Vivian Leva and Riley Calcagno stopped by Live & Local this week, following the release of a pair of albums from two separate musical projects – one brand new, one going back twenty years.
As a duo, Leva and Calcagno record as Viv and Riley; they’re still earning acclaim for their latest album, 2023’s “Imaginary People,” and earlier this year they recorded a new album while on tour in England, which is due out soon.
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But this year, they spent much of their time teaming up with other musical friends, both old and new.
One of those friends is Nashville singer-songwriter Rachel Baiman. The trio first bonded on a recent cross-country tour, ultimately deciding to team up with producer Greg Griffith to record a stellar album of eight cover songs called “Kissing Other Ppl” – named after a Lennon Stella song they all mutually loved, which became one of the album’s lead singles.
“The three of us got in her minivan in Nashville and drove from Nashville to Seattle, doing shows along the way,” Leva remembers. “Rachel’s just a great person and a great musician, and we shared a lot of music on that drive, just listening to songs that we were into…(and then) we started to finish each other’s musical sentences along the course of the tour. And we’ve never stopped.”
“We would bring up a record in the car and one of us would say ‘this is one of our favorite records’ – and then Rachel would be like, ‘oh, that’s my favorite record right now,’ Calcagno adds. “So we had this kind of shared love…
“We all love fiddle music and country music and indie music – super niche, dark, weird things – but we also share this love of pop music, and I think that’s kind of a core tenet of the record: ‘let’s just put all these things next to each other and kind of see what happens.'”
As if that wasn’t enough, Leva and Calcagno also spent the year putting the finishing touches on another album, “You Climb the Mountain,” from an entirely different band: The Onlies, an old-time quartet that also features Sami Braman and Leo Shannon.
And while Kissing Other Ppl is a relatively new project, The Onlies have been around for 20 years – for Calcagno, almost since birth.
“I met Leo and Sami when we were two years old: Sami in swim class, Leo at the playground,” Calcagno says. “We started playing fiddle when we were four years old, and we started the band when we were seven.” Leva, who lived across the country, didn’t join the band until much later – but thanks to her touring-musician parents, she also knew some of the bandmates as a toddler.
“(We’re) all only children,” Calcagno says of the original trio. “So we’re kind of like each other’s siblings – and we have that sort of vibe with each other to this day.”
Leva and Calcagno are playing at the Pinhook with Kissing Other Ppl Sunday, October 5. Visit ThePinhook.com for tickets and more information.
Vivian Leva and Riley Calcagno stopped by Live & Local to discuss the new albums and play three songs: Kissing Other Ppl’s “Where’d All The Time Go” (originally by Dr. Dog) and “Hold On Magnolia” (originally by Jason Molina), and The Onlies’ “Gold Watch and Chain.” Listen:
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