Sarah Mary Chadwick:

Can I ask you about your record?

Romy Vager:

I don't wanna talk about the record [laughs]. Uh, yeah, sure. It's good! I feel really happy with it, which I've never felt with the record before.

Sarah Mary Chadwick:

Really? How come?

Romy Vager:

Just because I had a bit more involvement. I feel like the last two records I was a bit absent.

Sarah Mary Chadwick:

In what ways? I kind of almost thought it would be the opposite bit as it kind of got bigger…

Romy Vager:

I feel I just took a lot more of a hand in deciding what was going to happen with this record. With the other records it was more like I would let the space fill in front of me. With this I was more like, I want to make this kind of record. We spent all our money and recorded in London. And I think mostly, yeah, just changing things up was nice. I didn't want to do it in Australia because I felt like, you know, someone was just going to go, oh, I understand the influences. It sounds like the Go-Betweens. It was nice having someone overseas who was just, had no idea about that.

Sarah Mary Chadwick:

How many days did you take to record it?

Romy Vager:

I think 13?

Sarah Mary Chadwick:

So, like in the studio quite a bit then?

Romy Vager:

Yeah, like every day, no breaks.

Sarah Mary Chadwick:

Is that the first time you've done a long recording effort?

Romy Vager:

No, we've done it before.

Sarah Mary Chadwick:

I've never done that ever.

Romy Vager:

Really?

Sarah Mary Chadwick:

No. I feel like what I do with solo stuff it’d be difficult to take too much time. I’m a bit a ‘three takes max’ person. If it's just me and the piano then, you know, it can only get as good as it can get.

Romy Vager:

Yeah, I can see that.

Sarah Mary Chadwick:

Also, with Batrider never having any money, we were like, we’re going to record 25 songs in two days. Everyone makes sure we were ready and no one fuck up [laughs].

Romy Vager:

That's surprising to me because I hear those records and that's kind of amazing that you would spend that much time.

Sarah Mary Chadwick:

I'm always pretty prepared. If I'm prepared, then it can always move quickly. You can kind of make it your own pace. But I feel like playing with a band again has been quite eye-opening.

Romy Vager: Well solo's so much easier, isn't it? You just kind of, you just show up and you do your thing. And you get all the rider [laughs].

Sarah Mary Chadwick:

You do, you do [laughs].

Romy Vager:

It's kind of great. I was gonna ask you as well. Cause I see you all the time. You're playing the keyboard and it works so well with your voice and what you do. And I must imagine like doing that for a while, coming back to the extremely heavy, distorted guitars and stuff is…

Sarah Mary Chadwick:

It took me ages. So you’ll laugh at this because you're probably so gig fit at the moment. But not knowing how to play guitar will seem really weird. But it took me ages to get my head around, even like pedal placement. So, Steph who plays drums in Batrider and is Summer Flake. She like still plays guitar all the time obviously. So, I was like, Steph, which order do I have these pedals in? And like only practising once every couple of weeks, so every single time having to grow your fingertips back.

Romy Vager:

Yeah.

Sarah Mary Chadwick:

But it's been cool. Being loud is always cool, whether it's solo or in a band. I don't usually go to practice rooms or anything. So that's been fun. Being able to be really obnoxiously loud and punish everyone.

Romy Vager:

One of your gigs I saw, was when I played with you years ago. It’s the first time I'd seen you play a guitar and I loved it.

Sarah Mary Chadwick:

When was this one?

Romy Vager:

This was with Sweet Whirl. You had a residency, I think. I opened. And I think every night of the residency you were trying to do something slightly different.

Sarah Mary Chadwick:

My memory's so bad, I can remember you [laughs], but I can't remember where it was…

Romy Vager:

Upstairs at The Tote. And I remember you did a cover of ‘The Christian Life’. I'd never heard that song before. Then I went away and listened to that Byrds album because I heard you play it.

Sarah Mary Chadwick:

Do you know what is funny, because I was brought up Catholic or whatever, but obviously I'm not practising cause I'm a sane person.

Romy Vager:

[Laughs].

Sarah Mary Chadwick:

But I always would wear a cross. And then sometimes, like I've got merch t-shirts that have got a big Jesus on a cross on it. And then covering ‘Christian Life.’ I'm, like, people are gonna think this is too religious now [laughs].

Romy Vager:

I've had weird things happen because we've got a song called ‘Christian Neurosurgeon’ from the last record. And it's, it's a weird song. Like, I just thought it was a dumb joke I made up in my head. And I do have people ask me in interviews like, are you a Christian? And sometimes I’ve had Christian neurosurgeons follow me on Instagram. It’s funny because the song's about denial. But I guess some Christian neurosurgeon out there is kind of inspired by it [laughs].

