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Jan 18, 2011 By Under the Radar Staff Web Exclusive

For Under the Radar’s 8th annual Artist Survey we emailed some of our favorite artists a few questions relating to 2010. However our printed pages weren’t enough to hold all the great responses we got. Pick up a copy of Under the Radar’s Year End issue for interviews with: The Antlers, Bon Iver, Caribou, Club 8, Delphic, Rose Elinor Dougall, Gayngs, Hot Chip, Lost in the Trees, Love is All, The Love Language, Mogwai, of Montreal, Okkervil River,Yoko Ono, Owen Pallett, Plants and Animals, Mark Ronson, Superchunk, Tame Impala, Vampire Weekend, Sharon Van Etten, and Vivian Girls. Then check here for bonus responses not found in the magazine. Here are additional answers from Cassie Ramone of Vivian Girls.

What was the low point of 2010 for you?

Nothing that interesting.

What are your hopes and plans for 2011?

I am really excited to do a full U.S. tour again. I think we’re going to do one after the third album comes out. Getting to do a full U.S. tour is really special for me. A lot of people don’t like it because it usually takes over a month and there are a lot of hellishly long drives, but I enjoy it because I love America so much. I think it’s fascinating to drive for so long and to still be in the same country, and it’s so diverse! Also, my favorite part of the country is the Southwest, and as a band from New York there’s really no economically viable way to tour through there besides a full U.S. tour. I’m hoping to hit some places we’ve never toured before—Reno, Albuquerque, and Flagstaff are on the top of my list of towns to play.

Who would you rather listen to—a totally original musician whose compositions are groundbreaking but difficult to listen to or a musician whose songs are immediately enjoyable but derivative? Why?

I feel as though in this day and age I wouldn’t even know what a groundbreaking composition was. Chances are it’s way out of my realm. I’m pretty sure most of the musicians I really admire make nontraditional music, but still within a pop context. I don’t think I would enjoy the totally original musician in this hypothetical question, unless if after the fifth listen I suddenly realized there was this incredible beautiful part that I’d never heard before. So I think I’ll take the musician with enjoyable songs.

In the race to find new bands, are too many unworthy bands being hyped up by music blogs and websites? How are music fans supposed to filter through all these new bands being hyped?

I don’t know. What on earth makes a band “unworthy?” In my opinion that’s a really harsh term to put on a new artist—I really think the only reason a band is unworthy of praise is if their main intention is to cash in on something. One would hope that blogs just post music they actually like, and people who read those blogs can listen to the songs and make their own judgments, but please don’t scorn the artist for making the music just because some blog posted it. If anything, I think the problem is that bands now get big before they’ve had a chance to tour a bunch and perfect their live show.

If your house was on fire, what would you grab as you were running out?

My acoustic guitar, definitely. I would also try to get whatever drawings or photos I could, but that would be difficult since I have a lot. I try to keep as much of my life as possible in the tangible world, so it wouldn’t be as easy as grabbing my computer and going. My computer would probably be the last thing I took.

If you could relive one day of your life, which would it be?

One of my days off at Coachella, or one of my days off in Hawaii.

Is there anything that most people are able to do that you can’t (such as drive a car, swim, ride a bike)?

I could never do a headstand or a cartwheel. Come to think of it, I can’t even do a forward roll anymore. One night on tour we were hanging out with Klaxons at this festival in Slovakia, and everyone was doing forward rolls and I was the only person that was physically unable to do one. I’ve always been very unfit. I think the shortest it ever took me to run a mile was 11 minutes or something stupid like that.

What’s the weirdest thing that’s ever happened to you?

This might not be the weirdest thing ever, but it’s the first that comes to mind: when I was 17 or 18 someone sent me a letter in the mail. Inside there was only a button that said, “I wanna be your Joey Ramone.” The letter had no return address on it, and the sender wrote my real last name on the envelope but misspelled it. I was already going by “Cassie Ramone” at that point, but most of the people at school knew me only by my real last name, and everyone else I was friends with didn’t know my real last name at all. I also think it was postmarked from Providence, and I don’t know anyone who lived there that would have my address. It was really strange. To this day no one’s ’fessed up to it.

What or whom do you miss most when you’re touring?

I miss my boyfriend and all my really good friends at home.

Do you (or did you) have any pets? If so, can you tell us about them? Who takes care of your pets while you are on tour?

I had a lot of cats growing up. My favorite one was named Chester—he was fat and orange. My mom called him the “cat Einstein” because he was really smart. I probably won’t have pets again, at least not until after kids come into the picture.

What are your thoughts on chillwave? Do you feel that it’s a legitimate genre/movement or something simply created by music journalists? In general, do you feel that most scenes/movements are organic or are created by the media?

I like “chillwave” music a lot; most of what I’ve heard is really good. I am a big fan of Washed Out and Nite Jewel. I am not one to judge on its legitimacy. To me it seems like a legitimate genre, but what really matters is what the musicians in the genre think. I think that what generally happens in these situations is that there is a legitimate scene, and then the media tries to find an angle to make it more interesting, and projects that onto the world. It’s similar to a funhouse mirror.

In 2010, what was the best movie you saw, book you read, comic book you read, video game you played, and/or TV show you watched?

I got really into the author Douglas Coupland this year. I read his novels Generation X and The Gum Thief, both of which I loved.

(myspace.com/viviangirlsnyc)