Pansy

Vivian McCall established her career as a multi-instrumentalist and recording engineer with Chicago’s off-kilter retro-pop band Jungle Green. After years of engineering sessions for her bandmates, and recording a Jungle Green album with Foxygen’s Jonathan Rado, she recorded Pansy (Earth Libraries, 2021) on her Tascam 488 tape machine. In taking a lo-fi emotional inventory of her transition, Vivian drew from the music that helped her endure it: The Magnetic Fields, Liz Phair, and the eclectic punk of New Zealand’s Dunedin sound.

Shortly after releasing Pansy, Vivian moved to Seattle, where the band became a bona fide four-piece with guitarist Liz Perlman, drummer MJ Harbarger, and bassist Syd Brownstone. Pansy is about coming out. The Skin Graft EP is about trying to live a normal life as a trans woman in America, where the political temperature is rising.

(Photo Credit: Victoria Scott)