We caught up with the brilliant and insightful George Heffernan a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

George, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Can you talk to us about how you learned to do what you do?

I have loved music for as long as I can remember. My craft has been a very gradual journey from mindful listener, to bassist, to singer, to arranger, to songwriter. The biggest lesson I’ve learned is to trust my own process, even when it feels vague or slow. I’m sure any creative person can relate to this, but the less you overthink it the more you move in the right direction.

George, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I’m the bass player and one of the songwriters in a Boston based indie rock band called Viruette. Indie rock can mean a lot of things these days, and I’d like to think we take advantage – without losing a cohesion that I feel sounds uniquely like us. We have a lot of influences, including bands like Modest Mouse and Blur. Although if you asked each of us, we’d probably give different responses. Steely Dan would definitely be name-checked.

Viruette is comprised of Harry Burgess (guitar, vocals), Andrew Ring (drums), Dan Wrona (guitar), and me (bass, vocals). Harry is also our principle songwriter, though we are all very involved in the arrangements. We really sweat the details when it comes to crafting songs and albums.

Last year, we put out our debut album: Your Lacuna. We’ve released it on vinyl as well as the major streaming platforms. We also recently released an illustrated comic lyric book to accompany the listening experience. Our talented friend Adam Kane did all of the illustrations and layout for this book.

I encourage you to check out these projects to get a sense for our vibe!

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

Looking ahead to what’s next creatively. Thinking about the next song or album or demo keeps you trying to answer the most important questions. How do we expand our creative reach? And how does this interact with how we’re feeling in the moment? It’s a balance between lofty creative ambitions and keeping things grounded.

What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?

As long as the music we’re making feels natural to us in our development, we have patience to see where it takes us. I’m proud of what we’ve created, and it’s fun to think about where we can go next. We’ll keep challenging ourselves to release new projects that add new dimensions.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/viruette.band/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@Viruette/videos
• Other: Check out our Bandcamp for vinyl and other merch: https://viruette.bandcamp.com/

  We are also on Apple Music and Spotify.

Image Credits

Live performance photos: Jonathan Hislop
Cover Art: Illustration by Moises Gomez. Layout by Karl Kuehn. Lettering by Gabe Gill.
Comic Lyric Book: Adam Kane