Sarah Mary Chadwick: They’re like, ‘this is exactly the song for me’ [laughs].

Romy Vager:

Yeah, exactly. It's kind of cool. I wish I had a song for me. I guess you write songs for yourself don’t you… [laughs]

Sarah Mary Chadwick:

Yeah. All those songs are for you! [Laughs].

Romy Vager:

I had another question. There's one that I was thinking of on the way here. I feel like the way that we write songs and the way that we sing is quite similar in a way. There's something quite visceral about it.

Sarah Mary Chadwick:

I feel like you are someone who sings quite big in a way that I try and sing quite big. Do you know what I mean?

Romy Vager:

Yeah. And it's, kind of, very raw.

Sarah Mary Chadwick:

You’ve got a great voice though. You're not like an oddity singer.

Romy Vager:

You’ve got a great voice as well. I feel like I'm inspired by you. I'm very inspired by a rawness. Sorry I'm chewing on a nicotine mint because I'm like trying not to smoke at the moment [laughs]. But I do feel like both of us have the ability to make people cry and feel things in a way that maybe other people who sing don't. I guess my question is, have you ever wanted to make like a very saccharine happy, record? [Laughs.]

Sarah Mary Chadwick:

I feel like, I'm thinking of how many times this has happened to me—and I’m assuming that it's happened to you twice as much—that after a show, people come up to me and say, “oh you made me cry”. To be honest, it used to bug me a bit [laughs]. Cause I'm like, those are my feelings. But then I kind of had to like you are actually putting those feelings out and performing them. Like your ownership over it ends then. But I have got better at not engaging in really long conversations about people’s trauma after every single show [laughs].

Romy Vager:

Oh yeah. Yeah.

Sarah Mary Chadwick:

Totally. So, my answer would be no. In fact, it kind of stresses me out a bit because part of me is like, maybe that's the appeal? Like I remember a million years ago before I started doing that therapy and stuff, being like, fuck, what if I get all my problems sorted out and I can't write cool songs anymore.

Romy Vager:

Yeah. I've been there.

Sarah Mary Chadwick:

So, no really. And I imagine you’re the same way, that I am not following a kind of logical trajectory in terms of records.

Romy Vager:

No, no. Absolutely not.

Sarah Mary Chadwick:

Yeah. You know how you wanted to go to England to record with someone that wasn't familiar with you. Like that, that's maybe an odd thing but also that's really smart because obviously you’re adding something. You’re making choices to make it different and not make it predictable.

Romy Vager:

Yeah.

Sarah Mary Chadwick:

But it seems like that would be a logical trajectory. Be 20 and then get slowly more and more happy and mellow until you're like 60. [Laughs].

Romy Vager:

Be an extremely happy 60-year-old [laughs].

Sarah Mary Chadwick:

Like overjoyed. But I don't want to do that, really.

Romy Vager:

Fair.

Sarah Mary Chadwick:

Do you want to?

Romy Vager:

I think about it but it's always kind of like, it's just not gonna happen [laughs]. It's just more of a fantasy. You're like, maybe I could do that…. And it's like, oh, but like I am really good at this other thing that I do, and it does actually mean a lot more to me.

Sarah Mary Chadwick:

I feel like another thing we have in common is just being very interested in songwriting. Have you ever thought about writing songs for other people? Cuz if then you can do that, but you don't have to perform them.

Romy Vager:

I would like to do that. Sometimes I write a song and I think this would sound so much better if someone else was singing it. Or more interesting maybe. But songwriting for me is very much, I’m just in a room by myself and something comes out. I dunno how I could do that for other people.

Sarah Mary Chadwick:

I think I'm probably a bit the same as you. In my mind I'm like, that could be good. But in reality I’d be like, no, I want that one.

Romy Vager:

That's the thing. It takes me a while to write a song. It seems like we release an album every three years. So, it's like, what I've got has to be best of three years.

Sarah Mary Chadwick:

See, my motto's always been quantity, not quality [laughs]. But that’s why I feel like your reputation and the world that you've created for RVG is like so airtight because you have done it like that.

Romy Vager:

Yeah. But you know, if I start writing a bad song, I just stop.

Sarah Mary Chadwick:

Yeah, if I write a bad song, I'll just write another one [laughs]. So, I end up with like five or six variations. Then I'm like, that's all covered. Then I only record one.

