With the new year comes a new beginning for Vivian McCall, who’s leaving behind her days as guitarist for the Chicago avant rock outfit Jungle Green to pursue a solo career with a self-titled debut record later this year under the name Pansy. As the record’s first single hints—blending the apparent if not disparate influences of The Magnetic Fields and Sonny Smith filtered through the language of ’60s pop-rock—there’s an undeniable sense of comfort in these recordings, one that may come as a surprise not only due to it being her first solo outing, but also as a work on uncertainty written in the year immediately after beginning her transition.
“Transitioning is weird because your body changes in ways you don’t expect and suddenly you develop new insecurities about your attractiveness and wonder whether your gender-nonconforming body and heart deserve love,” she shares, noting that this track specifically was composed in order to manifest confidence. “This song is about owning yourself and proclaiming that you are somebody’s dream girl. For the record, I do think it’s corny, but so am I.”
Hear the single below, and expect Pansy to arrive later this year via Earth Libraries.
