In the sea of songs, artists, and social media accounts that hit Pete Wentz’s desk, something drew the Fall Out Boy bassist to Vienna Vienna. It’s not hard to see why — the Fresno, California-born artist emanates a uniquely bright light, and his music is charged with tactile, buoyant energy. Boxes be damned, Vienna Vienna revels in his own iteration of alt-rock — a genre he’s deemed “glimmer rock.” The result is a cathartic exercise in self-actualization as much as it is about a literal “glimmer” of light. Vienna Vienna’s sound is melody-forward, built on a foundation of shimmering reverb, electric guitar riffs full of personality, and juicy hooks lathered in witty playfulness, and ultimately, empowerment.
Today, Vienna Vienna releases a new track, “Vienna (Everything’s Fine).” The sarcasm-tinged anthem, as authentically Vienna Vienna as ever, takes us on a journey of self-discovery, and self-esteem building. In the song, the artist not only finds his voice in spite of the darkness of life — but also in spite of the darkness in his own head.
Alongside the single and its surreal music video, Vienna Vienna is announcing his debut EP, Wonderland, which will be released Oct. 11 via PULSE Records — in collaboration with Pete Wentz and his label, DCD2. A few days prior to the announce, AltPress got on the phone with Wentz and Vienna Vienna — who goes by J — to unpack the forthcoming EP, the new single, and how they’ve worked together throughout the process.
I would love to hear about how you guys found each other.
PETE WENTZ: A friend of mine sent me a couple of songs, one of which was [the currently unreleased] “Sex, Drugs, Whatever.” I was fascinated. I get sent a fair bit of songs, artists, visuals — and this definitely stood out differently, in every way, from vocals to the song structure to the lyrical perspective. In some ways, it reminded me of when I first heard Panic! At The Disco demos, where it just felt zany and emotional in the best ways possible.
VIENNA VIENNA: Thank you, Pete. Man, I’m really proud of that song, and it’s so special to me, so I really appreciate that. It’s been really awesome working with you. I feel very affirmed in my creativity and my artistic pursuit. You have such an amazing perspective, and it’s great to get that on my songs, truly. It’s lovely.
PETE WENTZ: Excellent. Where did you grow up again?
VIENNA VIENNA: I grew up in Fresno, California.
PETE WENTZ: Do you feel like these songs, and your musical journey, have been influenced by growing up in Fresno? I know that there was some religious music around. How impactful is that on your songs?
VIENNA VIENNA: I spent so much time in the church, just so much. That was where I’d found community and friendships. But it was hard because I was lying to everybody about who I was, to protect myself and not get caught up in the mess that it would’ve been to be vulnerable and honest about my queerness — or my thoughts or myself. So I funneled it into the music. I think for a really long time, just writing stuff, I didn’t think I was going to show anybody, but it kept building. I finally started showing people the work, and that’s when the magic really happened. I realized it wasn’t actually harder to be authentic — I’d caught myself in a trap of never having been authentic before. It was fresh and exciting, and I felt like myself through the songs, and I was getting a sense of myself through creating them, and I wanted to follow that as far as I could.
PETE WENTZ: That’s interesting, and so awesome. So, who are you? Who is Vienna? Why don’t you first explain the name.
VIENNA VIENNA: Sure, it’s a city in Europe. But for me, it’s about the idea of reaching out to a faraway place, where you can run away and be you without fear of people watching. It was just this distant dream, until I decided that I wanted to bring that closer — instead of feeling like it was this faraway location where I could be myself, I wanted it to be it. To actualize and connect with myself, to be honest and authentic. That’s what Vienna represents to me, that thing that you’re reaching for, fighting for, scratching and clawing to bring it closer — rather than running toward it.
PETE WENTZ: Totally. I think that with Fall Out Boy, who I am onstage is this — it’s very similar to who I am. With Patrick, our singer, it’s the opposite. Who he is onstage is himself in a superhero costume, like Bruce Wayne. So I was just trying to figure it out because you were saying this was an escape from these ceilings you’d put up. Have those two met up now? Do you feel like Vienna Vienna is who you are, always? Or is that a superhero mask that you put on and you’re that, and then when you’re not, you’re just J?
VIENNA VIENNA: Well, I’m a pretty anxious person, but for some reason when I get onstage, I feel like myself. I feel connected to myself, and I feel grounded, and I feel fearless. I don’t know that it’s a superhero costume as much as it’s that onstage I just am, and I’m not bogged down by whatever worries I’ve held onto otherwise. It’s more of an unmasking, if anything.
PETE WENTZ: You’ve described your sound as “glimmer rock” before. For the purposes of this interview, I feel like people who are reading it might want to know what glimmer rock means, but I also actually want to know, myself.
