Thursday November 19th Rat City Presents ViRG "Why Not Destroy This?" Album Release Show w/ Anthony Pirog and Red Sunflower, Dumb Lucky \*\*\* ViRG exists in a world of dualities. It is both the alter ego of Piano Whitman, and the band she leads. ViRG makes synthesizer-based dark pop, wherein fully analog signal chains crackle with raw, vulnerable humanity. It is music pulled from the ether in Whitman’s overflowing ‘synth room’, as inspiration flows from her fingers into the myriad vintage slabs of knob-adorned steel and circuitry. It is at once also a fully wrought artistic statement, made whole by the communal contributions of her bandmates. ViRG is machine-based music that lives and breathes. It is so very much of the moment, filled with undeniable hooks that are destined to reverberate through discotheques eternally. Whitman grew up surrounded by Italian music and classic rock and started playing her dad’s old ‘80s Roland synth at age three. By six, she was writing her own songs, expanding to guitar, and eventually hosted a web series for the Kidz Bop organization. She played open mic nights at bars at age 12, and joined her first band at 15, playing sax and going on to open for the likes of Aaron Carter at the Fillmore. More bands followed - My Kid Brother and Oh He Dead - but through it all, Whitman kept writing her own music. She dropped her first album as ViRG, I Was Dressed in Yellow, in 2019, followed by Weeks in 2023. Why Not Destroy This? marks a new chapter in the evolution of ViRG. While prior releases were, for all intents, fully solo projects, Why Not Destroy This? is the recorded debut of ViRG the band. In addition to Whitman, the record features synthesists Alex Salser (also of D.C. luminaries Oh He Dead) and Daniel Rozmajzl (Pleasure Business), and drummer and percussionist Maxfield Holiday (Pleasure Business). ViRG does not use soft synths from computer programs, so Whitman works within her synthesizers to chase down sounds amidst the oscillators and envelopes, and then they track. “Because nothing is digital in any way,” explains Whitman, “We're capturing performances the same way you would capture an acoustic instrument. What people play is what goes on the record. What you hear is the take.” Thematically, Why Not Destroy This? is, at its deepest, a record about human connection; and a lamentation about how those connections fray further every day. “The world is rapidly changing and being bought up by these big corporations and industries,” she says. “The mind-control and numbing of it all, it just makes me want to fight back.” Though she is an admitted synthesizer obsessive, she has a deep disdain for Artificial Intelligence. “I recently learned there are 380 data centers right next to our house. There’s a phenomenon where priests bless data centers - it's a real thing!” And thus, was born the track “Data Center Exorcist”. The synthesizer was conceived initially as a way to emulate other “real” instruments. Soon though, humans’ innate curiosity brought about a sonic revolution. It is in that collaborative relationship that magic was born. “I have this very deep emotional human attachment to these machines” says ViRG. “I find that, other than voice, they are the best way that I can express myself. You make the decisions. It's you who turns the knob or adjusts the envelope.” And so, we have Why Not Destroy This? A record of dualities that rails against everything from data centers to deceptive paramours, while also celebrating self-determination, real love, and liberation of all ilk’s. “A lot of this record is about this thought of: why not destroy this?” Whitman says. “It could be like a personal relationship, or a path that you're going down in life, or artificial intelligence. It’s about curiosity and change.”