A girl in high school once told me people’s personalities can be seen in how they drive. That’s interesting, I thought to myself while we were cruising around town that day. When after graduation she spread her wings and fled the state, I never forgot that conversation. Even after I found out she became a stripper, causing me to rethink the whole concept, I knew there was some truth to it.
Maybe the same can be said when it comes to singing. If this is true, Donald Cumming should campaign for full disclosure of all singers faking their personalities.
But a campaign wouldn’t really fit with his character. Plus, he has other plans to attend to. Right now, he’s a man on a mission. But again, “mission” is too dramatic for Cumming’s purposes.
It’s about 4 p.m., and the confused Virgins front man is wandering around downtown Toronto near the Phoenix Concert Theatre searching for a Starbucks. Really? They’re not on every street corner in America Junior’s most American city? “I found coffee and whatnot, but like,” Cumming pauses with a hint of regret. “I’m good.” Adding a few moments later, “I saw somebody with a Starbucks. Like the guy in She Wants Revenge, the lead singer—he had a Starbucks in his hand, but I forgot to ask him where he got it.”
He’ll get over it. One day after his band’s debut album hit stores, coffee will always be coffee from here on out.
The Virgins—somehow managing to effectively mix elements of the Talking Heads, Elvis Costello, Blondie and still be original—are currently on NYLON magazine’s summer music tour with She Wants Revenge, Switches and Be Your Own Pet, and anyone who’s heard the band’s buzz-hit “Rich Girls” or “Fernando Pando” can connect Cumming’s actions and overall demeanor to the way he sings: at times similar to Joe Strummer without the “pop” or sense of urgency. This makes sense, as the Clash front man always seemed to have an itinerary of social issues to tackle. Cumming—he’s more about the experience and less about the philosophy or politics.
“I dunno man,” he says in a throw-his-hands-in-the-air kind of way. “We just make the music that makes sense to us. I don’t think we’re consciously trying to do anything. In particular, we care very much about the songs that we write, and that’s kind of it. And the rest of it, it’s just like—I don’t even know what the rest of it is. We don’t have like a ideology, or a dogma or a mani-fe-sto?”
He says the last word in the form of a question like he knows the dictionary definition, but that it has no meaning whatsoever.
The 26-year-old embodies the awestruck kid in a rock band who’s having the time of his life. He’s laid back, nonchalantly shrugging off issues other musicians get all giddy over. Music and the Internet are having a steamy love affair on his band’s front porch, for instance, but forget it. “I’m technologically indifferent,” he says. “I honestly—like I just don’t care at all. I own a computer, I use it all the time, it breaks all the time, I pay somebody to fix it, I don’t fuckin’ know what goes on inside of it. You know what I mean. I’m just not that guy. I’m not hip to the scene.” That’s somewhat surprising, as the Virgins have become one of those Internet success stories—the kind of band you wonder if 10, even five years ago would have signed to a major label so effortlessly. “Those are the types of things that couldn’t be further from my mind. As a band, we try to live our lives and work on our music and work on our songs and deal with what’s going on directly in front of us as it’s happening.”
Will other unsigned musicians resent the Virgins? Up to this point, some may. The band officially formed in 2006, released an EP, signed to Atlantic Records and released their major label debut earlier this week. Still, that can be more of an inspiration to young musicians. The thing that’ll really kill hardcore prodigies is the fact that Cumming is a self-described “horrible guitar player.” Coincidently, the classic-rock type regularly disregarded fellow-New-Yorker John Cummings, AKA Johnny Ramone.
“I’m getting better at it,” Cumming says. “I’m definitely never going to be virtuosic player. I can’t read music, I don’t know what any of the scales are, I don’t know what the chords are called and I don’t know theory at all. Fortunately, there are other people in my band who can play the songs better than I can. Basically, I just take whatever the simplest part is gonna be in the song. If that means it’s a bass part or a guitar part, like whatever. They just give me the dumb guy part.”
For their third live show, the Virgins opened for punk legend Patti Smith. Then, a handful of songs made it on the teen soap “Gossip Girl.” Currently, the Samsung advertisers are using the song “Radio Christiane” for the Glyde phone TV spots.
Dumb? If he is, he’s doing a good job of hiding it. But even after all the successes, Cumming goes back to the one thing that’ll keep popping up years from now regardless of what happens to the band. “My favorite thing that we’ve gotten to do is make a record,” Cumming says with genuine sincerity. “It’s the truth. That’s the thing you grow up dreaming about as a little kid. We’ve done that now as of yesterday. I’m pretty happy about that.”
This is the first time throughout the conversation Cumming seems to get really serious without sprinkling in colorful, lazy humor. He’s not disingenuous; that’s just who he is. You get the impression listening to the music these guys live fast-paced lives and know how to party hard. But while he’s still serious, let’s try something else, like say, whether true love exists.
“True love. Oh man. Uh,” he trails off, and an incessant beeping takes the place of his voice on the other line. Almost an appropriate end, don’t you think?
A few moments later, we’re reconnected and he spills his guts.
“I have stopped, and I have thought about it. I’ve done both of those things. I think that anything’s possible.”
Even after this profound revelation, I can’t help but feel I still don’t know much about Donald Cumming. I guess I should just go by what I learned in the car that one day: Don’t come to conclusions about people until you’ve seen them drive.
The Virgins are playing the House of Blues Friday, June 6, with She Wants Revenge, Switches and Be Your Own Pet. Tickets are $16 and the doors open at 7 p.m.
Love the new album, great feature! I wish I could go to the show tonight.
Interesting lede and conclusion.
Based on this McCarthy’s vivid description of Mr. Cumming, I would bet that a personality like that comes across wonderfully on stage.
I look forward to the show tonight.