VIENNA VIENNA: At its core, glimmer rock is about shared catharsis and a loud fucking show, like a really loud show where you can really express yourself and let out whatever’s been holding you back — while leaning into the theater of it all, being dramatic because it’s fun and campy. It’s a good time, and it’s a healing thing to express emotions completely. And it’s a great opportunity, onstage, to present it as glimmer rock and share this idea that you’re catching hold of a glimmer, this special light at the end of a tunnel. You can see yourself, you can feel yourself — while doing it very loudly.
PETE WENTZ: Are there other things that are glimmer rock? Not necessarily other bands, but could you describe something else? Could a Dragonfruit Refresher from Starbucks be glimmer rock? I’m trying to think of what else to say that could be decidedly or not decidedly glimmer rock…
VIENNA VIENNA: I haven’t thought about that. To me, glimmer rock is fearlessness. I think it’s fearlessness of drama, boldness, brashness. I think it’s embracing the part of you that’s cringe and pushing past whatever social embarrassment or fear has held you back from being yourself.
PETE WENTZ: Yeah, I love that. I’m a big believer in being unabashedly yourself. It’s a shame that Halloween’s one day a year.
VIENNA VIENNA: Exactly.
PETE WENTZ: I feel like people really are able to be what they want to on Halloween. They feel free to be like, “I’m going to be this freaky version of myself.” You don’t need to be a hundred percent freaky all the time, but you feel a little more free to be like the freak in you.
VIENNA VIENNA: The freak in you. A hundred percent.
PETE WENTZ: Were there bands or a scene of music that you were into when you were growing up? What started you on the journey?
VIENNA VIENNA: Most of what I was listening to when I was younger was strictly worship music. I realized it wasn’t that I really particularly loved religion for myself. It was more that I loved live music and the feeling of it. When I went to college, I got really heavily involved in the punk and hardcore scenes out there. This was in Nashville. I made friends with some bands and went to every show I could. My God, was it great — people gathered together in these tiny, sweaty rooms all under the same purpose. There’s a oneness to that that’s really magical. I wanted to capture it, and I wanted to be around it all the time.
PETE WENTZ: So when did this project start?
VIENNA VIENNA: It was post-COVID-19 when I started writing these songs. I graduated high school in 2020, and then I started writing and sharing more of what I was writing. The project really came to fruition over the last three years, though. That’s when I really started to figure out what I wanted to do, the space I wanted to carve out, what I had to say, and what I musically wanted to present. All those things came to be in the last two-and-a-half, three years.
PETE WENTZ: I know visuals are a big part of your perspective and the way you present the band. So I guess a two-part question would be what are your inspirations, visually? Does it come from cinema? And then what’s the deal with the donkeys and the oranges?
VIENNA VIENNA: I’ve always built worlds. I play a lot of Dungeons & Dragons, and it is definitely not the same process, but when I’m making songs, I can see the characters within them very clearly. I feel like the visuals come into play as the song is being made. I can just see it. Usually I’ve taken notes of these little visual identifiers as I’m creating the songs. The oranges with Vienna is really about how sometimes the thing that is going to make you feel better is really simple. Sometimes all I need is just an orange and I’d be feeling 20% better.
PETE WENTZ: What’s your favorite type of orange?
VIENNA VIENNA: I do a blood orange.
PETE WENTZ: I’m a Cutie kind of guy.
VIENNA VIENNA: But when it comes to making videos, I get to put these visuals out into this actual creative medium, and that’s very special. You learn a lot about yourself through the process of making art in general, visuals, songs, and that’s magic, truly.
PETE WENTZ: And speaking of building worlds, I know that Wonderland, the EP, is coming out, so can you tell me about that?
VIENNA VIENNA: Wonderland is a few things, but I think at large it’s the world that you build to protect yourself. I spent a lot of time in my own head. It was much safer to visualize things, much more comfortable. It’s where it’s just you and your brain and your thoughts, and the way you treat yourself. Wonderland is this visual of self-actualization. There are learning and hardships throughout — but designed it’s to make you feel good about yourself.
PETE WENTZ: Totally. Obviously for people who don’t know, my label DCD2 and my friends at PULSE are putting the EP out and are very excited to be working with you. Where can people see you in 2025, and what can we expect in the next couple of years from you?
VIENNA VIENNA: I want to play every show in the world. I want to play every show that I can. I have this tour coming up with Valley in November that I’m really, really excited about. I can’t wait to do a proper run. And the EP comes out soon!
PETE WENTZ: Where is that tour going?
VIENNA VIENNA: We’re going to Canada. Up to Montreal, Quebec, Moncton, Halifax, and then Charlottetown, I believe. There’s nothing like it — a live show. I feel like I’ve said it so many times, but it’s so true. There’s a oneness. You feel it’s magic. It is literally magic. That’s where I want to focus my attention, that shared catharsis. It’s incredible stuff.
PETE WENTZ: Do you think Cuties are glimmer rock? I think they probably are.
VIENNA VIENNA: I think Cuties are probably glimmer rock. They’re delightful.
PETE WENTZ: They’re perfect and imperfect at the same time, right? Kind of forgettable but great. Your day wouldn’t be that much worse if you didn’t have one, but it could be great.
