Foaming At The Mouth

The initial tenure of Chicagoan rockers Veruca Salt only lasted five years before an acrimonious falling about between vocalist-guitarists Nina Gordon and Louise Post split them asunder, seemingly forever. This was back in 1998, and for the next fifteen years the band continued as a vehicle for Post and a revolving cast of musicians to continue the legacy.

Then out of the blue in 2013 it was announced via Facebook that the original four-piece – completed by drummer Jim Shapiro and bassist Steve Lack – were joining forces once more. The message simply read, “For now let’s just say this; hatchets buried, axes exhumed”. And with that – Veruca Salt were back. And almost immediately, after initially hitting the studio to record a seven-inch for Record Store Day, the chemistry and creativity came rushing back so quickly that there’s already a new album in the can.

"I think that had we been more grounded the foundation might have been stronger, so that when we eventually had a falling out we might have had coping mechanisms to let us withstand the falling out which eventually caused the break-up."

“It all kind of happened organically,” Gordon tells. “There were times when we found ourselves relying a little too much on the past, so we’d jokingly talk about a certain guitar sound that we use – a certain distortion sound – and we’d call it the ‘flannel fist’, because it was just that ‘90s grunge sound. We tried really hard occasionally to avoid the flannel fist, and to go with something else. So we didn’t really make any conscious effort to change our sound - I think we just sound like ourselves.”

Back in 1994 Veruca Salt hit the ground running, their debut album American Thighs and its hit single Seether catapulting them to overnight acclaim, but Gordon believes that this initial burst of success also contributed to the eventual dissolution.

“There was an enormous amount of pressure on us and it all happened really fast,” she reflects. “We loved it and we were ready to ride that wave and we were aware of how lucky we were that we had a record deal and that we were making money from making music. We were touring all around the world. There was a surreal aspect to playing these songs that we’d written in our tiny little living rooms and then going to France or Australia or Japan and there are teenage girls singing all the words to these songs.

“It was thrilling, but I think that in making our second full-length album Eight Arms To Hold You (1997) we did feel a lot of pressure – we tried not to think about it but we did, and we wanted to do great work so we put a lot of pressure on ourselves. There was a lot of outside pressure too, and I think that had we been more grounded the foundation might have been stronger, so that when we eventually had a falling out we might have had coping mechanisms to let us withstand the falling out which eventually caused the break-up. But things are always a lot easier in hindsight.”