Romy Vager:

That is actually amazing. So, when you make an album do you have, like, a lot of songs?

Sarah Mary Chadwick:

Less so these days. But when I was younger, we'd just go crazy. I'd write 40 and then record 20 then pick 15 and master 10 kind of vibe. But these days I kind of keep it a bit tighter. When I've got enough, I just stop. Which means I've got a lot of down time, but it's fine [laughs].

Romy Vager:

That's incredible. Do you find it weird to play songs that you've written a very long time ago? And do you think about the circumstances in which they're written? How does that go for you?

Sarah Mary Chadwick:

So, some of the Batrider songs that we'll be playing at the show were, were written by a 23-year-old. And I don't know if that person is particularly cool or smart. Like, when we did our first rehearsal, I was just like, I don't know if I can sing this lyric. Fucking hell, why am I, why am I rhyming “drain” and “brain”? [Laughs.] But now I've gone through it enough now that the cringe factor has evaporated somewhat.

Romy Vager:

So do you listen to it, just roll your eyes a bit and go, oh God, well fuck.

Sarah Mary Chadwick:

I think you just have to take it on the chin to be honest. It’s just part of it.

Romy Vager:

It definitely doesn't come across like that from a listener perspective. But I totally understand that.

Sarah Mary Chadwick:

Yeah. But I feel like it should be like that because honestly if I still related really hard to the lyrics that I wrote in my twenties and I'm 40, that would be very sad and depressing [laughs]. You know what I mean?

Romy Vager:

I was reading an interview with Sum 41 a few years ago. They wrote those dumb pop punk anthems when they were in their 20, and now they’re in their 40s. And they were like, try to have fun with it. And honestly, it was good to read that.

Sarah Mary Chadwick:

It's actually good to hear that. Because I think that will be my mindset moving forward. I guess my mental process would be like, even if it's a bit embarrassing now, like trusting that it was very real for me as a 25-year-old, or whatever. And like, maybe just be respectful of the fact that people in their twenties have feelings too.

Romy Vager:

I’ll tell you, I've had like lots of messages from friends who've been very excited about Batrider playing.

Sarah Mary Chadwick:

Oh cool! Everyone's psyched for the whole show I reckon.

Romy Vager:

Yeah. Yeah. Some people who don't give a shit about my band are very much messaging me and being like, Batrider, fuck yeah.

Sarah Mary Chadwick:

I think the opposite for me too. Like people who haven’t come to a solo show in like 10 years are like, do you have any door spots? [Laughs.]

Romy Vager:

I also think it's so cool, like personally for me, when RISING said we might try and get Ice Age to play with you. I was like, oh yeah, sure. And now it's worked out. I do have an imposter syndrome thing with me all the time. So, I'm like, really? Are we a popular band?

Sarah Mary Chadwick:

I'm excited for you that it's a launch for your record because I feel like, you put so much time and you effort into a record and then for the outcomes to match what you've put into it, it would feel like, the entire world would have to have a moment of silence [laughs].

Romy Vager:

[Laughs] I've never heard anything described more aptly than that.

Sarah Mary Chadwick:

You know what I mean? Like someone could give you like a million dollars and you'd be like, this still needs more… But it's so cool for you guys it's a really big show at a cool venue.

Romy Vager:

Yeah, it’s a dream show.

Sarah Mary Chadwick:

Yeah. And we can make a bit of a fuss about it.

Romy Vager:

The last record came out like a month into Covid. Yeah. And it was very much like, I did like Zoom calls for press about the album and I felt busy for the like the first few weeks cuz I was like talking to people still. And the album was a thing…

Sarah Mary Chadwick:

I feel like we did this at the same time. I think I did my last solo one almost at the same time that that came out. So I was doing the same thing…

Romy Vager:

And then the album comes out and you're sort of like, oh, okay. I guess I’ll make some bread or something

Sarah Mary Chadwick:

[Laughs] It's true. I feel respectful of most musicians and people that I know because that was really fucked. And yeah, no one really complains about it. Like, I feel like I had more people complaining about working from home than I did about having their whole tour and things cancelled.

Romy Vager:

It was brutal. It's just like, you saw it happening and then suddenly it happened to you and you were like, oh, okay.

Sarah Mary Chadwick:

Yeah.

Romy Vager:

We were playing with Pixies at the time. We played two shows in Melbourne and Donno, our sound engineer, he was saying there's this new disease and it's gonna be really bad. And we were like, sure. He was saying stuff like, take all your money out of the bank and put under your bed. Stock up on water. We had all these plans and we're like, okay, sure. And then we went to the airport. We'd put our guitars in the luggage. And just before we were gonna go through security, it was like whole tours been cancelled.