VIENNA VIENNA: Oranges might be glimmer rock in general. It’s a glimmer. It’s like, “Man, yeah, it’s just a little bit better.” Wow, I love that.
PETE WENTZ: Tell us about the ep.
VIENNA VIENNA: It came about in roughly three years. I did a lot of detailed work on it. The songs, usually the writing of the songs and the actual getting the base ideas. That happens very quick. Then I go into editing mode. I feel like that’s half the work truly is digging into.
PETE WENTZ: Is the process just you doing this?
VIENNA VIENNA: I tend to think broadly about how I want to approach things, but I love collaboration. I feel like when you’re working with a producer or when you’re connecting with a friend of yours over creating art and you feel that present feeling where everybody’s head is in the same space and you celebrate at the right, you’re like, “Yeah, that’s it. That’s the lyric. That’s the thing.” I bring a lot of ideas in. I feel like I’m focused a lot on getting the riffs right on guitar and getting the attitude and lyrically, those are my spaces, and I like to build from within that. It happens fast.
Then from there you get to fine-tune, figure out where you want to take it, how you want to approach it, how you want to approach the performance. It tends to be in service of the live show. When I’m writing a lyric or when I’m writing a riff or singing into the mic in the studio, I’m trying to draw out a performance that I want to do over and over and over again. I try to be in service of the song, too. It already knows what it wants to be, and so you just have to figure out the puzzle.
PETE WENTZ: We always talk about that in Fall Out, this idea. In the ’90s, there was this hockey team from Detroit called the Red Wings, and they had all these Russians on the team, and you couldn’t really beat ’em. And the reason was they played a different style of hockey where it was called “service of the puck,” so everything you did was in service of the puck. It didn’t mean sometimes you score it, but sometimes you don’t, whatever. And with Fall Out, we’ve always thought you’re in service of the song, so if it’s your idea, great. It’s just the best one, the one that the song needs, so it might not be your idea also, or it might not be your part or whatever. So it’s interesting to hear you talk about it in that way as well.
VIENNA VIENNA: Often I’ll start something and then come back to it three months later. Sometimes I start writing a song, and I’m like, “I haven’t lived this yet. Something is going to happen in my life where this is all going to connect and I’m going to see the final picture, and I just have to keep an eye out for it.” And that’s part of it, too. Like, “OK, I’m starting to create something, and now I want to see it to fruition, and part of that is going to be letting it breathe and challenging myself on it.” I’ll write stuff that I love, and then a week later I’ll look back and be like, “OK, 80% of this works, or 20% of this works and 80% of it doesn’t, or vice versa.: And I go live, and I breathe through it, and I let myself think about it.
I think patience is a huge aspect of it. It’s funny: Who’s to really say where it’s coming from, but especially in speaking with other writers, it doesn’t feel like I made it as much as I figured it out. It was there in some form. I don’t know if it’s spiritual or metaphysical in some way, but the songs are already written. I’m there to guide them to fruition written by some cosmic force. Maybe it’s subconscious. There’s something in me that knows what this is. I just need to draw it out.
PETE WENTZ: Totally. I know what you’re saying. I said lots of times it’s only 20% for me. I’m like a new puppy kind of guy. When the song is new, I love it. Then when it feels like it’s old, I’m like, “Eh, kind of tired of this.”
VIENNA VIENNA: I feel like that sometimes, too. But then I feel like honestly all that happens is I’m just excited and ready to make more. Honestly, by the moment I’m looking at it and I’m like, “Yeah, this is cool. I could probably do this, this, and this,” it’s usually done. The song is ready to go. It’s just now that I’m splitting hairs rather than letting it breathe.
A lot of this is playing with the idea of inventing cliche is awesome in pop music, because everybody feels them. We get them. I ask myself, “Am I inventing something that could be tattooed?” Something like, “Sex, Drugs, Whatever” or “Everything’s Fine.” It’s like these little quips that just carry through conversations or a joke I said, or it made me chuckle or it made me think, and then it opens from there.
I have a question. You mentioned that the performance is a lot of how you put together songs. What do you hope an audience member is feeling and experiencing when listening or seeing you live?
VIENNA VIENNA: I’ve always felt relief at a live show because I felt seen by other people. You look to your left and to your right, and you can just see 30 or 40 people that seem to understand something that you do, and that’s very special. I spoke about this oneness thing where I want that catharsis with an audience. I’m up there feeling relief to get the feeling out, and I hope that there’s somebody at the show who’s feeling that same cathartic release or even just freedom and empowerment. There’s not a lot of excuses to dance in public other than a show or to scream. I mean, how often do you get to just scream? And you can do that at a show. You can scream, you can dance, you can cry, and everybody is happy that you’re doing it. We’re all there to experience that. The pressure valve comes down. It’s very special. I’m very grateful for the opportunities I’ve had to play live. It is my favorite thing in the world over literally everything — going to one or performing one. It is the best thing.