Interview: Catching Up With Little Vicious + Stream “Hit You Right” & “Sweet Sorrow”

Hailing from the shores of Asbury Park, NJ are the hard-charging rockers, Little Vicious. Fronted by Marguerite King, the band’s incendiary, no bullshit sound and approach never lets up from their burners to their ballads.

On May 17th, Little Vicious will release their new album, Dark Country, which is teased by “Hit You Right” and “Sweet Sorrow” which run the b to b gamut outlined above. Ahead of its release, we sent Little Vicious some interview questions to get to now the rising group better.

Pre-order Dark Country out this weekend via GrindEthos Records here and stream “Hit You Right” and “Sweet Sorrow” + read the interview below.

Hi, Little Vicious! Congrats on your new album, Dark Country. Can you tell us a little more on who you are and how you first got into making music?

Thank you! And about DANG TIME.

Marguerite King here from Little Vicious.

[Our new album] Dark Country has been in the works for the better part of two years, and we couldn’t be more stoked for everyone to hear it.

Little Vicious is a rock and roll band that is hell-bent on inspiring anyone to do anything. It’s no mystery – I modeled the band after QOTSA’s rotating lineup of badass musicians. We started in Fort Collins, CO, and then moved back to my hometown, Asbury Park, NJ in late 2016. I was lucky enough to grow up in a household that always had music playing – my dad, Randy, was a college DJ in the late 70s/early 80s, and my mom blasted everything from Nine Inch Nails to Jackson 5.

Starting with classical piano, I discovered punk at age 13 and moved to playing bass because it was New Jersey – duh. That’s what you did. I’ve always kind of been on a stage, and it was a different time when I was younger. There weren’t a lot of young women playing guitar, at least not that I came into contact with.

After being a pianist, bassist, vocalist and then finally drummer, I saw Queens of the Stone Age and went out to buy my first electric guitar the next day. Of course, it was a Flying V – and I never looked back. It took me close to ten years to say – fuck that, I’m playing lead god damn guitar.

What’s your songwriting process like? Who are some of your biggest influences?

LV was created from equal parts punk rock and old school blues, with some kind of 50’s soul. It’s the most fun I’ve had in a group because I never really know how to categorize LV other than just rock and roll. Usually, I’ll have a riff in my head or something I’ve played around with by myself, and bring it to practice where we jam it out. I’ve played with so many different musicians, I’ve come to love the influence and ideas they bring, usually things I never would have thought of to add to a song. It’s easy to get wrapped up in your own head when it comes to riffs!

But the greatest influences have been Jimi Hendrix, Jimmy Page and Josh Homme. All are (mostly) technically amazing guitarists, but they still have that element of unpredictability and mystery with their songs. I love that Little Vicious has become synonymous with the vibe of “What the fuck is gonna happen next?”

Overall, what are some of the larger themes you’re exploring on this album?

Honestly? That life is inherently difficult and often evil. But, with perseverance, integrity and an ability to keep on boogie-ing no matter what, all trials can be overcome.

I spent a long time learning these lessons. I spent a long time feeling very, very alone. The clear realization of what I truly want to do and, more importantly, what I don’t want to do changed the entire course of my life – or, got it back on track.

In the past six years since I picked up guitar as my main instrument, I have lived through so many incredible adventures. Before that, I lived through equally horrible and traumatic adventures. I still live through both, back and forth like a pendulum – but I wouldn’t change a thing.

Dark Country is the summation of those dark lessons.

I’ve really come to view the album as a pep talk to myself and whoever else needs to hear the words – “Don’t give up. Keep going.”

Any new Asbury Park-based artists/venues/purveyors of the arts you could turn our readers onto?

There is straight up magic in Asbury Park for artists.

I dig Rachel Ana Dobken so hard. I’m a sucker for multi-instrumentalists, and Rachel is beyond talented. Tiki Torture makes me laugh so hard because of how little of a shit they give about what other people think and that’s important for audiences to see! The Burns, gods., Candy Cavity, SHUT UP!, Brother Andrew, DJ Tyler Valentine – I could go on all day about the crazy diverse music scene exploding in our little beach city.

Go to the Saint, Asbury Park Yacht Club, the Wonder Bar; shit, really any venue in AP, and you’ll find that magic.

Where can we follow you and where can our readers catch you live next?

We are Instagram WHORES.

But really, we have Spotify and FB and Twitter and all that, but Instagram is where we love to document the daily updates and adventures of our very strange crew. It’s a lot more immediate and personal, at least in our opinion. We have fans and family all over the world, so we go live for almost every show so you can tune in and get rowdy wherever we are playing.

With the release of Dark Country, we will be playing Wednesday, May 15th at the Wonder Bar in Asbury Park, NJ with Demob Happy and Cleopatrick. If you don’t know those bands – get the fuck ON IT. They RIP.

We also will be filming a music video at Whitechapel Projects in Long Branch, NJ that Friday, May 17th the day Dark Country debuts world-wide. It’s a crowd-based video, so definitely come out and boogie with us!

And, finally, that Saturday, May 18th, Little Vicious will be playing the Greta Van Fleet afterparty right across from the legendary Stone Pony in Asbury Park.

We love New Jersey, and especially after growing up there and being supported by such an amazing and eclectic city such as it is, we have to give AP a proper release week of Little Vicious adventures.

6) Any parting thoughts? Open platform!

Buy CDs, tickets, stickers, lighters. Go to live shows on a Wednesday night. Follow your friends’ new project on Spotify. Do anything you can to help keep an artist’s dream alive. Be aware that everyone is struggling in their own way.

Don’t suck, and don’t die.

And if you remember to always act with grace and honesty, you can’t lose.