Aaron Pompey
MusicFiends sat down with Nicolette Vilar, the lead singer from longtime pop-punk favorite Go Betty Go, to talk about how combustible personalities are creative gold, the shared respect between the band and its fans, why one of the happiest Madonna songs is also her favorite, and how twenty years on, these four friends are closer than ever.
Aaron Pompey, MusicFiends: Thanks for taking time to talk to MusicFiends. Great to see the band has released a new single “Keep Up” and is releasing a new album Black and Blue. What would you say is that powerful element, that secret sauce, that has been fundamental and consistent through several iterations and phases of the band?
Nicolette Vilar, Go Betty Go: The secret sauce is the collaboration of the four of us together. There has been something very special about our chemistry from day one. And it’s especially important twenty years later. When we all get together, we are the best of friends. And it feels like a sisterhood, almost like we were a group of superheroes; when we get together, it’s very special.
We’re all very different. I would say that Betty has a very ‘pop’ sensibility. She’s very chatty but she can be shy sometimes with new people. She’s hilarious, but her sense of humor is kind of dark. My sister, the drummer, Aixa – she’s the pragmatic one, the leader. The one who’s always setting us on a schedule, and making plans, and putting us in order. Michelle is very thoughtful and sweet. She brings a very motherly, positive vibe to us. As our chemistry kind of melds together, I think I’m the more artsy one. I’m the one who’ll take control of all of the visuals. And maybe a little bit of the comic relief, when we’re all together. I love when they make fun of me, so I’m happy to be a goof.
When it comes to music, we jibe very well together. My sister is a very strong drummer and she kicks ass. She likes a hard, strong song. And Betty can bring it – she’s great at doing very complicated parts and doing them fast and doing them strong. Michelle also is super diligent with her playing. And when you’re looking at her fingers, what she’s doing, she keeps up. The three of them are a power unto themselves. And I just have been [laughs] doing my best to bring it, so that I have something fun to bring to the table, too! Vocally, I’ve been working my ass off all these years, to really stand up with them. In order to meld with that music, you have to be loud – to be loud and to be strong. So they’ve made me the singer that I am.
AP: You sound very intentional about it. And you’ve invested quite a lot in the band – you even brought yourself to a point of exhaustion and needed to re-center. I assume that the energy that brought you back into that collaboration was just what you described – all of the unique and dynamic personalities and talents.
NV: Yes, we are definitely a sisterhood and I knew right away that when we started playing together that I wanted this again.
AP: The collaboration you describe is certainly the first thing that comes to mind when reading write-ups and such – and now hearing from you – about the unique contributions from each individual. In a minute, I want to ask you what that creative relationship is like with your sister. But first, I want to ask about how the band’s overall collaboration has evolved over a period of time, over a period of years. Go Betty Go seems to release new albums at pivotal moments – relative to either your personal history, to what’s going on in the world, or to music in general. You literally titled your last album Reboot. Were there moments in the making of the new album Black and Blue that made you aware of how your collaboration has changed over time?
NV: It feels stronger than ever. When you’re new to making music with people, you can feel a little shy around them. So there’s this absolute honor and no fear of exposing ourselves to each other now. And also trust – I trust that their judgment is coming from a place of love, and that they’ll be honest with me. There are times that we do things, and we try things, and we like them. And then there are times when we try them and we think we can do better.
So, I just feel very comfortable in a way that’s more than ever, because we have all of this history together. Some songs come from one member a little bit more than the others, but we all bring our instrument and really allow each other to create our parts on top of them. I think with “Keep Up” [the first single off Black and Blue], Aixa actually wrote the initial guitar part, and she handed it off over to Betty, and Betty made it her own. Aixa and I wrote the parts together and then we brought that seed of a song to the band. And then there’s going to be times when someone else will have lyrics, and I’m happy to kind of take them on, and play with them, and add to them, and change them. Or I’ll have a guitar part that I’m imagining, and I’ll just sing it to Betty and she can try and do something with it. So, it’s all very collaborative. It’s more trusting than ever. And we lean on each other.
AP: Is there anything different or unique about working closely with Aixa in the band?
NV: With siblings, sometimes comfort brings the positive and the negative. I feel very comfortable to tell her exactly what I think, whereas maybe I’d hold back a little bit more with someone who I wasn’t so close with. So there is an element of combustibility to it all [laughs]. With all of us, actually. Twenty years of inside jokes that cannot be said and understood by other people, aside from us. But my sister – I can read her thoughts. I’ll walk into the room and I’ll have had a song stuck in my head and she’s singing it [laughs]. Just weird, you know? We’re telepathic in a lot of ways. But we’re different people, too. We can be opposites in a lot of ways. She holds her thoughts carefully. And I can be a little bit more quick, you know, to want to tell everybody everything!
AP: I think we look for people in our lives to be that counterbalance, because it gives permission to those who are more reserved to be more forthcoming, and maybe vice versa. That seems valuable to any creative process.
