Somewhere in between the material and virtual world, there is a dimension where cumgirl8 exists. What exactly is cumgirl8? They are a band consisting of Veronika Vilim (guitar), Chase Lombardo (drums), Lida Fox (bass), and Avishag Rodrigues (guitar), proclaiming to be on a mission after crossing paths some 8,000 years ago. A bit out there? You could say that, but chances are your skepticism will transform into a true belief once you experience the music of cumgirl8.
Vastly unique to anything out there today, cumgirl8 unifies a Punk Rock feel with an outside-the-box approach, which makes them unpredictable and uninhibited in the most extraordinary way. Initially released the trip mix of Punk Rock, New Wave, and Space Rock with their debut 2020 self-titled EP cumgirl8; in more recent years, they signed on with the famous Alternative label 4AD Records to release the EP phantasea pharm in 2023.
A step in a different direction for the band; in 2024, they unleash their most compelling odyssey of sound to date with their debut full-length album, the 8th cumming. Showing that their mission has only just begun, the entire collective of cumgirl8 sat down to talk about the story behind the band, future plans, plus much more.
Cryptic Rock – The band has been together for around five years now. Before we dive into everything else, where did the idea come from for the band, and what was the concept behind everything you’re doing?
Veronika Vilim – It came to us from our universe, which started 8,000 years ago. We just came here to say what was told to us from our loving planet.
Cryptic Rock – The concept runs pretty deep then, obviously.
Veronika Vilim – Oh, yeah.
Chase Lombardo – Our mission, yeah, is pretty deep.
Cryptic Rock – Your first EP had more of a Punk Rock aesthetic to it. It seems like you’ve progressed from there into more synth-based music. What can you tell us about that progression?
Veronika Vilim – It came kind of naturally, just spending time together and jamming. Our influences have developed.
Chase Lombardo – Yeah. The concept of the record is about helping people navigate this new post-reality as the lines are kind of being blurred between what’s real and what isn’t as we are being manipulated. It was just kind of natural to start using more synthetic instruments to help communicate that, too.
Lida Fox – I got bored of playing bass at a certain point as well.
Chase Lombardo – Yeah. I needed to do new shit.
Cryptic Rock – Well, it’s good to experiment and try different things with music. You never know what you’re going to find.
Veronika Vilim – Definitely, for sure.
Cryptic Rock – Chase, you mentioned not knowing what’s real and what’s not. Are you referring to our current world when you say that? The line between reality and fiction is constantly blurred.
Veronika Vilim –That’s precisely what I’m talking about.
Cryptic Rock – It is interesting to look at. The advent of the internet has taken over our lives and is ingrained in us now. It is fascinating because if you go back twenty to thirty years, it wasn’t the case.
Veronika Vilim – Yeah. I felt that way after COVID, too. Obviously, the only way we could communicate with each other was through the Internet and our phones.
Chase Lombardo – Humans were trauma-bonded with the internet.
Veronika Vilim – Yeah. I feel like it’s out of our control, almost even at this point. We could have maybe even met in real life, but it’s just so much more convenient to do everything through our phones. Right now, too, if we didn’t have our phones, we would be in a very different type of conversation.
Cryptic Rock – Right. Yeah, it’s definitely a yin and a yang. I guess you take the good with the bad. Obviously, there’s a negative along with it. There are also the positives, such as being able to communicate with people across the world.
Chase Lombardo – Yeah. That’s what we focus on – finding ways to help humans navigate this new reality and leaning into it instead of fighting it. It’s about a release and an assumption that things are evolving in a natural way. This is definitely a digital apocalypse. Apocalypse is also after life. It’s post-reality. This is the new frontier, and we can navigate it with love.
Veronika Vilim – Yeah. Us as a band, too, we’ve always had this mix of our band being this digital AOL Instant Messenger vibe with computers and with our first album artwork. Then we evolved into what we are now: we’re a very physical band.
Our performances and everything we do are very DIY, but we also have this persona and this idea of who people think we are on the internet. We have a presence in both places, and people have different ideas of us through both places.
Cryptic Rock – Right, and again, it goes back to what you said about what’s reality and what’s Science Fiction. It’s up to people to decide and figure it out.
Chase Lombardo – It’s all Science Fiction.
Veronika Vilim – Yeah. At the end of the day, the Science Fiction is basically reality. It always comes true, and it always is based in reality.
Chase Lombardo – Yeah. That’s the whole point we’re trying to make is that this is what’s happening and this whole binary of what’s real and what isn’t, or what’s male and what’s female, or what’s virtual or what’s sincere. Those lines are all blurred, and that’s okay. It’s what’s fucking happening for mankind. Let’s give a little compass. Emphasis on the piss.
Veronika Vilim – Yeah, lean into the good parts rather than the scary parts. The things we do have control over and lean into are light, love, and spreading good things. That is rather than dwelling on the negative aspects of everything. It’s so easy to fall into that concept. We’re just trying out here, physically on tour and through the internet digitally, just trying to spread comfort, love, and light.
Cryptic Rock – Those are certainly positive things. To your point about blurring lines, probably since the beginning of time, there has never been one pure emotion. There are always two sides to every emotion.
Chase Lombardo – Yes. That’s very DBT.
Cryptic Rock – It is also another very interesting thing to study. So the new album, The 8th Cumming, came out in October, and It feels very authentic. Can you tell us a little bit about what went into writing and recording this album?
Veronika Vilim – It is the most authentic shit ever. We started writing it when we came back from six months of touring, being together every day. We were in the studio every day for two months writing it. We were just able to read each other’s minds at that point. It was a labor of love before, it was a labor of love during, and it’s a labor of love after. A lot of yes and pushing boundaries with each other.
