| Written by Linda Palacios, on 09-09-2009 07:59 |
Chic Spotlight: All-Female Band Vanity Theft
Girls need to stick together, and these girls from Springboro, Ohio, can show you how it's done. As best friends and band mates, they offer advice on having and holding onto girlfriends.
Cincy Chic: How did Vanity Theft first get together, and what's the significance of your name?
Alicia Grodecki, singer, guitarist, and keyboardist for Vanity Theft: Well, we first got together with our original lineup back in high school. I was playing at a festival with my old band when I met Brittany [Hill, singer and guitarist for Vanity Theft]. She basically found me after the show and told me she wanted to get a band together and wondered if I'd be interested. We ended up getting together and ended up hitting it off immediately. Then when the time came that we needed a bassist, my friend Lindsey [Keene, bass guitarist] was the perfect fit and voila! So formed Vanity Theft.
Hill: And as far as the name goes, it was really a combination of ideas. But I guess if you had to assign meaning to it, it really just speaks of being humble and not taking yourself too seriously.
Cincy Chic: You say that your band is trying to break the stereotype of girl bands, so how are you working to stand out from the crowd as an all-female group?
Hill: This isn't a conscious effort per se. We just play what we like and try to push the limits as far as complexity and instrumental experimentation goes. Too many people think that if you're an all-girl band you're going to either be punk or screamy metal. Sometimes we even forget about the fact that we're an all-girl band because, to us, it's not a gimmick.
Grodecki: Yeah, a lot of times people get the wrong ideas about us because we're an all-girl band, but like Brittany said, we don’t even think of it that way. It just so happens that we all work well together as friends and musicians, so the fact that we all happen to be girls is simply a technicality.
Cincy Chic: They say that "if you play together, you stay together." How do you interpret this for your experience as a group of women playing music together?
Hill: Well,
we've definitely had our ups and downs as a band, but when you share
that kind of connection and passion, it does make it easy to get
through the hard times. We're all best friends, which also helps, so
those energies feed off of each other. I don't think we could
completely break up even if we wanted to.
Cincy Chic: After playing with each other, what insights do you have into the importance of girlfriends?
Grodecki: In all the hustle and bustle of our daily lives, I think the importance of girlfriends, and all friends in general, is way too easy for people to take for granted or overlook. But after playing in a band with these girls and having been through so much together, I realize that people need to just take a step back and appreciate these friendships that we are all so fortunate to have. I personally couldn’t imagine my life without the three of them in it. No matter what is going on in our lives, I think that the four of us really are what keep each other going.
Cincy Chic: What advice do you have for women about maintaining their friendships with girlfriends?
Hill: Just take a step back and remember what's important. And never be too stubborn to put yourself in someone else's shoes. And always keep it honest.Yeah, honesty’s a big one. Sometimes the things that you think might push you apart actually end up bringing you closer together.
Cincy Chic: When and where can Cincy Chic readers expect to see Vanity Theft?
Grodecki: We're playing at the Midpoint Music Festival this year, which we are really excited about. We're scheduled to play at the Know Theater around 9 p.m. on Thursday, Sept. 24 with some other great bands.
Cincy Chic: When you put down your instruments, how do you relax and have fun?
Grodecki: Oh, man — We somehow always find ways to entertain ourselves and have a great time, no matter how ridiculous they may be! I think we’ve done everything from going sledding on an air mattress in the middle of a snowstorm to having impromptu dance parties in the living room.
Hill: Yeah, and we're addicted to watching old episodes of "The Twilight Zone" and "My So Called Life." We also are always going to shows and, of course, getting down to our 1990s copy of Darren's Dance Grooves.
Cincy Chic: What's your favorite thing about Cincinnati?
Hill: Uh, the Bengals?
Grodecki: Um, no! Cleveland Browns all the way! But seriously, we love the music scene there. There are always new faces at shows and people seem to take a genuine interest in what we're doing, which is always refreshing. There's also a lot of talent down there that we get the chance to be around. We've met some wonderful Cincinnatians thus far, and are hoping for that list to continue growing.
PHOTO CREDITS
Photo courtesy of Vanity Theft
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