Sarah Mary Chadwick:

Fuck. It's so hectic [laughs].

Romy Vager:

And yeah, it was, it was like, yeah. It's only starting now to get…

Sarah Mary Chadwick:

That's why this is so cool. You actually didn't get to make this song and dance that you would've wanted to for your previous records. So to have this really big show…

Romy Vager:

It's exciting. It’s special.

Sarah Mary Chadwick:

Was it fun or scary to go back to playing shows overseas?

Romy Vager:

It's scary but I'm having a better time. I wasn't having a good time in 2019. I think I was just was going through the motions. A lot of mental health stuff really hit me in 2019. And I think, honestly, having a break made me like music again. And appreciate it. I definitely needed to step away and when you're in the groove of things, it's very hard to do that. Cause it's like you have these plans and stuff. These, kind of, these exciting things that would be exciting to most people. But you know, when you're going through stuff you're like, okay, uh, I guess I’ll go to Poland [laughs].

Sarah Mary Chadwick:

[Laughs] I'm exactly that person. I kind of hoped with Covid stuff that um music would be a bit less American centric. That didn't happen. Like can't we just enjoy where we live in play lots here. I was thinking about when I saw you guys play at The Bank a million years ago. And it was really amazing. At the time I was like, this is the best. Your singing was so cool and everyone was fucking loving it. Does it feel different to you now that it's kind of bigger than that?

Romy Vager:

I do miss the local stuff. I mean we played this gig at the start of the year, before we went to the States. Yeah. We hardly talked to anyone about it. It was at the Labour In Vain. It felt like four years ago it was just like friends. And it was lovely. I need stuff like that to recharge my batteries. Yeah. Um, cause it does get scary sometimes… I have a story. I don't really have a question, but I have a story when I heard you play at The Bank. Because I used to live at The Bank. And Friday and Saturday night at The Bank, it was very much like you go downstairs and there'd be bands playing and it'd be great. Sometimes you just were in the mood to come downstairs but generally you’d be forced to. Especially since my room was directly underneath where the bands would play. I remember one time you were playing, and I just sat in bed and listened to your whole set. It was very clear in my room. And I was kind of like, this is fucking incredible [Laughs].

Sarah Mary Chadwick:

That's actually so nice because the thought of someone trying to sleep and you playing, to me, is the worst feeling ever. If it was tormenting you.

Romy Vager:

No, I wasn’t even trying to sleep. I was just like, I don't want to go down there and, like, have to talk to people.

Sarah Mary Chadwick:

Oh shit. It must've been very stressful living there. I don't think I could have.

Romy Vager:

It was good while it lasted, but there were definitely moments when you didn't want to do it. But that was just one of the highlights of living there, you playing a whole set downstairs.

Sarah Mary Chadwick:

Oh, that’s so nice Romy!

Romy:

Like proper bedroom music. Oh… I have another question. Is there going to be new Batrider material?

Sarah Mary Chadwick:

Oh, I should probably plug this actually. Kill Rock Stars are reissuing the last record. Yeah. So that's why we’re playing a show. Which is cool. Cause like when you do music after a while you realise that timing is important.

Romy Vager:

Yes, yes.

Sarah Mary Chadwick:

When you're young, you're like, more is more. But then when you get a bit older you're like, oh, there actually is a shit time to release a record. And we just rushed everything all the time. And so that's exciting to have that come up. Cause it's gonna give it a bit more time in the sun.

Romy Vager:

It's exciting. It's, yeah. Are you gonna have vinyl at the gig?

Sarah Mary Chadwick:

No, I think it's gonna be later on. But we are gonna have limited edition merch.

Romy Vager:

Ooh.

Sarah Mary Chadwick:

That you can only get from RISING festival.

Romy Vager:

I don't own any local band shirts, but the one I do is your shirt. The one that says “I’ll die, you died, we die”. [Laughs].

Sarah Mary Chadwick:

Well, I’ve got an RVG tote bag [laughs].

Romy Vager:

I like it. When I feel like absolute shit I just wear that shirt and I feel like just people gonna just leave me alone [laughs]. Brings out the goth in me that shirt. It’s such a bold statement to put on a shirt. I love it.

Sarah Mary Chadwick:

Are you feeling positive about your band and everything in general?

Romy Vager:

Yeah. I'm feeling more positive than I ever have.

Sarah Mary Chadwick:

Good. That's so good to hear Romy.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.