Cryptic Rock – Well, it seems like everything worked really well. Again, talking about the progression of the music with the band through the years, going back to the first EP to the second EP, to this. You can see that there is more honing in the sound. As you said, you develop and experiment, but there’s still that rawness in there, which is the attraction of the band. Is it important for you to keep that rawness in there?
Veronika Vilim – Definitely.
Chase Lombardo – It’s inevitable. We’re just really sincere people. The vulnerability gets read as raw, but it’s actually just real.
Veronika Vilim – Also, sonically, the way we recorded all of it is analog. You can’t be too precious with recording analog. You only have a certain amount of tape. We want to keep that because, at the end of the day, we’re humans. We’re not robots. We want to be aliens.
Chase Lombardo – We work with robots, but…
Veronika Vilim – Yeah, we work with robots. But at the end of the day, we’re very real, and we want to keep that with what we’re doing.
Cryptic Rock – You can feel that, for sure.
Veronika Vilim – Nobody else has control over us. That’s the other thing.
Chase Lombardo – Yeah!
Cryptic Rock – It is good to have artistic freedom. As we said, there is a rawness and a real human emotion. Not to talk negatively, but it seems like a lot of music nowadays seems very sanitized. That connection with real human emotion is something that everyone is looking for.
Veronika Vilim – Yeah, everyone’s going through a lot. Life shouldn’t be linear or one-dimensional. It should have a lot of emotions. We want people to be able to relate to it in whatever way they can.
Cryptic Rock – Absolutely. You talked about playing live. You have some shows coming up in the USA as well. You could get reactions through people commenting on a YouTube video, but there’s nothing better than the reaction in a live show. How excited are you to get out there and perform these new songs in front of people and get a reaction?
Veronika Vilim – I’m really stoked. I can’t wait.
Chase Lombardo – We’re trying a lot of really new things. That’s when it feels like you’re doing something real, and that is when you’re surprising yourself. I’m excited to surprise myself, or surprise ourselves and each other, in front of other people and hopefully create a good vibe.
Cryptic Rock – Excellent. Your tour also found you overseas in the UK and France. There is definitely a different culture in Europe than in the United States. The United States is probably a little more closed off emotionally than in a lot of other places in the world. How do you find Europeans reacting to the music?
Veronika Vilim – Yeah, there’s less of a shock value over there. I think it’s a little bit more normal.
Chase Lombardo – They’re not as puritanical. I don’t think they’re inhibited structurally within their society or their government. I think there are such old cultures. I think they’ve evolved past a lot of these religious things that have really navigated and predicated what it is to be in America. People are really weird about sex here. It’s cool to go to Europe and see kids who were raised in a more accepting and humanistic way. It’s fun to just vibe without feeling uncharted territory. But that work is really important. We’re excited to bring that back to The States, spread our seed, and freak people out. We hope that everyone at our shows is horny or scared. I think it’ll be easier.
Cryptic Rock – That is an interesting combination. That leads to another question. When you first began all this, did you foresee it as something that you were going to be going on and on with? Were you just trying yourself first and seeing where it went? And here we are today… five years later.
Chase Lombardo – No, we’re on a mission.
Veronika Vilim – Yeah. I think it’s really progressed on its own. We just didn’t have expectations so much.
Chase Lombardo – Yeah. We just live in the moment.
Cryptic Rock – It’s great that it’s evolving the way it is. Everyone needs to check out The 8th Cumming. Last question. It is actually about movies because the band has a cinematic quality. It seems like you are influenced by film, so what are some of your favorites?
Chase Lombardo – Moonstruck (1987) and Hocus Pocus (1993).
Lida Fox – I love Videodrome (1983).
Cryptic Rock – All different but good titles!
Lida Fox – Recently, I really loved Godzilla Minus One (2023).
Chase Lombardo – Yeah. You were waxing poetic about I got to see that shit. You were dying talking about it.
Lida Fox – Kinds of Kindness (2024) was also really bizarre too.
Chase Lombardo – Oh, yeah! Kinds of Kindness is sick, also really scary, and sometimes boring, which was awesome. The director, Yorgos Lanthimos, was like – You are in my hand, and then I’m going to have doggies driving cars at the end. I was like, “Fuck yeah.” Sorry, spoiler. You won’t see it coming, baby.
Veronika Vilim – Ex Machina (2014) is a good one. Speaking of having control over something.
Chase Lombardo – I just watched Vice (2018). I thought that was really illuminating and entertaining. It’s that movie about Dick Cheney. It’s insane. I love that director, too. Everything is very ADD. It’s super parenthetical, silly, fun, and weird. Also, like, “Holy shit, this is actually what’s happening.” It’s coming from a lens that’s just really leaning into the horrors of the construct. It’s nice to witness that.
Veronika Vilim – I loved Kids (1995), like some Larry Clark shit. Just real-life stuff, 13 (2003).
Chase Lombardo – Yeah, 13. Oh my God!
Lida Fox – Yeah. Surrealism. A little bit of possession.
Veronika Vilim – A little bit of torture with a little bit of pleasure.
2025 cumgirl8 Tour Dates:
March 22, 2025, 9:30 Club, Washington, DC
March 23, 2025, Brooklyn Steel, Brooklyn, NY
March 25, 2025 Royale, Boston, MA
March 26, 2025, District Music Hall, Norwalk, CT
March 29, 2025, The Grey Eagle, Asheville, NC
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