NV: Right – to be different in order to evolve together in that way that makes your personalities shine.
AP: You sat down with NPR a few years ago during COVID and put together a playlist – songs like “The Banana Boat Song,” “Spooky,” and “Rebirth.” I listened to it a few times and I found it to be quite rewarding from both thematic and stylistic vantage points. Now that we are quote-unquote “on the other side of COVID,” is there anything that you would add or change to that playlist? Any tracks that come to mind that have struck you or inspired you lately?
NV: Oh wow! I wasn’t ready for this question! [laughs]. It’s so important! And it’s one of those things where sometimes you dive in and all you want to do is listen to an album wholeheartedly. And there’s times when I kind of step out.
Actually – not that I would add this to that playlist – because that playlist is very special [laughs], but I just got us all Madonna tickets that we’re super excited about. And yesterday I was thinking, what is my favorite Madonna song? and it’s definitely “True Blue.” There’s something just so catchy about it.
But that playlist is special. I don’t know if I’m going to add that one to the playlist. I’d have to think about that [laughs].
AP: Are there any comparisons in the music world that you invite, that are flattering, or that tap into your band identity?
NV: That’s something I’ve never been able to quite put my finger on, as far as comparisons of us to other artists, because I don’t think there is another band that’s quite like us.
Vocally, I can see maybe a Go-Go’s kind of vibe. I think my voice is almost cartoonish. Like Cyndi – no, no, I’m no Cyndi Lauper. I’m not going to say I sound like Cyndi Lauper. But I can feel like a goofy character [laughs] We all criticize our own voices. It’s hard to hear yourself. And when I hear myself, there’s something very youthful about me. I don’t think that there’s really another singer that kind of sounds like me.
AP: I’ve seen the comparison to the Go-Go’s in other pieces written about Go Betty Go. I have a lot of respect for the Go-Go’s, for so many reasons. That said, I think that comparison is valid only on the surface. There are layers to Go Betty Go that are not the same nor do they invite the same comparisons.
NV: That’s why I agree with you, too – we’re not simple. Not that the Go-Go’s are simple.
AP: You’re not simple at all.
NV: No, no, we’re not simple at all. The parts are very complicated. I’m not singing about too many positive things. We’re sort of deep, in a way that isn’t expected. I mean, I don’t want to sound like I’m tooting my own horn. But really, when you look at the parts, they’re not easy to learn, they’re not simple little parts. They are quite complicated. And we learn that with having Adam [Bones] step in for Betty on the shows that we’ve been doing. And he is a very talented, talented, super super great guitarist. And he was telling me this is challenging! And not at all to say that the Go-Go’s are not doing crazy awesome shit. It’s different.
AP: In that vein of your music being complex and layered, you are also speaking to a variety of experiences. What do you think it is about your music that connects with your fans?
NV: Oh, they are so wonderful. I’m so grateful for the people that come to our shows. They just make me so happy. I think there is a respect there because we don’t half-ass anything. Every show that we’ve ever done – it could be Redwood Bar on a Tuesday night – we’re going to play like we’re playing to a stadium. We’ll work our asses off. And we’re so grateful for the people that come. And we don’t take it for granted. I think that they see that and they appreciate it. Because you never know – they could be coming from Alabama, all the way to L.A. and they are super excited to see you.
And it happens. It happens a lot where people tell me we came from really far away to be here. And I do not take that for granted. And so we want to make sure to give them a good time. Entertainment is expensive and it’s hard for people to get to your show – they’ve got to hire a babysitter, they’ve got to get to your gig, or maybe they’re tired from having worked all day. We take it seriously. We want to entertain them. We want to show them that we care and that we appreciate them.
AP: That affection for your fan base definitely comes through in your music and your shows. What is inspiring to you right now, just coming off making this album and thinking about what’s next for you and the band.
NV: We really look forward to performing again. Our booking agent just signed with Atomic and it’s a big deal for her to move up and she’s bringing us with her. And we’re super excited to be playing shows again.
We’ve just got to wait for Betty to heal, because she’s still going through a lot of chemotherapy and everything. We’re just really grateful that she’s here with us, and we want to enjoy every moment that we can with her – to support her so that she keeps getting better and better and hopefully to the point where we can start playing shows again. We worked really hard on the new songs and we really look forward to playing them for many more years to come. It’s what makes us happy.
I’m in the process of coming up with ideas for music videos. I’m on that. I was able to do one for “Keep Up” based on a lot of footage that we had from back in the day, from the Warped Tour. It’s twenty years of footage that I taught myself how to edit. I hope everyone checks it out. It’s basically like a tour-live-footage video. You’ll get a good feel of what our live shows are like by watching that. Hopefully the next one will be awesome, too. I gotta sit and figure it out and plan it.
AP: Thanks so much! It was a pleasure talking to you. The band is super talented and has such affection for its fans. That’s always nice to see.
NV: Thank you, I really appreciate it!
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Watch the video for “Keep Up” below:
