Roll of the Dice: 9 questions with Virginity

Roll of the Dice is a short interview format with a variable amount of questions. A pair of dice is rolled and the total, between 2 and 12, is the amount of questions we can ask. All questions are given to the interviewee(s) at once, and no follow-ups are allowed. The interview may be lightly edited for content and clarity.

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Have you checked out Bad Jazz, yet? The new record from Central Florida’s Virginity is so damn good! TGEFM highly recommends you click this link to download, press play on the record and then check out our interview with the band’s vocalist and guitarist Casey Crawford below.

Thank you so much for agreeing to this interview. Congratulations on the upcoming release of  Bad Jazz! Let’s start it off by talking a little bit about how that track came into existence. What was going on at the time that helped kickstart and influence the songwriting process?

Thanks for having me. So, nothing in particular kicked off this batch of tunes, but it was definitely a different process than usual. Normally I would sort of put the song more or less together myself or at least say 85-90% of it. This time I was coming in with just little acoustic sketches with one verse and a chorus, maybe a riff or something. We did 3 or 4 long weekends at Jordan’s house where we took those rough raw materials and just vibed with them until we had a song we were all happy with. 

What album or band or significant singles made you go “Yeah, this is what I want to do”  Not just an influence but who or what was the catalyst?

For me the biggest catalyst was seeing local bands, especially ones that had my friends in them. Our drummer Jim is a little older than me and when I was very early in high school his old band was such a huge influence. I thought they were the best, but they were also so accessible. Just hometown dudes. 

We’ve all got a few, what is your biggest regret? A gig you turned down, advice you didn’t take, what one thing do you wish you handled differently as a musician?

I’d say my biggest regret in this band was taking it too seriously during our last album cycle. You can’t really control how your art gets taken by people, or if it will even be given the time of day and I really let that take a toll on me. It’s better to have no expectations and just make something that you really love for yourself. If people like it–great! But if they don’t, you at least have something you can hold your head up about.

What have been some of the most memorable moments or experiences as a touring musician so far? What’s been the most unexpected? The weirdest?

When we’re on the road it’s all about where we’re eating in between gigs to be honest. We love getting a great meal in new places. We especially always make sure to hit up whatever the good Ramen spot is in any given place. The most memorable place was this Japanese spot in South Carolina and the woman who owned it was very verbose and she fed Jordan his food and called us all her handsome sons. IT ROCKED. The weirdest is one night on our last tour we needed to get a hotel on the fly and there was only one in the place we stopped. I think they were full, but the dude sold us a room and was just like, “Just don’t go into the corner at the far side of the room.” Once we got up there, we saw that there was a giant hole in the floor and the room sort of slanted. 

You are a librarian in addition to being Virginity’s vocalist.  From an outsider’s perspective it seems as though thats been a rough racket for the last few years.  My children, 15 and 10, have found themselves big fans of books like HeartStopper and Drama, both of which have recently faced book ban challenges. How has the current divisiveness regarding reading and censorship impacted your role as librarian and what actions or resources do you recommend for young readers and parents to fight the oppressive book bans?

I mean, it’s been a non-stop battle. We’ve had so many book challenges pretty consistently for almost two years and it’s the same thing every time, sex or curse words taken out of context. One of the new songs on Bad Jazz called UR GODZ is exactly about this. The best way to fight is to stay informed, go to your school board meetings and just generally be loud about how it’s wrong. I don’t see this thing ending soon.

I first learned about Virginity after hearing a collaboration between Eve 6 and yourself.  How did that all come together? What can you tell us about the reactions online and what you were able to take away from that experience?

One of the more surreal things to ever happen to me. For starters, it should be stated that I am, and have been, a massive fan of Eve 6 since I was 13. I celebrate the whole catalog. They are truly foundational to me. It came together on Twitter. They had a new ep out and there was some sort of error and the last track on the ep was just the instrumental version of the song. Max jokingly tweeted out that anyone who wanted to try and sing over it had their chance for the next 24 hours. I saw that and immediately went to work on it. Those dudes really liked it and we decided to put it out. To me the reactions to it, which were all positive, didn’t really factor in. I was just sort of blown away that I got to sing on a song with one of my all time favorite bands. Legit one of the coolest things I’ll ever get to do.

One of our obligatory questions in these interviews also tends to be the one I have found most important on a personal level. Who are some bands on your radar that TGEFM readers may not know about, but you think they should know about?

I have so many friends in bands so this is an easy one for me. Everyone should be listening to: The Dreaded Laramie, Late Bloomer, Jimmy Montague, PONY, Heavenly Sweetheart, Liquid Mike, The Pauses, Gnawing and Drug Country. 

What’s next for Virginity?

We’re looking to get out on the road a little bit next year to support Bad Jazz. We’ll be playing The Fest in October. Past that, I’m already starting to make some new song sketches for the next record.  

Was there anything I missed that you’d like to share or dive deeper into with our readers?

I don’t think so. I just want to say that I hope people really like the new record if they check it out and that it sounds fun because we had so much fun making it.