Interview: VIAL get ferocious on new LP 'HELLHOUND'
by Diane
March 08, 2026
VIAL’s third LP, HELLHOUND, is the Minneapolis punk trio’s most irresistibly vile work yet. Ferocity and anger collide musically as three unapologetic vocalists/instrumentalists roar against misogyny, betrayal, and inner angst.
This commanding, punch-in-the-mouth sound isn’t necessarily a departure from their previous work. It is a pummeling, shredding, distorted growth in aggressive rebellion from their more playful, pop-adjacent work on their previous records, burnout and LOUDMOUTH. Think more modern-day Babes in Toyland and Nirvana and less Olivia Rodrigo. And still somehow charmingly mischievous with an even more mature bent.
VIAL, The Local Show’s Artist of the Month, talked with us about their growth over the past seven years in anticipation of their North American tour — starting Saturday, March 21, at the Varsity Theater in Minneapolis. From reclaiming the word “brat” to seamlessly sharing vocal duties, as well as authentic community activism, the members of VIAL shared openly about what has made them a force in underground punk across the entire nation.
Transcript edited for clarity and length.
Talk to me about your new record, HELLHOUND.
Taylor Kraemer: We were listening to a lot more hardcore when we were in the writing process for this record, and I think that bled through a lot in our writing process. We had a lot of inspirations, like BUGGIN from Chicago. I personally was listening to the new Scowl record, listening to a lot of Die Spitz.
KT Branscom: Yeah, we are also really big Babes in Toyland fans, so I'm very honored to be thrown in the mix with them. That's awesome. Yeah, we've always been inspired by that '90s riot grrrl, grungy punk sort of sound. So we wanted to emulate that a little bit with HELLHOUND as well.
Katie Fischer: Yeah, we've always had sort of punk songs sprinkled in here and there on our different albums. But I feel like with this album, we really found our voice, and it's a little more cohesive, I'd say, than some of our other albums.
One that's standing out to me right now from the album is "CREEP SMOOTHIE." Oh, that one, especially to me, borders on Babes in Toyland with the way that you scream and the way that it hits so hard. Talk to me about that single in particular.
KB: That had a lot more of our hardcore influence, for sure, with the borderline blast beats that you're doing on the drums, Katie. And then that was the first time that we really had a song where we're just screaming the entire time.
TK: Yeah, we really wanted KT on vocals for that one, because they are the singer out of all three of us who can really shred their voice and go absolutely ham. And we absolutely knew that they were the perfect person to really highlight as the vocalist for this hardcore image that we were conjuring for "Creep Smoothie."
Yeah, that's one of the things I want to highlight about you as a band is all three of you share vocal duties. And that is rare in a band, but really cool — and hard to pull off because you have to sound cohesive. Tell me about sharing vocal duties and having camaraderie as a band.
KF: Our relationship with each other is less friendship and more like siblings. I love these two so much, and they get on my nerves so much [laughs]. And I think we know each other so well, and we've done so many shows. We're coming up on seven years of being a band. And we've just worked together so much that I know exactly what we're gonna do. And on stage we just have to look at each other, and we know what's up.
KB: Yeah, the three vocalists thing, when we first started the band, Taylor was the one who came to all of us and wanted to start this band. And Taylor is an amazing vocalist and singer, and I've also had some classical vocal training as well. So, originally we were thinking Taylor will do most of that, and I'll just focus on guitar, and [Katie will] just focus on drums. But over the course of the first couple months of us being a band, we realized that we all had strengths and weaknesses within our voices and could each take on a different role vocally, and I think it's worked really well for us.
TK: I also think there's something really powerful in a singing drummer that almost no band can pull off. And I think that's something that at every show, someone points out to us as something that's really cool about our set.
KB: Even the band Wheatus has got a TikTok of us with Katie singing on the drums, and we're like, that is really cool.
No big deal.
KF: It also can be really helpful sometimes, because we'll be playing for an hour or more. That's a long time to be singing. Or if we have a difficult instrumental part and it's hard to sing at the same time, sometimes we'll swap around. Our song "Bottle Blonde," I sing on normally, but live, KT sings it because it's difficult for me to sing and drum at the same time. It can be really helpful sometimes to be able to switch it around. Or if someone's like their voice is hurting, we've had to do that too.
Yeah, especially if you're yelling a lot — got to preserve. Speaking of live performances, you have this big event coming up at the Varsity Theater. It's your album release show, stacked lineup of local artists and national artists. Tell me about the show you have coming up.
TK: It started at The Entry, and then it went up to the Varsity Theater. And it's staying at the Varsity Theater because we really found its home at Varsity. It's always been a mix of local and national artists, and it's always been this celebration of music that is a mix of punk and indie and rock and a celebration of queer artists. And it's really awesome. We also try to tie in activism. So, we've always had tablers. It's really important for us to engage our community. A far as I recall, I believe fest two wasn't a release show. Fest one and fest three has been released shows. So we're excited to debut an album for fest three.
KB: Yeah, the first fest was a release show for our cover of "Territorial Pissings" by Nirvana. And it was just a random idea we had, like, let's throw a little release party show for it. And then people loved it, and they loved the idea of it and all of the different bands that came in, all the different sounds that we were all bringing to the stage. And we were like, we've got to do this again.
KF: Yeah, I think because it had the word "fest" on it, people were like, "Oh, this is an annual thing, right?" We were like, "Yes. It is, actually."
