Brooklyn DIY Drummer on her Influences

New Zealand-born Fiona Campbell, a long-time participant in the Brooklyn DIY music scene, discusses her admiration for late-00s noise-pop New York band Vivian Girls, for whom Campbell drummed in 2010.

Formerly of Auckland, Campbell left Vivian Girls in 2011 and now co-runs the Portland, Oregon label M’Lady’s Records.

She told Chicago-based music site Pitchfork: “[The Vivian Girls’] lack of self-consciousness sounded very New York to me,” noting how their being an all-female band both distinguished them and shaped their narrative in disappointing ways, including fabricated “beefs” with other women-led projects. “If people could have gotten the fuck off square-one, maybe the scrutiny would have been worth it,” Campbell says. “The amount of sexual, violent threats this band got will never be truly known or understood by anyone else. It would have been too much for some people.”

Campbell also plays in Coasting and Chain & The Gang. In New Zealand she was a member of three-piece The Coolies, who supported acts such as the Beastie Boys, Cat Power and Rancid.

Original article by Jenn Pelly, Pitchfork, March 3, 2014.