it's, you know, maybe Kid A. Or, you know, I might give it to King of Limbs Live From The Basement. 

PM: Massive deep cut. 

Vienna Vienna: Yeah, deep, deep, deep cut. From The Basement. Or, yeah, yeah, oh god, “Super Colliders”? That is the craziest song I've ever heard live. It's nasty work. and then, one more. I've given you like five. 

PM: Radiohead’s entire discography can just count as one album 

Vienna Vienna: Yeah, that can be one. And…Let me look at my phone. No, I'm gonna do it. Oh! LCD Sound System’s Self Titled. 

PM: Okay, perfect album, top to bottom. 

Vienna Vienna: Incredible stuff. God, this is good. You can do anything. You can cry, you can dance. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. 

PM: I mean, Radiohead too, if you try hard enough!

Vienna Vienna: No, I dance to “Bodysnatchers” in my home.

PM: Exit Music? I'm totally dancing. 

Vienna Vienna: I'm dancing, I'm crying, tears are flying everywhere.

1. Radiohead - The King Of Limbs (Live From The Basement)

2. Car Seat Headrest - Teens In Denial

3. LCD Soundsystem - LCD Soundsystem

PM: Exactly, levitating. Okay, last one, rapid-fire word association game. I'll give you a few of your titles, one phrase, word, adjective, whatever works.

Vienna Vienna: Great!

PM: “God Save the Queens” 

Vienna Vienna: Fearless. 

PM: “Make A Man Out of You”

Vienna Vienna: Alive. 

PM: “Wonderland”

Vienna Vienna: Triumphant. 

PM: “Blame It On Us”

Vienna Vienna: Grateful. 

PM: And then “Beauty Queen”

Vienna Vienna: Honest. 

PM: Great! thank you so much for taking the time to chat with us. We’re looking forward to what’s next for Vienna Vienna.