I want to get into a little bit more of a poignant question about this word that I hear used to describe your music — "brat punk." So the word brat, which was once seen as a negative word, is now more of an empowering word. And in fact, in 2024, the same year you all released burnout, brat was labeled word of the year. And of course, we have Charli xcx in major part to thank for that. But can you give me some of your insight into the relationship with this label "brat" as musicians who write and sing very bluntly and unapologetically.
TK: I think for me personally, I can't speak for my bandmates, but riot grrrl is an influence. I can't say that we are riot grrrl because riot grrrl is a movement that was in the '90s and had its problems. And we can critique riot grrrl, as well as say it made space for a lot of women and non-men in music. But it wasn't inclusive, and it needed to be more inclusive, and so we don't adopt that term fully for our band. And so we looked for other terms that felt new and inventive. And I think we heard "brat punk" — we did not come up with that. But specifically with songs like "Planet Drool" and "Road Kill" that feel really bratty and in-your-face and cathartic, it felt like the term just fit.
KF: I'd say we have quite a few songs where the vibe is like nana-nana boo-boo [laughs]. We have a song on HELLHOUND called "BLAH" — I love that song, but it is so, like, "You suck! Eh!" which sometimes is fun.
KB: Being a brat, yeah, it definitely used to be like, you don't want to be called a brat. I also think it was used a lot towards young girls who are finding their own autonomy and their place in the world. And when young girls speak out or do something that the adults in their life find to be rebellious or something, they're always called a brat – like, "Stop being such a brat." And I think us as a band and the music that we make, we're so against that term. So we're, in a way, reclaiming the negative connotations of the word.
Very beautifully put. I'm almost referring to the Pitchfork article. Tell me your reaction to getting a 7.4 rating from Pitchfork, because that's pretty amazing. They're, unquote, the most trusted voice in music. When you saw that, were you like – that's huge.
KF: We were over the moon to just get a rating. Like, whoa, that's so cool.
KB: Yeah, to be recognized by Pitchfork in any capacity was like, "Wow, that's really cool."
TK: We really appreciate Nina Corcoran's words. They were really encouraging to our art and our music. Honestly, I was really hoping to get forked [laughs]. That would have been really funny. Either way, though, we really appreciated the rating. It was really affirming to have our music be equally recognized for what we wanted it to be consumed for.
To bring it back further deeper into your catalog, the record that put you on the map was LOUDMOUTH. That one came out in 2021. It garnered millions and millions of streams and helped really build you a devout following. And I know that also it was in response to some of the pessimism and the gatekeeping you all experienced online and locally. Do you feel like anything's changed? What do you think resonated with fans about that album in particular looking back at it?
KB: I think with HELLHOUND, our most recent album, it feels like a grown-up version of what we put out into the world with LOUDMOUTH. I think we've felt both in the national music scene and locally, a little bit like outsiders, like we didn't quite fit, whether that be because we're non-men or very outspoken, or what, I don't know. But we definitely felt a little bit like we need to speak on this feeling of – people are hounding on us a little bit. And I feel like now – it used to really bother us, the comments that we get online, the comments that we get from our peers that were more negative or backhanded or whatever. But now, I think we just let it slide off of our backs. We're more empowered than that now.
TK: I completely agree.
KF: Yeah, I think we're “take us or leave us.” If you don't like us, that's fine. You don't have to engage with us. But we found a lot of people who resonate with our music, and we found a really cool community with our fans. Whenever you go to a VIAL show, you can pick out who is a VIAL fan. You can just tell, and they're just the loveliest people.
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Yeah, there's something so relatable and so cathartic about screaming the words and lyrics to your songs, because sometimes you just need to reclaim and take back or do it in a way that's jokingly or unapologetically. And that's what I think is so special about what you all do.
You mentioned earlier that you are all big advocates for the community, and the presence of ICE has been traumatic, and you have all been vocally active in supporting the community and voicing your opposition. Tell me what it's like being an artist and experiencing this in your own community.
KF: It's shocking, it's heartbreaking. It is awful, and I'm sure everyone in this city can relate to that feeling. It's just so bad you don't even know what to do. We and plenty of other people — you just sort of have to go, “OK, what can I do to help?” I can't fix this. What can I do? How can I organize? How can I maybe help deliver food to people who need it? You just got to pick something that you can help do. We have a platform on social media that we can use to amplify different organizations or GoFundMes. So we've tried our best to do that in a way that's responsible.
TK: I've felt a strong sense of community in this time — seeing the TCUP First Ave show, the large group of musicians who came together to raise money for families and our community in need, as well as the Melt ICE comp that we were a part of, which is, or was, at some point, number five on Bandcamp, which I think is so impressive. Minneapolis is such a strong community. The artists here are so resilient and are great organizers. And we all have a very common goal and a common good.
KB: I feel like as musicians who consider ourselves punk, us and every other punk musician out there, have an obligation to talk about this and to use our voices and our music and our platforms to raise awareness to what is happening here and all across the country, all across the world.
Yeah, I agree. The more each of us takes a small action, the more collective and united we become. Number five on Bandcamp? I mean, 100 different artists contributed to that, and that is so cool. And to see something community organized is really amazing. VIAL, it's been so great to chat with you all, and have you as our Artist of the Month. Your new album, HELLHOUND, is out now. Anything else we haven't covered that you'd like to add about this new record, about what you have coming up?
TK: Get to P--- Fest. P--- in the pit. It's gonna be a great time.
KF: It'll be fun. And just for the edit, P in the pit, come to P Fest.
KB: No, we're really excited. Thank you for having us. This has been a blast.
Pleasure. Big fan of what you all do.
All: Thank you!
